Universal Love

NINA SEYMOUR KEAY

Sometimes the teaching of Christian Science as to universal love presents a seeming difficulty to the beginner, clinging fast, as mortals do, to a false sense of love as mere personal regard. At first sight the impression received may be that the realization of universal love would in some way detract from the closeness of human relationships and friendships. This impression is subsequently proved to be quite incorrect, and only arises from a mistaken view of the nature of love. To the human mind in general, love and friendship are apparently dependent upon their individual objects and to some extent evolved by them, so that love and friendship partake of the many limitations which are to be seen in any merely mortal concept. Human love is so largely compounded of fear, jealousy, so-called "sensitiveness," and the like, that it is quite open to question whether, as the poet puts it,—

It is better to have loved and lost,
Than never to have loved at all.

In fact, it is only to the degree that love partakes of the spiritual that it brings real happiness.

The effect of Christian Science is to spiritualize thought in every direction, so that the false human sense of love is exchanged for the true understanding of it as having its source in God and not in any individual. In the first epistle of John is the statement, "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us," which shows love as the radiance of "the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world." The light of a lamp cannot single out certain objects and exclude others within its radius, for that would be contrary to the nature of light. On page 13 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy says, "Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals;" and again on page 266, "Universal Love is the divine way in Christian Science." This way is found, not by crowding more individual objects into the radius of a still inadequate lamp, but by increasing the power of the light, so that the objects already within its radius will be better illumined, while others that were previously obscure will be revealed.

A clearer view of the universal nature of love may be obtained from the way people regard flowers, even better than from their human relationships. A flower lover does not love some individual rose or violet to the exclusion of other flowers, but loves all roses or violets. In like manner, though less generally, the genuine lover of animals loves all animals to some extent, not alone one for its individual merits. But the tendency of mortal thought begins to show in the singling out of individual objects for special affection.

The effect of a more spiritual idea of love is to lift the human relationships above the limitations imposed by material sense. It is a leveling up, not down, so that it increases instead of diminishing the wealth of human affection. The universality of Love was wonderfully expressed by Christ Jesus, and this is why all men who love good, love and reverence the Master.

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