Editorial January 14, 1956 Issue

PURITY AND LOVE

Helen Wood Bauman

According to John's Gospel, Christ Jesus gathered his disciples about him after the last supper and gave them priceless spiritual instructions. His example of washing their feet illustrated the ministry of Christianity, the purpose of which is to purify the world of materiality. The Master was about to leave his disciples, to enter a state of being where they were unprepared to go. But he gave them the rule of progress by which they could follow him later. He said (John 13:34), "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another."

Jesus' standard of love was undoubtedly new to his followers. His years among men were filled with deeds which evidenced a power that proved God to be Love and man to be Love's obedient likeness. The Way-shower lived the precept he stated (John 15:13): "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Here we find Jesus' profound explanation of the love which heals.

Christian Science declares that the life which is to be laid down is the mortal sense of existence. Mankind must stop believing in the reality of the corporeal senses, which present man as a frail, fleshly creature, subject to sin, suffering, despair, and dissolution. They must purify themselves of the influence of these false senses and let spiritual sense quicken them to behold man as God creates him, as incorporeal and immortal. Then the meaning of Christly love will be clear to them. They will realize that love, the love which heals, is the purity which sees perfection.

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