Article July 26, 1924 Issue

Love's Way

KATHERINE E. VARGA

There are two verses toward the close of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount which have grown in significance to at least one student of Christian Science. In the seventh chapter of the gospel of Matthew we read, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." When first studied, there appeared to be little of tenderness or comfort in it; but a clearer understanding of the verses revealed instruction infinitely tender, together with the sweetest sense of comfort and assurance.

When the writer was a little girl she lived in a small village, and many were the narrow interpretations of Scripture which she heard,—and alas, pondered! This passage from Matthew was ever a popular text, and the more she heard it preached from, the more she felt inclined to love those on the so-called broad path, and the less she cared for those supposed to be treading the narrow way. Self-righteousness and the arrogance of ignorance were felt, but not understood by the child, yearning even then to know the truth about God. Later, when the study of Christian Science was begun, some verses of Scripture yielded instantly to a more spiritual interpretation; the concept of others gradually improved; but some seemed inclosed as within a rock of false theology, and apparently yielded not at all.

One week the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly contained, as it had many times before, the passage just quoted from the Way-shower's mountain message. For five days it was hastily read, each time with a slight mental shiver. It did seem so foreign to the warm, loving message of Christian Science! But at the end of that week it came to her, much as it might have come had the Master been able to draw near to her and say: Dear child, there is nothing frightful or hard in what I have said. You can understand it clearly. It is very simple; for the broad way is the belief in evil as a power, and this belief must ever lead, so long as indulged in, to the destruction of one's happiness and health. The narrow way is the understanding of good,—good only,—the absolute allness of God. Then she saw that those who had in a self-satisfied way considered themselves on the narrow road had been on a road or way far broader than they had dreamed, a way of false gods,—worry, ill nature, and criticism.

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