Article April 8, 1922 Issue

"Love never faileth"

INEZ KOCH

Human existence is beset with temptations, one of the greatest of which is the belief of failure, for mortal thinking includes within itself all sense of failure, including death. In the Scriptures we read that Jesus "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." At the close of his earthly career, when the success of his healing and saving mission was fully established through his wonderful works, there came the last test of his sonship with God, the necessity for his final proof that Love, Spirit, never fails.

Nailed to the cross, forsaken by all, his divine mission doubted even by those whom he had healed and raised from the dead,—could there have been greater material evidence of failure? Truly, as Mrs. Eddy writes of Jesus in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 49), "the meek demonstrator of good, the highest instructor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone with God." And "alone with God" all must meet and overcome the human belief of failure. Only "in the secret place of the Most High," in the sweet sanctuary of prayer, can the assurance be found that "love never faileth" (Rev. Ver.). What if the physical senses call out mockingly: It can't be done! What if some healing seems long deferred, even though there may have been many proofs of one's understanding of God! Can God, ever present Love, fail in any particular? This question was answered once and for all on the cross, by the great demonstrator of Truth and Love. Mrs. Eddy rightly points out in Science and Health (p. 51), "It was the possible loss of something more important than human life which moved him,—the possible misapprehension of the sublimest influence of his career." Jesus knew all things that were to befall him, for they were foretold in the twenty-second psalm of David, in which the sufferings of Jesus are prophesied. But simultaneously with this last agonizing temptation of failure came the assurance that Spirit, God, could never for even an instant be separated from His manifestation, because, as Mrs. Eddy so beautifully expresses it (Science and Health, p. 304), "divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object."

The temptation of failure found no response in the divine consciousness of Christ Jesus, and was refuted with the triumphant words, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." This last prayer of affirmation rent the veil of the temple. The Adam-mist, the covering which mortal mind had wrapped round itself to hide its own failure, was torn away. The claim that matter could give life or take it, or cause it to fail, was silenced by this final acknowledgment that man's true selfhood must forever remain at-one with Mind, God. From this point of spiritual understanding Jesus' thought ascended to the event known as the resurrection, the visible proof given to human faith and hope that Life is immortal.

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