Article October 25, 1919 Issue

Love and Fear

LOUISE SATTERTHWAITE

THE two words, "love" and "fear," represent opposites. It is only after one commences to have some understanding of Christian Science that this fact begins to be seen and comprehended. "The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love," says Mrs. Eddy on page 560 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." A far-reaching vista is opened before the thought when this statement is pondered. It would seem that even the human sense of love is sometimes almost a miracle,—that is, the truer human sense which approaches an unselfed love. Even among kith and kin, unselfish love is not any too general. Romantic love, pictured so eloquently by writer and poet, does not always measure up as something which is either altruistic or enduring. Scrutinized in the light of Christian Science, its roots are often found deep in the falsity called "life in matter." It has therefore within it the elements of fear. Even human mother love, the nearest of all affections to that which is unselfish and enduring, is in some instances instinctive rather than reasoning, sometimes fond and foolish and fearful rather than intelligently loving and wise.

Beyond these things the earth has been blessed by those who have brought to human love a gleam of the divine. In Victor Hugo's "Les Miserables" we see how astounded the wretched thief is by the love and forgiveness of the good bishop, when brought face to face with him after the theft of the candlesticks and the outrage of his hospitality. All of human nature is to some extent typified in this portrayal, for is not such unselfish love looked at askance, suspected, disbelieved in, by the unregenerate thought? Such a miracle it seems that it is put on trial, as it were, for some time before it is accepted. Yet every heart longs for it and seeks for it always. Once such love is seen or found, it is not thereafter forgotten. The individual who has learned to love in this way, sincerely and habitually, has mastered an inarticulate, universal language, understood wherever the sun rises and sets and, when finally accepted by the doubting thought, always as welcome to the tired heart of humanity as refreshing showers to drooping flowers. Christian Science reveals the glorious truth that since God is Love, every least expression of true love must be the reflection of the divine.

What, indeed, is love? Whence cometh it? We may define it in many terms. Love is beneficent, love is wise, love gives itself and would not be love unless it could reflect somewhat of itself to all and everything with which it comes in contact. Its energy and action are inexhaustible, continually and perpetually springing forth, continually renewed, continually undiminished, everlastingly just itself. Dictionaries cannot define its length, breadth, or volume, nor can they adequately describe it in words; yet the child knows love perhaps even better than the sage; the bird, beast, and flower—aye, all that seems to live—respond to its mighty influence. We say when we love that we take delight in those we love. We seek to serve and bless them, to protect and care for them, as much as lies within our power. One in the company of those who love him has no fear but rather joy and peace and a settled and continued expectation of greater and greater good. Even to the human sense "love casteth out fear," for the weary child knows no fear when the mother love haven is reached. The friend among loving friends is at ease, knowing that even his faults are forgiven, his mistakes pardoned, that he is loved for what he is, and all loving provision for his wants has been made.

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