With what penetrating light Christian Science pierces the veil of ignorance and mystery that so often surrounds the words and works of that greatest exponent of divine Love—Christ Jesus! Tenderly we are shown how indispensable to the practical solution of every human problem is the correct, scientific understanding of all he taught and wrought.

Thus, in these days of apparent restless insecurity, we are led to realize how essential for the betterment of all human relationships and progress is each individual's acceptance of that wondrous, yet so often misunderstood declaration, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends."

Not death, but a fuller, freer, nobler expression of Life is undoubtedly what the Master here calls us to embrace. The beginning, not the end, of high endeavor lies before us as we follow in his footsteps of unselfed love and service to our fellow man. For, through the clear teachings of Christian Science, we are enabled to lay down, or cast away as unreal, the false belief that life, substance, or intelligence is resident in matter, and to replace it with the spiritual understanding that Life is God, inexhaustible and permanent.

Neither difficult nor toilsome should be this task of laying down the belief in a mortal selfhood separate from God, separate from Love, for it will bring glorious freedom from the ills of the flesh, and continuous unfolding to thought and experience of man's sinless, ageless, fearless being, ever one with his creator, divine Love. What greater love could we offer our brother man than that which sees and recognizes him as, in reality, the son of God, forever manifesting health, an abundance of true activity, and peace that is unassailable?

Is not this love, than which there is none greater, constantly tested as we go about our day's work in the world today? Everywhere erroneous suggestion cries: "Look at this sick man, this lame, deaf, dumb, unhappy, or unemployed man. Pity him for his misfortune." But Christian Science bids us express that greater love which casts away the thought that one can experience evil, that he is subject to disease, decrepitude, or lack, and affirm rejoicingly and with absolute confidence that man is the image and likeness of God, spiritual and perfect, upright and free, now and always supplied with every good gift from his Father-Mother, God. Such an acknowledgment of man's divine origin and present perfection as the son of God will, without fail, result in unbounded blessings to all who receive and understand such a scientific fact.

Did not our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, state that Jesus acknowledged this glorious man of God's creating, whatever the evidence before the physical senses might be? In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," she writes (pp. 476, 477): "Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick."

Undoubtedly it was his great love for God and man which made possible the Master's consistent reversal of the material fables and the establishment in their place of the scientific facts of health, purity, and limitless good. For him the belief in matter as having any power or reality was indeed annulled, while the spiritual understanding of God as the only Life, cause, and creator was exalted in his consciousness. And how spontaneously those who came to him responded to the love he knew and expressed! Human problems held no terror for him who in every instance has shown us the way out of them.

How utterly different is this revelation of impartial, universal Love—as set forth and demonstrated by Jesus, and again today by Christian Science—from that false sense of love which material sense would force upon us! Wholly devoid of personal possession, attraction, or attachment, or the idolization of matter, it reveals the perfection of man and the natural, normal harmony of his being. Sometimes, however, the struggle to lay down or rise above the belief that matter holds life and intelligence, pain or pleasure, happiness or sorrow—so falsely imposed upon mankind—may seem to be severe. Material desires may urge us to hold to and act upon the suggestion that life is in matter, to be enjoyed as long as possible. Also the fear of becoming poverty-stricken at some future period may tempt us to hoard material riches while they seem to be at hand. Christian Science, however, bids us gain a clearer vision of God's allness, and of the fact that for all eternity there can only be abundance of good for one and all—the good which cannot fluctuate or diminish, for it is entirely spiritual.

As we turn from the contemplation of material pleasures and pains, we begin to gain a truer sense of love and learn a new lesson in friendship and relationship. Did not our Master say, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you"? And then we turn to that command, the observance of which is so imperative, "That ye love one another, as I have loved you."

One day the writer had the joy of learning an added lesson from this commandment. She awoke feeling incapable of rising, pain and fever seeming rampant. But, remembering the many duties that awaited her, and those who were depending on her for a clear realization of God's allness, she arose. Almost immediately came the words, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." During the next hour or two she consistently resisted the false belief that she or anyone else could possibly be subject to any material law, since only the law of God existed. With a greater sense of love she set herself the joyous task of beholding man as God made him, the uninterrupted expression of divine Life and Love. Great peace and joy followed, and she knew that the healing had taken place, as indeed it had. She had further proved the truth of Mrs. Eddy's words (Science and Health, p. 264), "Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love."

What rewards, what victories over fear and limitation, are ours as we learn to love one another as God loves us! Under this regime of spiritual living and loving we begin to see that we really have no enemies; that there are no foes to progress and joy. For the thoughts of a mortal selfhood—self-pity, pride, or self-will, perhaps long cherished—are now being discarded as unworthy, unreal. Thus the companionship of righteous thought and action dissolves all loneliness, doubt, or darkness, and through a truer, nobler understanding of Love we ascend in the scale of usefulness, prosperity, and freedom.

In the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 179) we read:

Copyright, 1940, by The Christian Science Publishing Society, One, Norway Street, Boston, Massachusetts. Entered at Boston post office as second-class matter. Acceptance for mailing at a special rate of postage provided for in section 1103, Act of October 3, 1917, authorized on July 11, 1918.