Article August 22, 1931 Issue

Loving God Supremely

S. ELLA SHELHAMER

Upon a certain occasion one of the Pharisees, supposed to excel in the knowledge of the Mosaic law, inquired of Jesus, "Master, which is the great commandment in the law?" Jesus replied: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Christian worshipers have pondered the great Master's summary of the commandments without, perhaps, arriving at definite conclusions.

By reason of its spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures, Christian Science affords a practical and scientific interpretation of difficult passages contained in the Bible. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, writes in her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 340): "The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the triunity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind."

Every Christian knows that the one thing needful is to love God supremely and his neighbor as himself. It is impossible to love God and give Him first place in our affections while living in ignorance of His true nature. Having gained in Christian Science an intelligent, well-defined concept of His allness, we find that God becomes the arbiter of our life. Our revered Leader beheld God as infinite Principle, the all-inclusive Mind. It was revealed to her spiritualized vision that a perfect creator could not be the creator of imperfection and evil, and that anything less than absolute perfection is therefore but the seeming manifestation of false material belief. God is Love, and man made in His image and likeness reflects nothing less than perfect love and loveliness.

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