There is no universal solvent in chemistry—a substance having the power to dissolve all other substances. But in scientific metaphysics divine Love has the power to dissolve all evil—everything unlike itself. Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health, "In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death." Science and Health, p.242.
Why can divine Love dissolve error of every kind? Because Love, a synonym for God, is infinite and omnipotent. In the allness and infinitude of Love there is no opposing power, presence, or substance. Because Love is Life, its suppositional opposites—fear, hatred, envy, cruelty, destructive criticism, selfishness—have no real existence or entity. These errors melt when the omnipresence and omnipotence of Love are realized.
Although divine Love can dissolve evil of every kind, we have work to do—work that requires patience and perseverance. It is to bring "the universal solvent of Love" to bear upon the errors of self-will, self-justification, and self-love. Why is this labor? Because these false mental elements can seem adamant, unyielding.
