Article June 2, 1928 Issue

Kindly Affection

BEULAH HYDELOFF

What flower of Christian character is more fair than kindly affection, which in its tranquil, humane beneficence knows no taint of variable selfish interest! A gentle, enduring element of Spirit is this that binds together in the blessed bonds of Christlike charity. What wholesome qualities of open-hearted consideration and generous service it includes! How its quiet persuasion permeates every nook and cranny of thought, and encourages the fearful heart! As the lowly arbutus, pushing its way through the chill dank of crumbling mold, sends upward its spring tribute of delicate beauty and fragrance, even so the tender blossom of kindly affection diffuses its sweet odors through the darkest shadows of human experience. Small wonder that Paul, realizing its unlimited influence for good, counseled his Roman brethren, "Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love."

With what rejoicing our hearts open to Christian Science, the blessed truth that is unfolding in larger measure than ever before the rate loveliness of kindly affection! Indeed, as we read in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 41), this very Science "teaches us to rise from sentimental affection which admires friends and hates enemies, into brotherly love which is just and kind to all and unable to cherish any enmity."

In cultivating this humble virtue, it may seem very easy to look with kindly tolerance and affection upon those who largely and freely express similar qualities of thought. But when indifference and taciturnity, or selfish pride, seem to inject themselves into our experience, are we not often prone to hurry on, accepting the lie of mortal testimony? How often—alas, how often—has that mask hidden a heart hungering and thirsting for friendly compassion! With what timid, wistful hope such a one may have longed for the word that would pierce that armor and kindle the latent spark of responsiveness! So enslaved to the idiosyncracies of personality is the so-called human mind that it either languishes in the throes of pitiful repression or bursts with inflated egotism; while discontent and the blight of self-reproach may make the seeming bondage even more bitter. Much as one longs for release from such unlovely traits of character, the constantly recurring excuses of heredity, environment, and false education only involve one the more hopelessly.

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