Editorial January 7, 1956 ISSUE

A CHANGE OF HEART

Harold Molter

One of the rules for successful living gleaned by men throughout the ages is given in the Bible in the book of Proverbs. It reads (4:23 ), "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." In this passage the word "heart" is figuratively used to signify one's innermost thoughts and feelings. In other words, one's health, peace, and success are dependent upon the innermost thoughts and feelings which he daily entertains of himself and his environment.

Jesus referred to the heart in the same way when he gave as the greatest commandment of all (Mark 12:30 ), "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength." But he did not stop there. He said plainly that the second commandment calls upon us to express our heartfelt love for God in unselfed love for our neighbor. And the Apostle Paul said (I Tim. 1:5 ), "Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned."

In Christian Science we learn that a high and holy name for God is divine Love. This pure Love is enduring and all-encompassing Life. Love holds in its tender care and embrace every object in creation. It sees and knows all as perfect, spiritual, sinless. It pours forth the riches of its inexhaustible being on all alike. Love is the one perfect, undecaying substance, or Spirit. It is the one unchanging, law-giving, law-enforcing, and law-abiding power, or divine Principle. Love permeates all creation with its unending beauty and goodness.

To understand divine Love and to enjoy the blessings of its tender provision, we must learn to express the qualities of its being. We must experience a change of heart. In an answer to the question, "Do you believe in change of heart?" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 50 ) Mary Baker Eddy writes, "We do believe, and understand—which is more— that there must be a change from human affections, desires, and aims, to the divine standard, 'Be ye therefore perfect;' " and Mrs. Eddy continues, "also, that there must be a change from the belief that the heart is matter and sustains life, to the understanding that God is our Life, that we exist in Mind, live thereby, and have being."

Our Leader then tells us that such a change of heart would free mankind from heart disease and would mean great progress for Christianity. How refreshing and inspiring are these assuring words in view of the countless fears and miseries suffered by mankind in the belief that existence depends upon the regular and continual beating of a material heart!

In Christian Science man is seen to be an idea of Spirit. Man's true body, or spiritual identity, is the expression or embodiment of divine Love—the only true substance. In Science, man's heart is not a physical organ, for man is wholly spiritual, eternal, and is ever manifesting the perfect harmony and action of Love.

Man's health, therefore, expresses the freshness, harmony, and activity of divine Love. In Science, his being can never be disordered or diseased. It is constantly expressing the rhythm, the purity, the uninterrupted usefulness which it derives from Love. Man possesses unlimited strength, health, endurance, and power. He is eternally governed by the unalterable law of divine Principle, which is unchanging Love.

This true concept of man as embodying and expressing the pure and eternal qualities of divine Love, persistently and sincerely entertained by the individual, will change his whole life. It will spiritualize his innermost thoughts and lift him mentally and morally to greater love for God and for his fellow men. It will strengthen him physically. It will heal him of the fear and sufferings of heart disease and of all other human discords.

The individual laboring under the pressure of the belief that the success of his home or business depends on his own physical or mental effort finds himself limited in all directions. Human consciousness has no power within itself to do anything. But through yielding to the ever-present power of the Christ, the individual is supplied with the unlimited strength and ability of divine Love, whereby the earth weights of fear, disease, all discord, are destroyed, through this change of consciousness, false concepts give place to the true; human bodies are healed, and human conditions move in accord with the law of God. By such transformation of thought, we are enabled to see God as He is, to see man as His likeness, and to find that Love is Life, eternal and indestructible. Speaking of a good man, the Psalmist says (Ps. 112:7 ), "He shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord."

Harold Molter

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