Article February 1, 1947 Issue

Tender Persuasion, Love's Way

LINDEN E. JONES

In a fish hatchery a group of visitors watched the caretaker as he wiggled his finger in the water. At this signal some of the fish in the large pond came and ate out of his palm. By dint of patient and persistent persuasion on the keeper's part they had learned to trust the hand that fed them. One observer of this incident later became a fisher of men. In his work of winning mankind to a trust in God's tender care he found that the patience and gentleness he had seen exemplified at the pond were needed.

Humanity has grown wary of human hands stretched out to feed them, because sometimes ulterior motives prompt the giving. Only divine Love, as revealed in Christian Science, can remove such false fears, heal the broken heart, and feed thought with the bread of Life. It is this perfect Love, whose only purpose is to bless, that men should learn to understand and obey as God. And in this Science God can be understood and so obeyed.

Mrs. Eddy, keenly aware of mankind's hunger for love, once counseled a First Reader (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 247): "The little fishes in my fountain must have felt me when I stood silently beside it, for they came out in orderly line to the rim where I stood. Then I fed these sweet little thoughts that, not fearing me, sought their food of me. God has called you to be fisher of men. It is not a stern but a loving look which brings forth mankind to receive your bestowal,—not so much eloquence as tender persuasion that takes away their fear, for it is Love alone that feeds them."

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