About Loving Our Neighbor

[Written Especially for Children]

DOROTHY DESMOND

JESUS once said to his friends: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, . . . do good to them that hate you."

Now Jesus was a very practical, as well as loving teacher of Christianity. He never gave any rules which could not be lived up to, or which, if followed, would make one unhappy. Whatever he taught was sure to bring with it health, happiness, and success—if followed! We have so much proof of this that no one dreams of arguing about it. So if Jesus told his friends to love their enemies, he must have known that by doing this they would wake up to the beautiful fact that they had no enemies after all.

This was proved in one instance to John, a boy of ten years, who had been brought up from birth according to the teachings of Christian Science. He knew something of this rule, and usually loved to obey it. But one day he decided to do what some other boys in his room at school were doing, and instead of following the Christ-example, he tried to think what they thought. Among other things, they had decided to hate their school teacher. So John copied this, too. Presently he brought home many tales about his teacher—how cross she was, or unkind, or unjust; and how he wished he could go into another room at school!

It was pointed out to him that he had an opportunity right where he was to be intelligent and unselfish by refusing to believe these wrong suggestions about his teacher, and to be himself, his right and only self, following the Christ-example. For the moment, however, John turned a deaf ear to these remarks. He thought he would rather be like the boys who had decided to dislike their teacher. He seemed to feel they were being clever by doing so.

There came an evening, presently, when he was to have a treat with his parents. They were going to do something special, and all had been looking forward to it. At four o'clock in the afternoon it appeared that John was not going to feel well enough to have his treat. So his mother said to him, "Now, John, don't you think it is time to correct your thinking about your teacher?"

Nothing more was said; but John went off by himself and curled up in a big chair and thought. He thought and thought, and the more he thought the plainer it became to him that it had been rather stupid to copy the other boys' wrong thinking when he knew how to think rightly. So he began right then to free himself from weeks of bondage to error by knowing the truth. An hour went by and another; and when at dusk his mother went to turn on the lights, she found John sound asleep in his chair. He woke up when the lights came on, and both he and his mother smiled knowingly, for the sickness had quite vanished, and so had his wrong thoughts about his teacher.

Next evening, when John came home from school, he said: "I've had the best day at school I've had all year! You know, the teacher seemed like somebody I'd never known before—as nice as could be."

"What do you think had changed?" he was asked.

"The way I was thinking," John answered promptly and happily.

So John and his parents read together what Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, had said about this in a fine article called "Love your Enemies" in "Miscellaneous Writings." One line pleased John especially; it was (p. 9), " 'Love thine enemies' is identical with 'Thou hast no enemies.'" John thought it out this way: "You only have to love what you are knowing; and you can make that so good, it's not hard. Then what you are knowing is what will sit down in front of you. I found that out!"

So it was seen that it was not really worth while to "run with the pack," as the saying is, for the sake of being popular; but it is far more pleasant all around to stick to the best one knows, and thus help not only oneself, but everyone else as well. That was certainly the example Jesus gave, as did our beloved Leader.

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