"We cannot afford to have enemies." This declaration was made during the testimony period at a Wednesday evening meeting held in a Church of Christ, Scientist. The speaker then related the following experience: He and his wife had purchased a house which satisfactorily met the needs of their family. But after they were established in their new home, they were informed that the former owners had been unable to maintain harmonious relations with a next-door neighbor who was a very disagreeable individual and a chronic faultfinder.

At first they were dismayed. But being students of Christian Science, they recognized that here was another problem to be worked out in accordance with the spiritual truths they had learned. They reasoned that it was God's goodness which had provided their much-needed home, and that His goodness blesses all, because Mind, intelligence, governs every activity of man. Because they knew that God is Love and that man is created in His, Love's, own image, they refused to accept the physical sense testimony of a disagreeable person. Instead, they took the position that in the universe of Spirit the only man is the man whom God knows, and that he is always subject to God-ordained harmony. They held firmly to the fact that there are no enemies in the presence of good.

Whenever the unlovely picture seemed to be manifest, the students expressed more love, knowing that Love has dominion. It was with great joy that they gradually perceived more friendliness on the part of their neighbor, and within a short time the two families became good friends.

Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, in an illuminating article, "Love Your Enemies," asks (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 8), "Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate this enemy and then look upon the object of your own conception?" She then states, "Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles, defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should reflect."

Certainly thoughts of resentment, hatred, envy, selfishness, revenge, retaliation, and ruthlessness do defile, deface, and dethrone the Christ-image. The remedy is love, universal love, the love which Paul describes in these words (Rom. 13: 10): "Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."

The human concept of love is limited, often bringing unhappiness and pain, because it is based on the belief that man is a mortal, capable of injuring or being injured. This concept of man is erroneous, because in reality there is only the man of God's creating, the man who is spiritual, loving, good, pure, and sinless.

To truly love our neighbor we must see man as the image and likeness of God and acknowledge that the only real selfhood of anyone is that which reflects Him. If someone has been unloving or unkind, we must perceive and understand that no such attitude belongs to man, God's representative. Rather is it a false material picture claiming to be man. We demonstrate true forgiveness by refusing to accept this counterfeit picture of man and by steadfastly holding to the true concept, the perfect likeness of divine Love. As we understand that all ideas are enfolded in the harmony of divine Love, we demonstrate true brotherhood.

Even though we cherish no enmity toward anyone, we cannot gain this understanding if we believe we have enemies. Our Leader makes a helpful statement in this regard when she says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 10), "Even in belief you have but one (that, not in reality), and this one enemy is Yourself—your erroneous belief that you have enemies; that evil is real; that aught but good exists in Science."

To illustrate: A friend of mine once showed a tendency to express hatred toward any individual who appeared to cross him. No matter how trivial the incident, the individual was immediately an object to vent his displeasure upon. Once when someone protested against his speaking in such a manner, he declared, "If I can't talk, I can still think what I like." And so his mental atmosphere was characterized by this unlovely quality, and he was most unhappy.

One day while in this frame of mind, he picked up the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and began to read. As he read, the truths within the pages roused him to see that the trouble was not in those whom he held in enmity, but within his own consciousness. He began to realize that he had to love more. He began to glimpse, though faintly, the true idea of man as the loving and lovable son of God. His mental house cleaning began when he discovered that he could not afford to possess this enemy called hatred. And as he learned to love, he became happy and satisfied.

Each one of us proves his love for God by his love for man. Then is John's message fulfilled (I John 4:11, 12): "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us."