Article November 26, 1910 Issue

GRACE

FRANCES FIGART WILSON.

One evening, during a call from a Christian Science friend, a question arose regarding the meaning of the word grace. We consulted a dictionary, and of all the definitions given, there was one of four words which to me brought out the meaning so clearly that ever since, when I see or hear the word used in the Bible, or Science and Health, or our hymnal, instantly those four words come before me and cause that word grace to manifest an undying energy.

The definition was this, "the exercise of love." In II. Corinthians we read: "My grace [the exercise of love] is sufficient for thee." Again we are told: "By grace [the exercise of love] we are saved;" for it is only by exercise love that we can be saved,—saved from the false belief that man is mortal and subject to sin, sickness, and death. Peter tells us to "grow in grace,"—grow in the exercise of love. In the Lord's Prayer we ask, "Give us this day our daily bread;" which in its spiritual interpretation means, "Give us grace for today" (Science and Health, p. 17). If we exercise love today, we need have no fear for tomorrow; for today is now, and the eternal now knows no tomorrow.

In studying Christian Science we need to refer to the dictionary very often, for the new tongue teaches accuracy in the use of words. In the old way the road was so broad and directions so inaccurate that one was constantly stumbling over carelessly placed words. Science teaches accuracy, and as we grow in the exercise of love we are enabled to put off the careless old man with his words and deeds, and to put on the new man; or, to change our mortal concept of man and become conscious that "man is immortal and lives by divine authority" (Ibid., p. 76). We can become conscious of man's immortality only through growth in the exercise of love, or through growth in grace.

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