Article June 14, 1947 Issue

Love Thyself!

MARTHA M. LE LAURIN

"To thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man."

The act of loving oneself is often thought to be a form of conceit. "You love yourself, don't you?" the author once overheard a young girl derisively ask another. What the youthful interrogator found offensive was a type of the self-love referred to by Mary Baker Eddy where she writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 242), "Self-love is more opaque than a solid body." She is, of course, referring to a mortal sense of self— a self bound and limited by the belief that man lives, moves, and has his being in a matter body. Such self-love is a form of idolatry, and he who indulges in it breaks the First Commandment. No wonder that Mrs. Eddy, who prayerfully considered her choice of words, describes self-love as opaque, for to human sense it is impervious to light. The light of Truth is permitted no passage either into or through a consciousness filled with self-love.

Enjoy 1 free Sentinel article or audio program each month, including content from 1898 to today.

Send a comment to the editors
NEXT IN THIS ISSUE
Poem
Domain of the Living God
June 14, 1947
Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit