The idea of the allness of good and the nothingness of evil that Christ Jesus demonstrated, and that Christian Science explains, seems quite remote to many people—sometimes even to lifelong students of Christian Science. After all, we appear to live in a dualistic world in which good and evil share equally in all the moments of daily living.
And yet, as big and idealistic a concept as it may seem, allness is the idea that people are instinctively yearning to see expressed. In no area is this yearning as deep or as frequently articulated as in relation to love. People say they feel loved some of the time but admit silent, heartfelt longings to feel deeply cherished all of the time. I was very touched recently by the honest, insightful comment of a woman identified simply as "Elizabeth." In a piece written in 1936 called "All the Dogs of My Life," she exclaims (speaking of dogs): "Once they love, they love steadily, unchangingly, till their last breath. That is how I like to be loved." Quoted in Dogs and their Women by Barbara Cohen and Louise Taylor (Boston:Little, Brown and Company, 1989) .
While the all-encompassing issue of love always seems to rate highest in humanity's desire to experience constancy, the concept of allness permeates all human desire for good. I hear people speak daily of feeling creative, strong, joyous, satisfied, healthy, at peace, some of the time, yet always wanting to feel these qualities with them all of the time. They speak of having partial capacities to walk, see, hear, feel. But naturally they want all their capacity all of the time. Surely this is the practical sense of allness that means something to each one.
