Article June 3, 1911 Issue

There is no word which has been more misused than the...

E. M. Ramsay

Kilmacolm (Scot.) Advertiser.

There is no word which has been more misused than the word "love;" even honorable and religious-minded people have, generally speaking, little understanding of it, and are often taken in by a sentimental and emotional substitute. In order to be really the love of God, love must be active, intelligent, bright, for God is Mind; it must be pure, steady, serene, devoid of ecstasy or excitement, since God is Spirit, law; it must be natural, simple, bracing, strong, the reflection of Life, of the eternal, unchanging—"I am that I am;" it must be gentle, light-hearted, and gay, if it is to have the lamb nature, the child quality,—"for of such is the kingdom of God." Finally, since God is infinite, omnipotent, ever-present, love must express the nature of the infinite, omnipotent, ever-present.

The Christian Science student dwells on such thoughts as these till he feels the warm sense of heavenly love flooding his consciousness, revealing to him God and his own true nature as God's child, made in God's image and likeness. At such a moment as this what has become of the critical, unkind thoughts he once entertained? Whither have they gone? What is hatred? It is a belief in a vacuum, a belief that somewhere in ever-present and omnipotent, eternal love there is a spot where love is not. Hatred then must be regarded not as a thing, an entity, a reality, but as the supposed absence of love. Thus as love enters hatred goes out, even as with the coming of the dawn the shadows of night vanish.

This learning to love does not come easily to any one; indeed, it is only by degrees that through increasing watchfulness and constant prayer mankind parts sufficiently with sin to feel the active warmth of God's presence, but, once he has begun to feel it, he cannot help desiring it more than all else, and gradually this attraction becomes the motive power of his life. As one goes forth bearing with him this consciousness of the invincible power of active love, he finds the world wearing a new aspect; he perceives that sin is ignorance, and that the sinner must be healed of his love of sin. He also finds, to his surprise, how great a change is produced in those around him by his own change of thought. One unacquainted with Christian Science might think that this man was now exercising a good influence on his fellows, that the love and healthy-mindedness he now expressed were acting on their minds and bodies, as his former critical and unkind thoughts had done. The Christian Scientist knows that this is not the explanation. He is convinced that there is but one Mind, the infinite, divine intelligence, and he is daily striving to free himself from the belief in minds many, acting and reacting upon one another, and to let that Mind be in him "which was also in Christ Jesus." Thus, by ceasing to tyrannize, he himself escapes from tyranny, and so helps his brethren to become more conscious of God's government and of their freedom as the sons of God.

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