Article March 16, 1918 Issue

Human Affection Purified

ESTHER MURRAY

It is sometimes said by those who have a superficial acquaintance with Christian Scientists that they are hard, unsympathetic, and unloving. If this be so, it certainly is not because of the teaching of Christian Science, for the Principle of this religion is divine Love. Christian Science is founded on the teaching of our Savior, Christ Jesus, and is a religion of love and healing; indeed, true healing cannot be done without love. On page 366 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy wrote: "The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-being is deficient in human affection, and we have the apostolic warrant for asking: 'He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" The Bible tells us that "Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus," and we read also of "the disciple whom Jesus loved," and the Master's oft-repeated command to us was to "love one another."

St. John, the beloved disciple, repeatedly counseled us to "love one another." He also said, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." In I Corinthians St. Paul points out clearly that without love everything else is valueless. "Love enriches the nature, enlarging, purifying, and elevating it," we read on page 57 of our textbook, and on page 113 we are told: "The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. Without this, the letter is but the dead body of Science,—pulseless, cold, inanimate."

Students of Christian Science should never entertain the mistaken notion that sympathy and human affection are unscientific. It is always more love that we require, not less. Sometimes human love seems to be changeable, selfish, exacting, and exclusive, but these mental qualities are the tares which should be destroyed, without uprooting the love, which must be purified until it makes way for the perfect reflection of divine Love,—unchangeable, limitless, all-inclusive.

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