Article December 27, 1952 Issue

LOVE KNOWS NO OFFENSE

LUCILE O. THROCKMORTON

In her book "Miscellaneous Writings" Mary Baker Eddy has included a brief article entitled "Taking Offense," which could well be considered a very important study for all mankind. It is a digest of harmony, happiness, and frictionless living, so needed in human relationships today. Perhaps the key to the article is contained in these words (pp. 223, 224): "The mental arrow shot from another's bow is practically harmless, unless our own thought barbs it." This, then, places the responsibility for taking offense with each individual.

Does it sometimes seem that we are the target for mortal mind's arrows of jealousy, sarcasm, insult, and gossip? Are we ever subjected to the smiling countenance which hides deceit, the flattery which cloaks hypocrisy, and the spurious friendship which is using us for its own selfish purpose? Let us refuse to be wounded by the offenses of others.

The antidote for personal sense is always divine Love. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, admonishes us to remember that there are countless human opinions, wills, and cultures in the world reacting against each other, and then she speaks of the spiritual qualities which furnish an impregnable armor against them: humility, patience, an appreciation of good, geniality, equanimity, calmness, love, and sweetness. These are all God-derived qualities, and we may consciously perpetuate them in proof of the fact that man is inseparable from God, from Love, Spirit, Soul, Mind.

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