Article January 26, 1935 Issue

Love as Principle

EDNA H. HOWE

Those who read for the first time certain of Mrs. Eddy's specific statements regarding God are sometimes puzzled by her unequivocal declarations. On page 275 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," for example, she says, "God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle." That God is Love nobody who in the least recognizes the true nature of Deity can question; but the assertion, "Therefore He is divine Principle," not infrequently promotes the question, Why "therefore"?

To the student of Christian Science, Love and Principle cannot be dissociated: they are synonyms for God. Nothing unlike Love is possible to the wholeness of His pure intelligence. That which is in the slightest degree unloving and unlovely implies at least a shadow of imperfection, consequently a lack of Principle. Considered scientifically, Principle signifies perfect integrity, all-inclusive perfection. God being divine Principle, there can be no shadow of imperfection in His being. God, divine Principle, being perfect, must be wholly, absolutely, Love; just as God, the all-loving, must be wholly, absolutely, Principle, without defection of any sort. Such an analysis of these terms shows our Leader's statement to be sound logic.

"God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle." Then man, the idea of divine Principle, must manifest Love. Without love, which is a necessary quality of being, man could not live. Our Leader has written (Poems, p. 7):

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