"LOVE," Mary Baker Eddy penetratingly remarks in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 250), "cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power," and she continues by indicating many quiet and selfless ways in which divine Love may be humanly expressed. Our Leader saw only too clearly the tendency of mankind to divorce Love from its human expression; that while men may love Love in the abstract, they do not always love to love. Yet the unity of divine Love and its reflection, man, must find human expression if it is to be of practical value to humanity; and to bring this to pass men must cease to think of themselves as human beings needing to receive love, and identify themselves with the divine idea, which is the expression of Love itself. This identification can only be gained by our being the idea of Love in so far as we understand it. Love and its idea, or reflection, can never be separated. They are one in being. Love is not Love unless it has expression; just as the sun would not be the sun without sunshine. Neither has entity without the other.
"God," as John reiterates in his epistles, "is love," and mankind has vaguely accepted this statement and turned to divine Love for help as if Love were a power apart from man which had to be implored to take part in human affairs, and which, if willing to do so, acted in some mysteriously beneficent way apart from man. This conjecture, separating Love from man, and leaving man with no part to play in the operation of divine power, has never yielded certain results. Christian Science teaches that divine Love scientifically and certainly meets all human need in the exact proportion that one identifies himself with the idea of Love and expresses this idea in his every activity. Christian Science teaches that man, absolutely speaking, is the full and perfect expression of divine Love, now and always, but that from the human standpoint one must learn to express Love; and to the extent that each individual does so is he able to utilize the divine power in healing and helping humanity. No mere abstraction here, but a vital and unremitting work to be undertaken with consecration and self-abnegation, with unceasing prayer and joyous practice.
We need, first, to understand the nature of divine Love, and then to express this understanding in our daily lives. This is our individual duty, and only as each individual undertakes this duty, and demonstrates Love in his or her own niche, will "the beauty of holiness," peace and happiness, be found on earth. Love does not act independently of man. Love acts through and is expressed by man. Then to understand Love is of little value if this understanding is not actively lived, while our human existence lacks direction and vitality if we do not understand the nature of Love.
The attainment of this understanding is gained by study of the Bible and of our Leader's writings, which open for us an inexhaustible store of knowledge of the divine Principle, Love. In these writings we learn of God, Love, as the tender Father-Mother of man, infinitely loving its own perfect creation, caring for it, providing and supplying it with all goodness in unwearying and inexhaustible loving-kindness. Love is seen as the unfailing and impartial fount of all goodness and beauty; as that which pours forth unstintingly the riches of love; as the source of irresistible and unquenchable gentleness and all-understanding tenderness. Into Love enters no element of evil or error. Love never varies. Love is not weak and sentimental, nor exacting and fussy. Love is calm, patient, and unalterable. Love is unfailing, and man is the unfailing reflection of Love. That which does not express Love is not man at all, but merely a false sense of man and existence.
To the student of Christian Science, however, the unfolding idea of Love is not allowed to remain in the abstract. He has to live what he knows. He has to put his understanding, however small it may seem, into practice, or he will find he has only the dead letter, though that letter may appear beautiful. The student, through study and prayer, comes to discern the idea of Love, and then to accept the idea of Love as the actual state of being. Not merely think it, and contemplate it in exalted moments, but be Love's reflection! Not just live love at church, or among other students, but live it when at work, at home, or by himself. Then does Love become vital and powerful in human experience, and its results are seen in the overcoming of sin, the healing of sickness, and the elimination of evil conditions.
In the same paragraph from "Miscellaneous Writings" already quoted, Mrs. Eddy writes, "I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results." There is our necessity—to be "active witnesses to prove it." In that sentence is indicated the expression of Love which is essential in order to make Love an ever-operating Principle in human affairs. "Love never faileth," Paul points out in his first letter to the Corinthians (Rev. Ver.), and the seeming failure of Love to help us in time of need is only our failure to comprehend and express Love. Love must be reflected, must be actively expressed, to have power and place in human consciousness. Any apparent failure is not the failure of Love, but is only our failure to give Love that activity in our lives which is necessary in order to demonstrate its healing power.
Yet what is it that Love must overcome or heal? Is there a power opposed to God? Is evil a reality or Principle, a person, or a thing? To these questions Christian Science answers emphatically: There is nothing but Love, since Love is God, and all that has to be overcome is the belief that Love is not infinite. There is nothing, in reality, to be overcome, but only an illusion to be dispelled in human consciousness. All that there is to evil is the belief in and fear of it. Remove completely the fear of sickness, and sickness is healed. The understanding and reflection of Love leaves no room in consciousness for fear, or the belief in any presence but Love, and in this way "perfect love casteth out fear." Here is the simplicity of Christian Science healing—and its difficulty: so to know and live Love that fear, sin, sickness, death are blotted out of consciousness.
To heal others we must radiate that Love which is warm, generous, impartial, just as the sun shines impartially and richly on all alike, whether friend or enemy, known or unknown, rich or poor, good or bad. Jesus healed on this basis. Love was the Principle of his life, and so absolutely and unfailingly did he love that sin, sickness, and death melted at his approach. The Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy, selflessly loving mankind, actively expressing the love that unfolded to her spiritual consciousness, healed many desperate cases instantaneously. Many disciples of the Christ, both at the beginning of the Christian era and at the present day, have healed the sick and the sinning not merely by perceiving the idea of Love, but by being the idea they perceived. So fervent and radiant has been their reflection of Love that Love has literally been all to them, and this has wiped out the belief, manifest as sickness and sin, that anything exists but Love.
If we should be conscious of anyone or anything that needs healing, there is only one place to heal that suggestion, and that is within our own individual consciousness. We perceive externalized only what we hold as true within our own consciousness. Nothing, in fact, is external to our consciousness. Manifestly, then, any healing which has to take place has to take place in our consciousness. Do we seem to see, for example, an expression of dislike towards us in our place of business, or discordant conditions in our home? Our own consciousness has to be purified. We need not only to know more of Love, but to reflect more of it. We cannot know more of Love except as we express Love. Love cannot be divorced from its reflection.
Do we see an inharmonious or unloving church? We do not have to put love in it, as it were. We need to love more ourselves. Those who constantly talk about their church, or other churches, as unloving or inharmonious have the remedy in their own hands. It may not be so much lack of understanding of the nature of Love on their part as it is failure to express what they know.
Let me illustrate this by my own experience. Before taking up the study of Christian Science I was teaching in private schools. At each school to which I went certain inharmonious conditions arose, gradually developing to a point where I felt a change of schools desirable. No change, however, brought about the desired harmony, except temporarily. Then the study of Christian Science led me to see that I was taking my own conditions with me. It was futile blaming the other members of the staff, or the working conditions. The trouble lay in my own state of mind, and I could have gone to every school in the country without finding harmony.
Further study of Christian Science led me to see a little more clearly the nature of God as infinite Love, unfailingly patient, kind, and understanding, and I found that in the exact proportion that I expressed those qualities did divine Love meet my human need. I not only had to know Love, but consciously reflect Love. I not only had to identify myself with the reflection of God, to know myself as the loving and lovable image and likeness, but had to prove it, to be an "active" witness. Christian Science taught me that the reflection of Love was my true self, and the true self of everyone, but to prove it was a hard battle with pride and self-love—a battle that is not yet won, but is being waged with success in proportion to my sincerity and honesty of purpose.
Our beloved Leader wrote to a First Reader (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 247), "The little that I have accomplished has all been done through love,—self-forgetful, patient, unfaltering tenderness." She did not separate Love from its manifestation, but knew the inseparability of God and man, as Principle and its idea, Love and its reflection. Love is never something apart from us, and Love can never fill our human need if we so consider it. Love is our very Life. With it we can accomplish all things, for nothing can resist the power of Love expressed. It is a vital power ever present with us, giving us dominion over error, enabling us to heal with scientific certainty, leading us to spiritual perfection. By expressing Love ceaselessly and joyously, we can dispel every illusion in human consciousness, for then indeed to us Love fills immensity, and evil and matter disappear in the radiancy of Spirit.
