Article January 7, 1961 ISSUE

Man, the Object of Divine Love

FLORENCE IRENE GUBBINS

"Man's relationship to God is the keynote of happiness"

Once when a student of Christian Science was asked to give a treatment, she was feeling overwhelmed with a sense of resentment. The need to cleanse her consciousness of this false sense was so great that she did her best to overcome it, but at first apparently with no success. Then these words came to her from the textbook of Christian Science, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy (p. 304 ): "This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object."

At that moment, while the student seemed to herself to be full of the unloveliness of resentment, in God's sight she was actually loving. Instantly the feeling of resentment left her to be replaced by a sense of peace and harmony, and she felt able to give a good Christian Science treatment.

As the object of divine Love, man is loved. As the manifestation of divine Love, man loves. Man's expression of divine Love remains with him eternally. It is good to remember that God's love, being infinite, does not have to be spread thinly over His creation as though there were not enough of it to go round. To God, each one is dear, for each is His beloved son.

God, or Love, is expressed in the infinitesimal as well as in the infinite. No idea is so small that it can be beyond Love's care. In the words of the Master, Christ Jesus (Luke 12:6 ), "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?" That "divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object," reveals man's indispensability to God. Man is indispensable to God as a witness to His own existence or being. Man is valuable or essential as Love's reflection.

Love sustains the substance and continuity of all creation; hence no deprivation can possibly enter the universe of Love. We can rest in the thought of Love's unfolding its ideas throughout eternity, and this unfoldment constitutes man and the universe. Even as the sun is pouring forth light and heat impartially, universally, so likewise the radiation of Love will not fail to melt the ice of indifference and self-absorption.

On page 31 of "Retrospection and Introspection," Mrs. Eddy writes, "The loss of material objects of affection sunders the dominant ties of earth and points to heaven." Ideas of Soul must replace objects of sense in our thinking. Any tie of earth that would deflect our thought from a universal sense of Love is a hindrance to our spiritual progress. Any sense of love that would apparently shut anyone out is not the expression of Love. Love is able to penetrate behind the mask of mortal personality and discern the spiritual idea, which is always lovely and lovable. The Master was able to express Love in this way, and even at the moment of his betrayal he said to Judas, "Friend, wherefore art thou come?" (Matt. 26:50. )

The only real relationship is that which exists between Principle and its idea. Man's relationship to God is the keynote of happiness, and this fact realized will evidence itself in the harmonizing of human relationships. Fleshly relationships tend to be binding and restrictive; whereas the maintaining of our unbroken relationship with God brings freedom and harmony. Actually God is All-in-all to each one of us. God, divine Mind, is our Father, our Mother, our teacher, counselor, healer, and friend.

In the degree of the universality of our love is healing assured. We should not grudge any experience that teaches us how to love; that lifts us above disappointments and failures, cleansing us from personal aims and ambitions, actually making us more concerned with loving than with being loved. In the words of a poem in the Christian Science Sentinel:

Love never envies—nay, for Love has all;
And though it gives all, still has all to give.

Love never fails: it is th' untiring Mind
That vigil keeps above a sleeping world
And waits for it to wake—and still is Love;
And when it wakes, is Love forevermore.

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