Article June 16, 1951 Issue

SELF-FORGETFUL LOVE

MARY BARNES

One of the most salient characteristics in the life of Jesus of Nazareth is his self-forgetfulness, together with its inseparable companion, humility. The Christian Scientist is familiar with the Master's utterance, so redolent with self-abnegation, "Not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42). And he can only marvel at the depth of the humility and love which prompted Mary Baker Eddy, the beloved Leader of the Christian Science movement, to write (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 247), "The little that I have accomplished has all been done through love,— self-forgetful, patient, unfaltering tenderness." If we would follow in the footsteps of the Master, as did Mrs. Eddy, we should cultivate this God-quality of tender love, which is self-forgetful and humble, and let it be the governing factor in our lives.

Let us never forget that it is natural for man, the reflection of God, Love, to be loving, just as it is natural for man to manifest health, strength, and other spiritual qualities. Self-centeredness, self-seeking, self-importance, are no part of true selfhood, but belong to the Adam-dream, or counterfeit, which God, Mind, did not create, and of which He knows nothing, being conscious only of His loving and lovable idea, man. Unselfed love is an integral element of man's true being. It is unnatural, yea, utterly impossible, for infinite Love's reflection to be less than loving.

There is no boasting, self-aggrandizement, or self-seeking in unselfed love. It seeks only greater opportunities to serve and to bless, being not at all concerned with material getting, but only with spiritual giving. To impart, to share, to comfort, and to heal—these are the impulses of that love which reflects divine Love and which "seeketh not her own," but finds satisfaction rather in the binding of another's wounds, in the restoration of another's peace.

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