Article June 3, 1922 Issue

Love Understood

ZORA W. SHOOK

On page 1 of "No and Yes," by Mary Baker Eddy, we read: "Truth is as 'the still, small voice,' which comes to our recognition only as our natures are changed by its silent influence." That is what Christian Science does for every one. It serves as a mirror in which we may see the quality of our innermost instincts, desires, and motives, which go to make up what is called human nature. In other words, it so clearly reveals the divine nature of God, and man created in His image and likeness, that mankind is able to see by comparison how very unlike the God-qualities are the human or usual ways of thinking and doing things. We are shown that whatever the name or nature of the claim of inharmony may be, it is the result of a lack of understanding of God's law of harmony, which governs the real man and universe which God creates, sees, and knows. It is because men are trying to live in a way which God knows nothing whatever about, that there appear friction, inharmony, and discord, with their results of disease or lack of ease in our experience.

If a mistake is made in a mathematical calculation, it is impossible to determine the correct result until the mistake is corrected. In the same way God's law of harmony must be obeyed to meet our need in working out our problems in Christian Science; for our work is to find out the erroneous thought in our own individual consciousness, and bring it into subjection to the exact law of harmony.

Admitting God to be Love, it naturally follows that no other quality of thought but a loving quality could possibly be at-one with Love, or God. That loving quality of thought must also be what God knows, else it would not express His law of harmony. Sometimes, what we believe Love to be is not enough, and is the cause of many of our failures to make our demonstration, because we rise no higher in our work than the human sense of love, which is not at-one with God, and so cannot be manifested as harmony. Then, as Christian Scientists, we are learning how to "try the spirits whether they are of God." That is, we examine our thoughts to see if they express the qualities or nature of divine Love. Mrs. Eddy clearly saw that it is the false sense of love that causes sickness, inharmony, and sorrow; so, she tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 575), "Arise from your false consciousness into the true sense of Love;" and farther on she states, "This revelation will destroy forever the physical plagues imposed by material sense." It is like saying that this revealed, natural expression of divine Love will destroy forever the friction which a material sense of love claims to be creating, and which is manifested as disease.

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