Editorial December 15, 1923 Issue

Love Which Reflects Love

Albert F. Gilmore

Among many passages written by Mrs. Eddy for which Christian Scientists are profoundly grateful is one found in the spiritual interpretation of the Lord's Prayer in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 17): "And Love is reflected in love." How wonderfully do these words illumine the supplication from the lips of Christ Jesus, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors"! Surely the beginning, the foundation, and the substance of forgiveness is the love which reflects divine Love. How can forgiveness be demonstrated upon any other basis? When we learn that God is Love, and that man as His reflection expresses love and love only, then how easy becomes forgiveness! In fact, forgiveness under these conditions becomes a necessity; for in the true reflection, which constitutes man, there is no element or phase of resentment or hatred, the unlikeness of love, the seeming enemy of forgiveness.

A scene which has come down to us from the latter days of the first century is that of the venerable John addressing his faithful followers in a message which still heals the troubled hearts of men. "Little children," he admonishes them, "love one another." How simple, yet how appealing! And, withal, how replete with spiritual reward are these words to those who obey them in the fullness of their meaning! No other group of Jesus' followers in modern times has had so definitely set before them the necessity of loving their fellow-men, as have Christian Scientists. Our revered Leader constantly and continuously set before her students the need for thinking and expressing in terms of action that love which John so explicitly enjoined upon his followers. "Beloved Christian Scientists, keep your minds so filled with Truth and Love," Mrs. Eddy admonishes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 210), "that sin, disease, and death cannot enter them. It is plain that nothing can be added to the mind already full. There is no door through which evil can enter, and no space for evil to fill in a mind filled with goodness." The student of Christian Science is convinced that Mrs. Eddy did not mean the so-called love which seems to have its origin solely in the beliefs of the flesh, and, in consequence, is wholly lacking in spiritual quality. That is the counterfeit of love, which, on what mortal mind regards as sufficient provocation, however slight it may be, turns into hate. In its nature it is akin to hatred; and it has no foundation in Truth.

The definition of prayer which our Leader gives us on page 39 of "No and Yes" is most illuminating in this connection. She says: "True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection. Prayer is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us." How instructive are these words to all who would walk in the footsteps of Christ Jesus as interpreted by our Leader! Surely the inclusion of all mankind in one affection precludes all possibility of cherishing resentment, jealousy, malice, or of fostering any of the other lusts and false desires which claim to have their origin in so-called mortal mind.

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