Article December 8, 1917 Issue

"The disciple whom Jesus loved"

LUCIA C. COULSON

As students of Christian Science we may well desire to gain as clear an insight as is possible into the character of the man who from among all others gained for himself that wondrous title, "The disciple whom Jesus loved." Well may we ask what was the quality of thought which won for him the right to such a title, what the human character of the one to whom Jesus intrusted his dearest earthly charge—his mother.

In reading the gospels, and especially the gospel of John, with a view to solving this question, the writer was struck by two things: the humility and the simplicity which this apostle expresses. He never names himself in his own gospel, and in studying both it and his epistles we get a mental picture of gentleness, stillness, and an all-embracing love such as no other writings give us; yet there is no hint of weakness in this portrait. If we turn to the thunders of the Apocalypse, and to the drama of Calvary, when the only male disciple who followed in that hour of desertion was John, we shall see that it is the woman nature—the feminine qualities of Mind—whose foot is upon the serpent's head.

Startling too is the simplicity of John's utterance. From the metaphysical standpoint no other of the gospels approaches that of John, and yet, compared with the brilliant dialectics of Paul it reads, as do his epistles, almost like the speech of a little child, repeating again and again the simple, beautiful truths in simple, beautiful language. Tradition relates of this beloved disciple that when he was of a great age and came seldom among the people, on the few occasions when he spoke to them he repeated only these words: "Little children, love one another." Crowds thronged around him to see him and hear him preach, and some of them were offended at "the simplicity that is in Christ." The carnal mind wanted more sensation, the intellectual thought wanted a more intricate rehearsal of metaphysics; so, according to tradition, they asked him to say more, but he replied, "It is enough, it is what the Master taught: little children, love one another." And surely as they felt the influence of that love filled consciousness they must have departed warmed and filled and satisfied.

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