Article September 9, 1916 Issue

In Love with the Truth

SAMUEL GREENWOOD

In the Apocalypse St. John likens the new Jerusalem to "a bride adorned for her husband," and in Science and Health (p. 592) Mrs. Eddy defines the heavenly city as "divine Science; the spiritual facts and harmony of the universe." The figure of a bride used by the beloved disciple is universal in its human appeal, for, as Emerson wrote, "all mankind loves a lover." In its spiritual signification Love is so essentially and wholly divine, so inseparably one with true being, that even the finite human sense of love prompts men to noble sacrifices and deeds of heroism.

As the student grasps the significance of St. John's description and Mrs. Eddy's interpretation, the question will naturally arise whether divine Science presents to him the attractiveness symbolized by the revelator. Does Truth appear as the thing to be desired above all else, the one "altogether lovely"? Are we prepared, through our love of Truth, to endure hardships, make sacrifices, and work long years for its perfect understanding? Are we so in love with the spiritual ideal unfolded in Christian Science that we are glad to enter the struggle to become genuine Christian Scientists? These are questions to be answered rightly before the pilgrim to the new Jerusalem is ready to leave behind the false affections which would bind him to earth, and which have ever disappointed and scourged the weary seeker after heavenly peace.

Divine Science, or Christian Science, as Mrs. Eddy has named it in its relation to humanity, is logically the knowledge and understanding of divine things. It is the truth about God, about spiritual power and intelligence, about man and woman, the truth about everything which enters into the human problem. What does the human consciousness hold that can compare with this scientific knowledge of the immortal reality of things? What should be more attractive and lovely to contemplate, than an understanding of the infinitude of Love, the endlessness of Life, and the perfection of all that God makes manifest? It is obvious that heaven will never be realized, here or anywhere, until the things of God are brought into daily experience, that is, until we live with them and love them.

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