Article October 14, 1944 Issue

"The heart of divinity"

DOROTHY EILEEN HEYWOOD-DOVE

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and author of its great textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," makes a number of references in her prose writings, as in her poems, to the word "heart." We find it as the symbol of spiritual essence. Mrs. Eddy also uses this word in its more generally accepted signification as a type of human sensibility.

On pages 258 and 259 of Science and Health, under the marginal heading "God's man discerned," adopting here its profoundly spiritual meaning, our Leader says, "Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in Science the generic term man," adding in further elucidation of this fundamental statement, "Man is not absorbed in Deity, and man cannot lose his individuality, for he reflects eternal Life; nor is he an isolated, solitary idea, for he represents infinite Mind, the sum of all substance."

If we turn to the dictionary for definitions of the word "heart," we shall find many. The derivatives and component words cover many phases of thought, and certainly many degrees of emotional experience, both negative and positive. From this medley, two stand out with clear-cut significance as applicable to the passage quoted. They are "the central part" and "the vital part." It is interesting to note that Mrs. Eddy uses the latter definition on page 113 of Science and Health as follows: "The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love." She thus links these two terms, heart and soul, indivisibly in the practice of the great truths she reveals.

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