Editorial February 7, 1948 Issue

LOVE—"WHAT A WORD!"

John Randall Dunn

In a Greek dictionary of the New Testament the word translated "charity," appearing in the thirteenth chapter of I Corinthians, is also defined as love; and thus has the Christian world come to interpret the term which the translators of the King James Version have used in this beautiful epistle. Love, indeed, is characterized by kindness, by the lack of envy and self-assertion; it "doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil" (I Cor. 13:5). Verily, as Paul triumphantly concluded, it never fails, and of the three Christian graces—faith, hope, love—it is the greatest. But how may it be defined?

Our spiritually-minded Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in her "Miscellaneous Writings" (pp. 249, 250) thus appraises love: "What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love." No student of Christian Science should fail to read the whole article from which we have quoted. Every line bears the imprint of inspiration. And how this God-directed woman defined in her living and teaching the Love which is God! Possibly not since the days of the Master has a disciple been more maligned and misunderstood than she; but behold her Christlike compassion, her freedom from vindictiveness, her ever-active readiness to forgive and forget and to bless those who persecuted her!

In another remarkable article in "Miscellaneous Writings," entitled "Love Your Enemies," which also should not be missed by the earnest student of Science, our Leader lifts the curtain of her thought and gives a glimpse of her marvelous spiritual-mindedness in these words (pp. 11, 12): "I would enjoy taking by the hand all who love me not, and saying to them, 'I love you, and would not knowingly harm you.'" Then she continues: "Because I thus feel, I say to others: Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads its virus and kills at last."