Article December 31, 1949 Issue

"STILL REMAINING LOVE"

SYLVIA PRALL RHODEY

In the fourth chapter of I John it is written: "Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." Christian Science reveals seven synonymous terms which express God's nature, and Love is one of them. God, Love, is expressed in human consciousness as loving-kindness, tenderness, compassion, and forgiveness. In I John we further read, "We love him, because he first loved us;" and in loving His children God has bestowed His nature upon them. Therefore, man, the divine idea, is loving, gentle, and selfless, for he is the expression of Love, God. The apostle continues: "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also."

Even when she was persecuted, Mary Baker Eddy demonstrated the great spiritual fact that man, the reflection of God, Love, expresses only love. To remain loving under seeming persecution is to learn something of the Master's experience in the garden of Gethsemane. In the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," Mrs. Eddy gives the spiritual meaning of "Gethsemane" (p. 586): "Patient woe; the human yielding to the divine; love meeting no response, but still remaining love." Jesus had his hour of woe at Gethsemane before he faced his most difficult problem, crucifixion, and gave to the world the proof of life eternal in his resurrection.

In this Gethsemane, this hour in which the human yielded to the divine, the Master surrendered all human yearning as he turned completely away from his disciples to God for comfort and support. The disciples were so mesmerized by the forces of evil that they escaped into a state of sleep. They did not awake fully when he endeavored to arouse them; but he who had risen to the full demonstration of Love could say to them (Matt. 26:45), "Sleep on now, and take your rest." He had turned from human love to the divine. This experience of the master Christian must have been a great comfort to our revered Leader in her hours of trial, during which she did not hate or fear, but loved more.

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