Article April 1, 1911 Issue

THE LOVING FATHER

BLANCHE HERSEY HOGUE.

Christians everywhere agree that God is a loving Father. Not so long ago His wrath was widely preached, but in the last two generations this fear has given way somewhat to a comforting belief that God may be trusted to care kindly for His children—even for those who err. A generous and forgiving God comes nearer to the heart of mortals than the image of a stern and relentless deity, and the evidences of human kindness alone are enough to persuade mankind that back of all scholastic interpretations God must be found in the end both loving and lovable.

Christian Science in its teaching and in its good works brings to light the loving-kindness of God. The allness of God is the foundation of Christian Science, and the presence and power of God understood and proved is the activity of Christian Science. To undo evil God must be made manifest, for nothing less than divine power can quench evil; and as the truth of being appears, sin and disease and all woe must in coincident measure disappear. This coming of Godlikeness, inasmuch as it puts away distress, is itself loving; and logically, the source from which such kindly power is put forth must be Love itself—that Love which the apostle John declares is God.

Mrs. Eddy in continuing John's use of the word Love for God, capitalizes it and uses it in the distinct sense of a synonym for God, in order that it may be distinguished from the human affections with their varying likes and dislikes. And perhaps the quality of loving-kindness,—that beneficence which shines apart from personal preferences and gleams impartially through every right desire, well expresses our highest grasp of the Love which is God as it appears among men. At all events, Christian Science is teaching us that God alone is Love; that this Love is continually going forth from its infinite source to sustain all its creation; that learning this Love and obeying it liberates us from the old fears of God; and that our divine inheritance provides matchless loving-kindnesses from God that will thoroughly and in all satisfying ways care for us in every hour of every day.

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