Article October 20, 1923 Issue

"The panoply of Love"

LAURA DUNBAR HAGARTY

"Love, " as used in John's epistles and as capitalized in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, is a wonderful term for God. To dwell in thought upon the nature of Love is to commune with God, to become conscious of the power, wisdom, and goodness of the Supreme Being. Such communion isolates thought from the opposite of Love, clearing consciousness of the impressions made by whatever is unlike the tenderness of the divine. Adequate protection from the shafts of evil is thus afforded the one who seeks and finds "the secret place of the most High."

"Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you," writes Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 571). Panoply is defined in a dictionary as "a full suit of defensive armor." How rich the word becomes under the discrimination of Mrs. Eddy's inspired thought; for Love casts its radiance upon all the ideas connoted with it! The God-given panoply acts as a defensive for those qualities in harmony with the nature of Deity. It could not protect mental states or processes antagonistic to good. It would be futile to rely upon this "full suit of defensive armor" while entertaining any form of evil belief. In putting on "the whole armour of God," it is essential that the Christian warrior earnestly search his consciousness, and remove from it all evil.

The Scriptures teach, and Christian Science demonstrates, that God, Love, is omnipotent; therefore, the defensive armor of divinity is equipped with power sufficient to meet every demand upon its resources. Human hatred, on the contrary, has never known God, has never shared the power of God; hence, human hatred is unable to act in opposition to God's creation. All it can do in belief is to react upon the one fostering it, leading its possessor farther and farther from the divine blessedness. To fear the onslaughts of mortal malice is to place power where it can never reside, and also to fail to use the ever available defense. Correct reasoning leads to the revelation of Love as the Almighty, as the presence that not merely withstands the besetments of evil, but destroys them.

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