Article February 10, 1997 Issue

Forgive—and remember!

Laurance Reeve Doyle

It was a time when dress codes were rapidly changing. I had been called into the high-school principal's office to receive an ultimatum on length of hair, mustache, and so forth. Either they go or you go, I was told. I was not to return to school until I had shorter hair and was cleanshaven. Having just begun my junior year, I felt this was a mighty blow to my aspirations for a scientific career. Here I was, just sixteen, being kicked out of high school for what seemed a senseless reason. I returned home feeling discouraged and hurt; there seemed no way to compromise with the principal's views.

I could fight this injustice; I would protest! But this is not exactly how I had been taught to deal with problems. I had been seriously studying the Bible and Science and Health. I opened, in my Bible, to the Sermon on the Mount. I read: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven" (Matt. 5:43–45).

My heart melted. I thought of what Christ Jesus had endured, and yet his enemies had never gotten him to hate them. His love had never depended on the reaction of others. He knew that God is infinite Love, and that to really be alive is to express God's love. He was ever conscious that the creator of everyone is infinite Love. He knew that man expresses God's perfect love as His image and likeness because in truth there is nothing else to express.

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