Article April 13, 1912 Issue

THE LOVE OF LIFE

LUCY HAYS EASTMAN.

Most mortals believe they love life, while some wish they had never been born; but all, whether life appear lovely or hateful, cling to it most tenaciously. It is only when the love of God, good, supersedes this life-grip of self-preservation that human beings voluntarily surrender their false sense of life to lay hold upon "life eternal."

Yet, after all, do mortals really love or hate life as much as they sometimes believe they do? He who takes life for granted and, clapping his hands, exuberantly exclaims, "How joyous is life!" may at the same moment seek to destroy it as he treads upon the worm or slays the deer. On the other hand, he who regards life bitterly and yet feeds the starving dog and allows the serpent to wind his crooked way unharmed, is manifesting a genuine love of life despite his belief to the contrary. These conflicting and erroneous aspects of existence are produced from humanity's ignorance as to what and where life really is. Jesus declared that to know God is life eternal, while our revered Leader definitely teaches that God is the only Life, and "the only intelligence of the universe, including man" (Science and Health, p. 330). To love or to hate that about which one has a mistaken concept, is to love or to hate that which may not exist. In other words, elusive theories and mistaken suppositions that crystallize into tenacious beliefs about life, unless haply held in abeyance by faith until corrected by spiritual understanding, beget unreal love for or unreal hate toward—not life—but these self-same beliefs about life. What is material living but sin, sickness, and death? Can we, then, really love it? He who believes that he does is more deceived than he who still believes in mortality as real and hates his own false sense of life.

The only remedy for such a crude outlook upon existence is found in the Word of God, where we learn that God is Life, and that to understand God is to gain eternal life. To understand Love is to live, and vice versa. It is neither difficult to live for Love's sake nor to love for Life's sake when we realize that there is but one infinite, indivisible Life, which is wholly good because there is but one all-inclusive God. This being true, it follows that all manifestations of this Life are manifestations of good. Every one, from the most ignorant barbarian to the wisest man, loves good spontaneously (hence life), each in the degree that he perceives it. Even the criminal sheds tears before the gladsome purity of a little child's smile. Indisputably, a selfless, radiating love for noble living will be universally felt as Life is understood to be God and therefore wholly spiritual. Because God is invariable Principle, all that manifests Him is obedient to the government of divine law and is perpetually harmonious. The rhythm of immortality and love flows through the activities of every individual idea; hence to be conscious of Life is to be conscious of harmony.

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