No Christian will deny the abstract statements that God is Love and that God is omnipotent. Yet, until they have learned by consecrated study of the Bible, in the light of Christian Science, how few, indeed, there are who are not constantly denying both of these truths in their daily lives and in their thoughts concerning God. That God is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever there can be no doubt. But humanity's idea of God has changed throughout the centuries.

A careful study of all the passages in the Bible and the writings of our revered Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in which the words "love" and "Love" appear, will work wonders on the thought of the student. Mrs. Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 42), "The Jewish theology gave no hint of the unchanging love of God." And yet, although God has not changed, He has been known only through His reflection, man; and this reflection has been discerned by men to the degree that they have "put off the old man" and "put on the new."

Here and there throughout the older Scriptures one finds great figures, leaders of Israel, who have understood the character and nature of God to such an extent that they have been able to demonstrate the power of God among men. For, even to human sense, God has never been without a representative. And one can have no doubt that these great leaders understood something of the nature of divine Love. As early as Enoch we find one who had learned so completely that man is spiritual, and who so realized his at-one-ment with God, that he overcame death. Jeremiah also had caught a glimpse of God as Love when he wrote, "The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn thee." But however much these great leaders of Israel may have understood God, they seemed in general unable to impart, more than imperfectly, that understanding to others so as to make God real to them as omnipresent Love.

Passing to the New Testament, we find that Jesus the Christ understood God with marvelous clarity, and reflected Him perfectly. And while Jesus did not refer directly to God as Love, his every act reflected Love. Reading the four Gospels, one is impressed with the fact that John was essentially loving. He was so close to Jesus in the spirit of his teachings that when he heard the Master say, "I and my Father are one," he doubtless began to see, by a study of the perfect reflection, more and more of the nature of God Himself. This is evident in his writings. If the Christ, whom Jesus manifested in his every thought and action, was so loving, what must the Father be? There could be but one answer. And so by the time he wrote his epistles, John had become so conscious of God as Love that love constantly radiated from him, and was expressed in almost his every utterance. (See I John, Chapters 3 and 4.) And by then he was enabled to say emphatically, "God is love."

While God, through the prophets, has from the earliest times commanded men to love Him, and to love one another, there is but slight instruction as to how they might keep these commandments. It remained for Mrs. Eddy to point out the way. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (especially page 5), she shows that in order to obey God and keep the First Commandment, it is necessary to understand Him—to know His nature and qualities. As we learn from John that God is Love, the next question which arises is, How may we ourselves apprehend and fully comprehend that fact—not merely intellectually, but spiritually know it? Again Mrs. Eddy has pointed the way. In her Message for 1902 (p. 8) she asks: "Is it necessary to say that the likeness of God, Spirit, is spiritual, and the likeness of Love is loving? When loving, we learn that 'God is Love.'" Now, we learn to love in proportion as we spiritualize our thought; for it is fundamental, axiomatic, that since God is Spirit, Love, His idea must be spiritual, loving. Therefore, in order that our sense of love may become more spiritual, all our thinking must become more spiritual. We must exclude from our thoughts all material beliefs as illusory, unreal.

Paul shows us how this may be done when in his letter to the Philippians he says, "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." As our thoughts become more spiritual and we love more, we cease criticizing; we cease condemning; we see more and more good in others. Then we begin to realize that all mankind are brethren. Then we begin to love our neighbor as ourselves. Then we see that Love is divine Principle, and that loving enables us to gain the true idea of man. It is through love that we become conscious of the atonement—our at-one-ment with God.

Having become conscious to some extent of the spiritual realization of Love, we can see in part the value of the practical application of love. Mrs. Eddy has said (ibid., pp. 8, 9), "Spiritual love makes man conscious that God is his Father, and the consciousness of God as Love gives man power with untold furtherance."

When we come spiritually to understand that God and Love are one and the same; when we grasp the truth that God is omnipotent good, not merely as an abstract statement, but as the impelling motive of our lives; when we have so linked ourselves to Love by loving that we realize, spiritually comprehend, that we—our real selves—have dominion over all untoward conditions, we understand and can put into practice what Paul meant when he said in his second epistle to Timothy, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Then we realize that "perfect love casteth out fear," and begin to prove that Love is omnipotent.