Editorial January 12, 1935 Issue

The Loving-Kindness of God

Duncan Sinclair

On page 332 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation." Father-Mother—what a wonderfully expressive name for God! What light it throws upon His nature! For do not the words "father" and "mother" convey to us thoughts of all that is loving, compassionate, kind? Do not they speak to us of tenderest care, guidance, and watchfulness? It may be that children are sometimes unheedful of the affection lavished upon them by their parents, affection which is accompanied by numerous acts of kindness; yet that affection is freely given them, and not as a duty but as a privilege which no parent worthy of the name would forgo.

It is well to know the exact relationship that exists between God and man, in order to understand the vastness of God's love towards him. Man, as the Bible says, is the image of God—the reflection of God; or, as Christian Science puts it, man is the compound idea of God, expressing all right ideas. When this relationship is recognized, when it is seen that man is never separate from God, who, as the name Father-Mother implies, is Love, it becomes plain that man is infinitely loved, infinitely protected, infinitely blessed. Indeed, the recognition makes it clear that man, with all the lesser right ideas of which he is conscious, is immortal. The fact that God is Father-Mother—Love—ensures the immortality of His spiritual creation.

If there is one thing more than another mankind needs to know it is the truth of the fatherhood and motherhood of God and man's indissoluble relationship to Him. For what do we find? A great ignorance among men of this fundamental truth; and because of this ignorance untold suffering. What the sorrowing need to know; what the sinful and sick need to know; what the lonely, the bereaved—those afflicted in any way—need to know is the truth that their spiritual selfhood is at one with perfect Love, and that they, therefore, are never apart from the loving-kindness of God. That is divine fact. It cannot be reversed or negatived; it cannot be annulled. Material sense may argue, persistently argue, to the contrary, but the facts of Spirit to which spiritual sense testifies, are unchangeable. Knowing the truth and aware of the false beliefs of mortals, our Leader says so tenderly (Science and Health, pp. 365, 366), "The poor suffering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace, patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father's loving-kindness."

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