Channels of Love

VIRGINIA ROSS

In one of our hymns the opening line reads, "Make channels for the streams of love" (Hymnal, p. 89); and the blessings following this counsel came to one weary of the conflict of life, her heart filled with bitterness and, alas! hatred and resentment. She was constantly thinking of her wrongs, which amounted to persecution, her blighted hopes and ambitions, which were never to be realized here, and she did not care if there was any other place. In fact she did not expect any happiness, for "hope deferred maketh the heart sick," and her heart was certainly sick.

Mentally alert, she was eager for work which required mental activity, but her strength was not equal to the demand, and no wonder that she was weary. She craved the health that was needed to bring to her the success which she felt could be hers, and hopelessly she painted beautiful word-pictures that were read and cherished by many, spending hours at her work regardless of the pain, not knowing that the seeds of hatred, jealousy, and malice had brought forth a crop of failure and misery from which she was suffering.

Time and again she had won recognition in her chosen work only to lose it because of weeks and months of bodily suffering and mental fatigue. During these seasons of idleness she sought comfort in music, not knowing that it was the harmony of right thinking which she really needed, for her discordant thoughts had brought such inharmony into her life that music alone could not heal. Unconsciously her longing for literature, music, and art was really for the beautiful, the good, and the true. She painted from nature and drew sketches, but the cruel hand of false belief held her in its iron grasp, and her crop of error grew until she gave up her work to search for health, not knowing that while she was saying, "Lo here!" and "Lo there!" the reign of harmony was at hand, that it was within her own consciousness.

One day, after she had brought out of memory's chamber her dead hopes and ambitions, her heart crying out for peace when there was no peace, a beloved friend told her of a wonderful book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, that contained the truth which heals and makes glad the hungering heart, and persuaded her to buy a copy of it. She began to read, and the first thing she discovered was that its God was Love. This she knew was the kind of God she had always felt was the right one, but she had never been taught how to find Him. Then she learned that it was wrong thoughts which had made her ill, and one day she gleaned from her reading that she must love those whom she called her enemies, a teaching that she was most reluctant to accept. How was she to send them thoughts of love when she did not feel love? But the voice of Truth bade her think love; it said to her rebellious heart: "If a thought of hatred tries to creep in, shut the door on it. If you cannot think love, direct your thoughts into the channel where you can find it."

"Ah, that sounds easy," she thought, "but I can never do it." The voice said: "For every wrong thought that you send out, you will receive a return of like character, and for every right thought you will receive a hundredfold in return. Close the avenue of wrong thinking, with its hatred, malice, envy, resentment, and the like, and open the door to right thinking; then send out to those whom you think you hate, good will, love, tenderness, mercy, brotherly kindness, and forgiveness."

"I can do all but forgive," she cried; and the voice softly reminded her of the petition, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Startled at what this meant, she anxiously asked, "Does it mean that with what measure I mete it shall be meted unto me? Then teach me, O Father, how to forgive as I would be forgiven." Thus the healing begun in her own consciousness brought also the peace that passeth understanding. She sent out loving thoughts, made "channels for the streams of love," for the love that "suffereth long, and is kind," and one glad day she could honestly say, "I have no enemies, for, behold, they have become my friends." Gradually those who had opposed her changed their attitude, and soon began to love her, although not a word had been spoken on the subject between them; but the leaven of love had been working, and good must result from it. The words on page 17 of Science and Health, "And Love is reflected in love," were proven true.

She now tells those who think they have enemies and hate others, of her experience, and that they must "make channels for the streams of love," so that only love can flow in or out, for all wrong thoughts are turned back by the streams of love that are flowing outward. They can also rejoice in knowing that "a man's foes shall be they of his own household," namely, the wrong thoughts he allows to take possession of his consciousness.

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