Article April 23, 1938 Issue

"Unselfed love"

HAROLD C. LEWIS

Mary Baker Eddy makes this statement in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 192): "Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power." An illustration of this was afforded in a testimony in a Christian Science church given by a man who had been healed of a tenacious error. He had been battling with this aliment all winter, but in spite of his best efforts to heal himself, as we are taught in Christian Science, he was no better. One Sunday morning he was sitting in church waiting for the service to commence when he saw an elderly man entering the auditorium. This gentleman presented such a pitiful appearance, being apparently quite feeble, that the Scientist was filled with compassion for him and thought: "If I could only do some little thing for that man! I wish the usher would seat him next to me, so that I might share my Hymnal with him." The elderly man was placed next to him, and, as he offered him the Hymnal, the Scientist was healed through his desire to be of loving service. God is divine Love, and since unselfed love is related to divine Love, it has great healing power.

Every student of Christian Science desires to manifest unselfed love, but the mortal self argues its claims so persistently that this does not always seem easy of attainment. Our love is truly unselfed only as we put the mortal sense of self out of thought. To do this requires a knowledge of real selfhood as revealed in divine Science.

The real man is the reflection of God; hence he manifests the radiant reality of Love. The real man does not need to be changed in order to express love. Human consciousness, however, must be regenerated. One must put off belief in the old man, who is limited and material, and put on the new man, the spiritual idea of God. The practice of denying the false sense of self daily, rebuking and casting out the self-indulgent desires and tendencies of mortal mind, spiritualizes the human consciousness so that divine Love shines through with its healing power. Then we learn the meaning of Jesus' words, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, ... and follow me." The self that we are tempted to cherish is the false sense of self, which we are required to deny in Christian Science. Denying self and demonstrating Godlikeness is the way of purification that leads to the heaven of unselfed love.

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