Article March 23, 1935 Issue

The Language of Spirit

EDITH DE ROUGEMONT

Human language is the audible expression of thought. Appreciation or understanding of what is said is determined by two factors, the motive or the quality of thought which impels the language, and the spirit in which it is listened to. If, when speaking with people whose language is not ours, we wish to understand them, as they wish to understand us, we usually manage to come to some degree of understanding.

In Christian Science we learn that love is the true incentive underlying thoughts and words, and it should be the controlling motive in the life of every Christian Scientist. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 454): "Love for God and man is the true incentive in both healing and teaching. Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action."

No Christian Scientist can doubt that it was love for God and humanity which inspired our Leader to write her textbook and her other works. Therefore we may say it is only through the same love for God and man that her writings can be understood. Those who are ready to receive of the divine Love which she expressed are able to understand Science and Health. The spiritual sense of the Scriptures or the "new tongue," as elucidated in our textbook, is incomprehensible to thought which is not in a measure ready to receive it.

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