Editorial July 8, 1911 Issue

THE LARGER LOVING

John B. Willis

HE was one of those to whom a holiday brings the coveted privilege of getting out into what at its best may be well named "God's own world," into the fields and woods, the unimpeded sunshine and sweet-scented air. Fortunate far beyond desert, he was welcomed to a delightful farmside that centered in white a surrounding maze of elms and pines, a veritable living green, through whose deep shadows, with much of turning and quiet laughter, a dear little river found its way to the near-by lake. The evening of his arrival brought him a renewed sense of the exceeding restfulness of nature's quiet, a quiet which was broken for him only by the plaintive and now seemingly near, now far-away, call of a whip-poor-will and when at bedtime he blew out his candle, parted the dimity curtains, and thoughtfully drank in the delicious stillness, he wished in his heart that every poor noise-disturbed mortal in the not distant city might share its benediction.

His most delightful experience, however, was reserved for the morning, when at four o'clock or earlier he was awakened by the incoming of a great tide of melody. King Day was entering God's umbrageous courts "with praise," and his feathered heralds were rendering a choral song such as ne'er was heard beyond the precincts of the cathedraled wood. The listener's pleasure was subdued, however, by his remembrance of the saddening and discreditable fact that these sweet singers who live, as it would seem, solely to bring us their glad minstrelsy, and relieve us of our pests, are being slaughtered even to their threatened extermination, as a result for the most part of the mandate of fashion, and that well-meaning Christian people are thus continuing an assault upon innocency which has become an inexcusable wrong.

The call of Christian Science to a life which is thoughtfully observant, and wholly inoffensive to all that is true and beautiful and good, is bringing about a great awaking upon this subject. It is leading its students to be more considerate of the rights not only of their fellow-men, but of their every least fellow-ceature, and in this it is implanting and bringing into continuous activity the kindly impulses of brotherhood. They have been reminded by their Leader (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 36) that "beasts, as well as men," manifest Mind, though in a lesser degree; and he who knows and loves the birds and bees and butterflies will never question this statement. If therefore our creator is their creator, our rights are their rights under the divine government, and all destructiveness and unbrotherliness must pass away, in so far as that government is longed for and practically demonstrated.

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Editorial
THE LAW OF GROWTH
July 8, 1911
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