Article January 2, 1932 ISSUE

A Message of Love

EDITH LEAVITT

Early one lovely summer morning a student of Christian Science sat before a window pondering the things of Spirit, hoping to solve a discouraging problem of long standing, a problem that threatened utter failure and defeat. Up and down the city street stretched a line of drab apartment houses. Silhouetted against a small vista of blue sky just opposite the observer's window, and towering above the roof, appeared the topmost branches of a tall tree, swaying gently in the breeze.

The student, having learned somewhat to be responsive to any slightest hint of divine revelation contained in daily experience, looked for the lesson to be learned. As she waited expectantly for Love's message to unfold, it seemed to her as though the tree were saying, Courage! Behold how I have surmounted this obstacle! Thought turned at once to contemplate how deeply its roots must be embedded in the earth to support the trunk and heavy limbs. What aspiration, to send those slender top branches traveling skyward; what strength, to withstand fierce gales! How many days, seasons, years of patient, persistent effort had passed before the attainment of its great girth and height! Every leaf seemed to dance and sing with exultant, victorious joy. The student then recalled how many lesser problems had been solved in the years gone by, and clearer, purer viewpoints gained. Hope and faith revived, and added consecration was born.

The mental pathway from earth to heaven may seem to mortal sense steep and rugged, sometimes dull and dreary, with little apparent gain; yet each right thought is a step toward the mountain top of spiritual revelation. Paul says, "In due season we shall reap, if we faint not;" and on page 573 of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has written this comforting message: "We can become conscious, here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain. This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science. Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will surely appear sometime and in some way."

In reality, whatever of good the human heart may desire is present now. Whatever seems to obstruct the evidence of this fact is but a false sense of separation from God, Spirit. In Science and Health we read (p. 390 ), "It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony." This ignorance may appear to be a solid reality to our frightened sense. It may seem to shut us away from peace, health, joy, prosperity, achievement; but what is it? A shadow! "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world," said Christ Jesus. Man in God's likeness stands complete, firm, free, above and beyond the dreams of material sense. Not for a moment can the spiritual idea become separated from its divine Principle, Love. Man's true being is not touched by the suppositions called sin and suffering. The real man, His image and likeness, cannot be barred from any blessing. All that seems to sin, suffer, endure punishment, is a false belief of life in matter.

Through the teachings of Christian Science it is our wondrous privilege to learn of our eternal sonship with God, free-born, and to realize our spiritual dominion over all that would seek to hinder our advancement out of the cramping, limiting claims of mortality. Turning again to our text-book, we gain assurance and inspiration from these precious words (p. 258): "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis."

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