Article April 14, 1934 Issue

Charity, Wisdom, Love

EYRE CHARLES DOUGLAS SANFORD CARTER

"Though I bestow all my good to feed the poor, ... and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." So writes Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians. The text would seem a paradox if we were to take the world "charity" in the limited sense of "almsgiving," or even as mere "kindliness" or "forbearance." The original Greek has been rendered in the Revised Version as "love," and in these days, when the need for charity seems to be more widerspread than ever before, it is important to hold in thought and manifest in action the higher spiritual idea which is expressed in that all-embracing quality, love.

Here, as always, we can look for practical guidance to the works of our Master and his apostles. In the third chapter of the Acts we are told how Peter and John dealt with "a certain man lame from his mother's womb," who asked an alms. First Peter said to him, "Look on us," and he obeyed, "expecting to receive something." Rich, indeed, was his reward, for Peter turned his thought away from material wealth, and therefore from a sense of lack, and with the truly benevolent words, "Such as I have give I thee," demonstrated the Christ-power to heal sickness and save from poverty.

"Such as I have"! We, too, in similar circumstances, can always remember that as "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ," we have a priceless possession—the ability to call on and reach the divine aid so that through it we may help our brother. Sometimes it may seem easier to meet the human want by human methods. This may even appear the kind thing to do; but very often it is not the truly loving thing. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 494), Mary Baker Eddy has declared that "divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need." Mortal belief, however, tends to confuse needs with wants, with mere human desires, and to overlook the truth stated by our Leader on page 4 of the textbook, "What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, love, and good deeds."

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