Article May 6, 1922 Issue

The Feast of Divine Love

MAY BELCHER

The Bible is full of wonderful passages setting forth the power of divine Love to overcome all discord. In the twenty-third psalm, so dear to all, which is full of consolation and promise to those who are weary and heavy laden, we read, "Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies." Just there, in the very place where we may seem to be surrounded by malice and hatred, where mortal belief may be trying to hold us in the grasp of sickness, fear, and discouragement, where it may seem as thought every one's hand is against us,—there, in the very midst of all the turmoil, in the very presence of so-called enemies, our false sense of man,—is the table prepared for us by divine Love. We have only to turn away from the husks of material beliefs to find our help and refreshment ever ready.

Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, has given us a sentence on page 571 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" which may be correlated in our thought with the knowledge of the table which divine Love has prepared for us in the presence of our enemies, a sentence which will enable us to understand how complete is the protection of Love, however fiercely the storm of error may seem to be raging within and without. "Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you," she writes. We sometimes think a great deal about the difficulties we have to encounter, and the impossibility of working under certain discordant conditions; then, we are turning our faces away from Love's feast, and looking into the wilderness of error, failing to hear the loving invitation. If, instead, we could only see this discord as a temptation to believe in the claim of power and reality in evil, we would be fed with the knowledge that nothing can prevent us from doing God's work, wherever and whatever it may be. If we would only keep our thoughts "rooted and grounded in love" of the knowledge of God's presence and power, no evil would come near us or hinder our work in any right direction.

Often when the writer has been tempted to think the way of demonstration in Christian Science hard and difficult, and good work has seemed almost impossible, the thought of the scene in the garden of Gethsemane and of what immediately followed has come with its loving rebuke and its message of help and encouragement. Our Master seemed at that time to be surrounded by the worst forms of human hatred and malice; his friends had failed him when he most needed their fidelity and help. One, who had been his daily companion, and who had shared some of the most sacred experiences of his ministry, betrayed him. The design of his enemies was to destroy his life and make his work and teaching useless; and yet, in the face of such seemingly overwhelming discord, the Master's recognition of the power and presence of infinite Love was so clear and complete that he was able instantaneously to heal the mutilated ear of the Roman soldier. This healing would not have been possible had Jesus for one moment given power to evil or malice, or had he believed that material conditions could prevent him from doing the work intrusted to him by his heavenly Father; he knew, as we can also know, that God, good, alone has power; and, so, he believed not at all in malice or unfaithfulness.

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