Article May 21, 1904 Issue

Learning to Love Aright

LEWIS C. STRANG.

One of the first things the student of Christian Science learns is the meaning of the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." He learns that "other gods" are not necessarily images of wood and stone representing man's various deific conceptions, that "other gods" are not primarily things at all, but thoughts—"loves" from which the human mind, self-deceived, believes that man will derive greater good than he does from the one God who is good.

If the student be wise and courageous, he forthwith offers proof of his worthiness to receive further revelations of Truth by putting into practice what he already has. He begins to search in his own consciousness for his "other gods," for those qualities of thought which, being unlike God, prevent him from being at one with God. He summons them from the recesses of mortal mind in various disguises, as love of money, love of power, love of body and of physical sensation, love of intellectuality, love of family, even love of "my church." Gradually, as his ability to analyze thought grows keener and his grasp on truth becomes firmer, the student sees that this seeming myriad of "other gods" can be classified under one head. He reaches the scientific conclusion that the one great "other god" is love of mortal self, a sense of being, apart from God.

Man can no more help living what he thinks than cause can help having its lawful effect. The inevitable result of love of self is a life of selfishness, and the effect of selfish living is seen on all sides in the mass of afflictions, summed up under the headings of sin, disease, and death, of which the human race is the unhappy victim.

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