Elisabeth Carroll Scott, C.S.B., of Memphis, Tennessee
Member of the Board of Lectureship of The
Mother Church,
The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts
The healing of distrust and suspicion among men and nations demands the urgent and prayerful attention of all Christians today, Elisabeth Carroll Scott, C.S.B., of Memphis, Tenn., said in a Christian Science lecture in The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts, yesterday.
Mrs. Scott, who is on an extensive tour as a member of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship, spoke under the auspices of The Mother Church.
Her subject was "Christian Science: The Revelation of God's Sustaining Love."
"It is the work of every Christian today to maintain the one Mind so clearly and positively that misunderstandings among men and nations will disappear," she declared.
The lecturer was introduced by Theodore Wallach, C.S., First Reader of The Mother Church, who said in part:
"From ancient days people have sought for sustenance, guidance, and protection above and beyond their frail human means. Today, the meeting of these human needs has taken on a sense of urgency so that people are now seeking, as seldom before, exactly that which Christian Science has to offer.
"The recognition and understanding of divine Love solves not only the countless personal problems which arise in daily living, but also those larger disturbances which today appear to threaten the welfare of all mankind."
Mrs. Scott spoke substantially as follows:
In a world that has lost its bearings and finds itself perplexed and drifting, Christian Science, given to the world by its Discoverer, Founder, and Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, offers a well-charted course, a course which leads to a secure haven. Amid the fluctuations of mortal existence, it offers a stable security — a security that will not change.
The material world, as we all know, is now in a state of flux. In the past few years it has undergone much turmoil. Nations have disappeared, governments have changed, even the physical surface of the earth itself is said to be endangered by the discoveries of modern chemistry. Thus human beings are coming to recognize that they will have to have something to sustain them through these material disturbances, something that will enable them to say with the Psalmist (Ps. 46:2), "Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea."
We never feel secure so long as we believe that what we value may be taken away, or that we may be robbed of freedom or righteous activity; yet, seeing the conditions of human life shift and change, we ask ourselves, Where may stability be found?
We are beginning to see that security is found only in that which is spiritual. A life that is in any way tolerable for most of us means more than material food, clothing, and shelter. It requires more even than human companionship or human love to give abiding satisfaction.
The Scriptures teach that man is created in the image and likeness of God, and Christian Science concurs in this teaching and never departs from it. While it differentiates clearly between sinning mortal man, an illusion of the carnal mind, and the God-created man, it never admits for a moment that man, the real man, is less than the son of God. The redemptive work of Christian Science is to restore to each one of us who will accept it his birthright as a son of God, and to give us a sense of security founded upon God's sustaining love.
We all long for a dependable support. We long for support wise enough and powerful enough and compassionate enough to supply our every need. In God alone can support and comfort and security be found — in God, as revealed in Christian Science, the changeless, the eternal, the beneficent. In the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," its author, Mary Baker Eddy, gives us certain synonyms for God. In her book "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" she says (p. 225), "In their [Christian Scientists'] textbook it is clearly stated that God is divine Principle and that His synonyms are Love, Truth, Life, Spirit, Mind, Soul, which combine as one."
To realize the presence and availability of the infinite One and to experience His support, we must attain an accurate knowledge of Him, and Christian Science presents this knowledge simply and practically. It brings to us a knowledge of God applicable to our daily living, which helps to solve our problems, resolves life's so-called struggles, eases the burden, and lightens the load.
That the burden may be lifted, we seek a love that will never fail. We can find such a love in the understanding of Deity. John tells us, "God is love" (I John 4:16). The paramount need for each one of us is to understand this infinitely tender God, whose ever-presence is our comfort, our solace, and our stay. Long before Jesus' time the Scriptures presented to the hungering heart a God who cared for His creation. Isaiah says (Isa. 66:13), "As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you." And in Deuteronomy (33:27) we read, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms."
Jesus' mission bore witness to God as Love. He typified this love by a shepherd who left his whole flock to seek and bring back one sheep which had gone astray, who tenderly carried a lamb in his bosom. Jesus spoke of this God as "our Father." He revealed the creator and substance of the universe as Love, so compassionate, tender, and all-inclusive that, when contemplating it, thought instinctively turns to the word "mother." In revealing divine Love as the divine Principle of the universe, Christian Science shows that God must include both fatherhood and motherhood.
Science and Health says (p. 332), "Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation." When we consider God as the eternal Father-Mother, the Scriptures become illumined; the Love that Jesus taught and demonstrated becomes clearer. The more we understand God as Father-Mother, the creator of the spiritual universe and its eternal source, the more readily and confidently we turn to Him as present, dependable Love, beyond which and outside of which nothing exists. Then, as we recognize this Love as unalterable, infinitely wise, eternally with us, we experience the promise, "I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee" (Josh. 1:5).
As we begin to understand the teaching of Christian Science that God is Father-Mother, the misconceptions of the carnal mind begin to disappear, and fear is lessened; for all our fears stem from the belief that we will not be taken care of, that our needs, physical, emotional, or financial, will not be supplied. The very term Father-Mother assuages these fears, for the term Father-Mother implies love and care. It implies ever-present help and tender ministration. Just as the word "creator" implies a creation and would be meaningless without it, so the term "Father-Mother," applied to the creator, tells us the character and nature of the eternal God. It shows us that He must of necessity have offspring, else He would not be Father, and since this Father is Mother also — is all that the words "divine Love" include — we realize that His child will not be neglected, nor will it become weak and helpless.
Through Christian Science we find we have power to solve our problems, and in the process of solving our own we find that the problems of all men are ours.
As we become acquainted with the spiritual fact of man's relationship to God, who is his Father-Mother, we cannot but feel ourselves to be a part of a great divine brotherhood, at one in interest, thought, and experience with all the children of God. All the ills we human beings experience come from the lack of understanding of our unity with God and, consequently, with one another, for we can have a brotherhood of man solely because God is Father-Mother. On no other basis is the brotherhood of man possible. The concept of God as Father-Mother unites us as children of one common parentage whose interests, though individual, are identical; and we find that the well-being of one cannot be divorced from that of all.
Mrs. Eddy says in her book "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 82): "Man is the offspring and idea of the Supreme Being, whose law is perfect and infinite. In obedience to this law, man is forever unfolding the endless beatitudes of Being; for he is the image and likeness of infinite Life, Truth, and Love." In obedience to the law of his nature, the real man — and this means the spiritual man you actually are — is forever unfolding and manifesting all the qualities of divine Love, such as joy, dominion, harmony, beneficence, and good will. As the offspring of omnipotence, he knows that power is his by reflection. Christian Science shows us right here in our human experience how to exercise this God-bestowed power, which is actually the power of Love.
The love we express protects us. Science and Health says (p. 571): "Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity." In the measure that we see love as the nature of our true being, we find it easier to forgive and forget — to obliterate from consciousness wrongs that may have been done to us; we find it natural to say the friendly thing, the thing that comforts and heals; and as we comfort others we find that they have been comforted "by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God" (II Cor. 1:4).
Inasmuch as we recognize love as inherent in our divine sonship, there will no longer be fear of one another. Men will learn to trust each other and to afford to one another reassurance and support. In the measure that we apprehend and express the mother-love of God, in that measure we are enabled to bind up the brokenhearted and heal the sick and sinning.
As the nature and endowment of the God-created man become clearer to us, we see that it is not necessary for human beings to mill about in a state of turmoil and insecurity. Yet, until they understand their true relationship with God, they will continue to do so.
Many people find it hard to live today. They are greatly troubled about human relations, about business, even about the future of the human race itself. To these Christian Science comes with its message of the Christ, which shows them how to solve their problems with Truth and Love, for Christian Science is not a mere theory; it is the master rule of action; it helps men here and now in the sense of human existence wherein it finds them.
If men actually understood their relationship to God, they would require no help; they would never know lack of any kind, for the only poverty is ignorance of God and of our birthright as the son of God. If, apparently, you lack anything, Christian Science shows you how to claim the affluence of God's all-embracing love. We are taught in Christian
Science to be grateful for the abundance divinely provided for us, the riches of God's love which Jesus proclaimed through the words of the father in the parable when he said, "Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine" (Luke 15:31). We pray that our eyes may be opened to discern Love's provision for us.
Mrs. Eddy says in one of her poems, "Love alone is Life" (Poems, p. 7); and Jesus said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself" (Luke 10:27). Love demonstrated will supply all your needs; if you express love universally and impartially, you will lack nothing in your life. The realization of Love's omnipresence enables us to open our hearts to all. It reveals to us that the key to happiness is really learning to love. Jesus told us how to get along with each other; he gave us two basic principles — love God and love man. He said, "This do, and thou shalt live" (Luke 10:28).
If we want to learn this secret of living happily, we must stop rebelling against the circumstances in which we find ourselves. Most of us are alert enough to know that we must not hate anyone, that we must heal ourselves of resentment and ill will towards others, but we are not always equally alert to realize that we cannot hate anything.
It is the nature of the carnal mind to hate — to hate the work that needs to be done, the conditions under which the work is done, and the people involved. It argues to us that we ourselves are not worth loving. It tries to induce us to waste our time resenting things about ourselves, our appearance, whether we are too tall or too short, too fat or too thin, the limitations of our environment, and our lack of opportunity or capacity; in other words, to mesmerize us into a state of rebellion, of hating everything, from the weather down — or up, whichever way you want to look at it. Is it surprising that we, entertaining such erroneous thoughts, fail to reap the fruits of Love? "By the truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain," Science and Health says (p. 418), "you will heal the sick." Employ the truthful arguments, entertain the spirit of Love, and you will be a better healer of your own and other people's ills.
There is satisfaction in expressing real love. It is warm and comforting. Its expression precludes loneliness. "I want to be loved, understood, and cherished," is the cry of the hungry human heart, but it is not the need of that heart. Our need is not to have love expressed to us; it is to express love ourselves. We fulfill our destiny by doing so. It is not enough to express only the human qualities associated with love — kindness, affection, and good will. We must go further. As children of God, who is Love, we should reflect that impartial and changeless love based upon eternal Principle, a love so vital that it can be seen as the expression of Life itself. To reflect such love brings warmth and vitality into our lives. It banishes boredom, pettiness, and frustration. It makes us active. It enables us to extend our love to everyone everywhere. It brings into living action the power of God, who is divine Love.
Throughout Jesus' earthly experience he bore unfailing witness to the truth that God is Love. The Bible promises another witness. It is apparent that in the discovery of Christian Science and its revelation to the world by Mary Baker Eddy, this prophecy has been fulfilled. It is apparent because of the healing of countless thousands, because of the exact rules given in the Christian Science textbook, whereby all may avail themselves of the power to heal because of the light which illumines the nature of God and restores to man his birthright as the son of God. Incontestably, the complete revelation of Truth has appeared. It was love alone which prompted Mrs. Eddy to give her revelation to the world and to establish the Christian Science organization. It was her clear sense of divine Love which impelled her to share it.
Mrs. Eddy had had a humanly difficult life. She had experienced invalidism and destitution. Because of her devotion to God, she had experienced misunderstanding on the part of family and friends. Instead of rebellion or self-pity, which such experiences would usually engender, her desire for divine Love was so great that she accepted them as a weaning from the interests and pleasures of material sense, as unmistakable landmarks on her way to God. Indeed, in her self-forgetful love, she said of these experiences and of the progressive spiritual enlightenment which accompanied them, "God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing" (Science and Health, p. 107).
Study of its textbook, Science and Health, is essential to any understanding of Christian Science. If you do not possess a copy of this book and wish to know more about the teaching of Christian Science, get one at once. This book can be obtained from any Christian Science Reading Room. The book needs to be studied, as does any other textbook. It may not be understood at the first glance; but all who study it and demonstrate its teachings will tell you that they have found a rich reward, because through the study of Science and Health they have learned how to prove God's all-sustaining love.
There is evidence to show that Mrs. Eddy considered her work as Founder to be equal in importance to her work as Discoverer. In speaking of her work, she constantly couples these terms; she speaks of herself as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. She says, "When God called the author to proclaim His Gospel to this age, there came also the charge to plant and water His vineyard" (Science and Health, Pref., p. xi). She sought to be directed by God in every step. Christian Scientists universally acknowledge that she was so directed. Therefore, every sincere student of Christian Science early connects himself with the Christian Science organization and remains a loyal member of The Mother Church, obedient to its By-Laws set forth in the Church Manual. Anyone entitled to call himself a Christian Scientist supports the organization established by Mrs. Eddy as Founder with the same devotion that he accepts her discovery of Christian Science. Because these, the discovery and the founding, are equally of divine inspiration, no one is actually entitled to call himself a Christian Scientist who does not remain within the organization and support Mrs. Eddy's work as the Founder of Christian Science.
The movement she founded consists of The Mother Church and its branches and the varied activities of the Christian Science organization. These function under the Church Manual which Mrs. Eddy was divinely inspired to give to us. Each branch church is self-governed and is democratic in its government. The Christian Science Board of Directors is given by this Church Manual the general oversight of the movement and its activities. Theirs is no arbitrary power; the duties of the members of this Board are established by the Church Manual, and they are themselves amenable to its By-Laws.
The very term "Mother Church" symbolizes the sustaining love of the Father-Mother God. The Mother Church and its branches, which are established throughout the world, are symbolic of that love.
Christian Science was divinely revealed, and will continue to be divinely supported by the Love which revealed it. The purpose of the organization is to make the power of God available to humanity, and it is the desire of The Christian Science Board of Directors, and of everyone connected with the movement, to see that this revelation of divine Love is made humanly available to all. Their desire is to act lovingly to all, to bless all men universally and impartially. It is incumbent upon The Christian Science Board of Directors, of course, and upon those who serve the organization, to preserve the truth committed to them and to maintain intact the organization established by Mrs. Eddy.
She says in our textbook, "The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love" (Science and Health, p. 113). In preserving and guarding Mrs. Eddy's work as Founder, those to whom this trust is committed by the Church Manual are not only fulfilling the trust committed to them; they are expressing the highest love for present and future generations. By preserving intact the final revelation of divine Love and the organization which safe-guards this revelation in its purity, they are rendering the greatest possible service to the human race.
Mrs. Eddy loved and cherished the Bible. She enjoins its daily study upon her followers. She founded her religion upon its teachings. She states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 110), "In following these leadings of scientific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook." Everything she gives us in Christian Science rests upon Biblical authority. She says, "Divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible, and the divine origin of Science is demonstrated through the holy influence of Truth in healing sickness and sin" (Science and Health, p. 146).
It was from the Bible she gained the concept of God as all-sustaining Love, for the Bible is filled with comforting assurances of God's love and tender care for His creation. Thought turns instantly to the Hebrew children cast into the fiery furnace, who were so perfectly protected by their realization of God's sustaining love that there was not even a smell of fire upon their garments; to Daniel, safe in the lions' den; and to Peter, for whom the prison doors were unlocked without aid of human hands as he poured out his heart in gratitude and praise to the God whose love he never doubted. It was the love of God which these expressed, the divine Love they reflected, which protected them, just as it will and does protect us as we reflect it.
The Love we actively express protects us under all circumstances and in all conditions. Many of you have proved this. This Love, divine Mind, reflected, keeps us safe amid danger and brings us the spiritual intuition needed to protect us from harm. As an illustration of this, I should like to tell of the experience of two students of Christian Science. They were crossing the Atlantic when a hurricane raging at 140 miles an hour appeared. It drove the ship five days off its course, and smashed all of its lifeboats. The opinion was expressed by the captain that the ship could not hold out two hours longer. In the face of this material evidence of danger, the Christian Scientists present were declaring that God is the Life of man, and that He maintains His children in peace and safety. They were denying the evidence of storm, tempest, and bestial ferocity when to the consciousness of one of them the word "fire" insistently presented itself. She denied fire as a destructive element and went on with her work. After some time the word again presented itself, this time with great force. We are told in Christian Science that whatever comes to our consciousness as error, this we must deny. So the student obediently set to work to deny that fire could endanger or destroy. After some hours, the storm abated. The captain said that in forty years he had seen no storm equal to this one, but that he was happy that no one knew the ship had caught on fire twice. The second time this fire appeared to be uncontrollable, but to his amazement it seemed suddenly to be almost self-extinguished.
Christian Science teaches that God's love is universal and impartial. Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 150), "Not more to one than to all, is God demonstrable as divine Life, Truth, and Love; and His people are they that reflect Him — that reflect Love."
Divine Love loves because it is Love. It is universal because it is infinite. So the reflection, which appears to be our love, must of necessity be universal as well as individual. It is this universality of Love which is needed to meet present-day problems. Most of the things that trouble us are really universal things — things like war, food shortages, et cetera, for they affect all nations and all classes of people. Now, because they claim to be universal, they require universal love to correct them; and this love must be supplied by those who understand the universality of divine Love. This is our work. We, His people, must reflect God's love in the world and thus help rid the world of hate and the evil engendered thereby; for hatred will not be overcome by hatred. According to immutable law, hatred will be healed only by love.
In a world gone mad with getting, let us learn to give. It is the nature of Love to give. The Bible says that God so loved the world that He gave His Son to save the world (John 3:16). The greatest givers are not those who have given material things, not the inventors who have made life easier from a material standpoint, nor the philanthropists who have attempted to benefit men humanly. The greatest givers have been those who have given spiritual light to their fellowmen, those who reflected God's love with such radiance that the reflection served as light to guide other men to God.
Of these, the greatest was Jesus of Nazareth. He carried the message of God's love to men and proved what that love could do for them in healing their diseases, lifting their burdens, and assuaging their sorrows. Of him Mrs. Eddy says in her textbook (p. 313): "Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material surface of things, and found the spiritual cause." Jesus' understanding of God as omnipotent Love enabled him to prove to men that evil is without power, and he proved his dominion over it in every aspect in which it presented itself. So great was his reflection of divine Love that he never knew defeat. Death itself could not stand in his presence.
Jesus expressed the Christ perfectly. Science and Health says (p. 332), "Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God — the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth." Jesus illustrated and demonstrated Christ, which Science and Health says (p. 583) is, "The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error."
It is the nature of God, Mind, to manifest itself. It does so in the degree that individual consciousness is spiritually prepared to receive the revelation; hence every man can demonstrate the Christ, Truth.
Jesus proved that the Christ was available, not only to heal sick bodies, but to restore deformed and broken lives, even to take away the sins of the world, as Science and Health says (p. 334) "the Christ has always done, even before the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes." Jesus expressed the Christ without measure.
Christian Science teaches that all men are to be saved, and it offers a very practical salvation — freedom from evil through demonstration of the divine Principle, Love. It recognizes neither sin nor sinner as the truth about you, me, or any other man, but it deals with the sinner effectively and successfully by healing him of his sin. Science and Health says (p. 270), "If sin makes sinners, Truth and Love alone can unmake them."
Christian Science teaches that men are saved through the Christ. I quote from its textbook (p. 497): "We acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death."
The way of salvation, as Christian Science teaches it, means walking with Love along the way, the progressive demonstration of the Mind of Love. It means obedience to the Bible command, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).
We might well ask how the power of divine Love is made available to us through Christian Science; how it operates humanly in our behalf. The answer is that all that is accomplished in Christian Science in the healing of sickness and the overcoming of sin is done through prayer.
As we turn to divine Love in sincere prayer, as we abide in this Love and reflect it, we find that it meets our needs, serves our necessities, and enables us to accomplish any righteous purpose. We find that the need for health, security and supply is met by prayer in Christian Science.
Christian Scientists understand that the goal of prayer is conscious unity with God. Jesus prayed "that they may be one, even as we are one" (John 17:22). Mrs. Eddy says in one of her Messages to The Mother Church (Message for 1902, p. 6), "All Christian faith, hope, and prayer, all devout desire, virtually petition, Make me the image and likeness of divine Love." The desire to be at one with God, to be like Him, is the foundation of prayer, and those who truly love include, as Jesus did, all men in that prayer.
When we pray in Christian Science, we find that we need not only a clearer understanding of the reality of good and the consequent unreality of evil, but also compassion for our fellowmen, sympathy in their trials, and tenderness toward them in their fears. It is our reflection of God's love which makes the truth we speak vital. Mortal beliefs yield to divine facts and are dispelled by them as we pray with understanding love, as we declare the divine facts of being, affirm God's allness, and rely upon His sustaining love. Our textbook says (p. 480), "As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good."
In a Christian Science treatment the divine power, presence, authority, and law which have been invoked through prayer challenge the claims of evil presented in the given situation. Whatever the claim is, whether one of poverty, disease, or discordant human relationship, the practitioner denies the error involved on the basis that it is without divine authority, is not supported by divine law, and consequently is without actual power or presence.
Some might say here: "I have done this; I have declared the truth in regard to a claim of disease, or in regard to a certain condition surrounding me, and I see no change. What shall I do?" Continue to declare the truth, and you will see a change. Stick to the truth, declare it faithfully, and you will perhaps first see only an improved belief. This improved belief may be evident as more spiritual awareness, less fear, more reliance upon divine Love. Be grateful for this evidence of improved belief, for Science and Health says (p. 296), "An improved belief is one step out of error, and aids in taking the next step and in understanding the situation in Christian Science."
To understand the situation in Christian Science, begin with God. All is well with God; then all is well with man. The man He created to reflect Him needs no change in condition or circumstances. The past, present, and future of that man have been perfectly taken care of; he is sustained forever by the Love which created him. "For," the Bible tells us (Ps. 84:11), "the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will be withhold from them that walk uprightly." That is the situation in Christian Science, and it is not only reassuring to dwell upon it, it is healing to do so. When the situation is really understood in Christian Science, healing follows.
As an example of this a young woman, incapacitated by inflammatory rheumatism, asked for Christian Science help. The practitioner knew that man is maintained by God, who created him in joyous activity, free from suffering and free from fear. Within a few hours the pain abated, and in a few days the girl was healed completely.
Christian Science is a very simple religion; it is based upon the First Commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and it adheres strictly to that commandment. It does not admit any lesser gods, called matter or evil. But while it is a very simple religion, it is not an easy one, for it involves those who practice it in the demonstration of the divine nature. It requires of them that they try to bring every thought and act into conformity with divine Love, as the Bible commands. And this is no small task, though it is a glorious one, one that will interest and occupy us throughout eternity.
It is the purpose of Christian Science to show men how to express the divine nature. The purpose of Christian Science is not primarily the healing of sick bodies; the purpose of Christian Science is to regenerate or evangelize the human self to the extent that one can perceive and demonstrate that he is in reality the child of God, hence Godlike. Only incidentally sick bodies are healed, sick businesses made flourishing, the human needs supplied; but the purpose of Christian Science remains unchanged: to enable men to manifest what God knows them to be — the image and likeness of Himself, divine Love.
Paul said, "All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation" (II Cor. 5:18). This is the work of the Christ, to reconcile everything to God through the demonstration of the one Mind which is Love. It was the work which Jesus did so superbly; it is the work which he left us to do. Because the ministry of overcoming hate by love has been committed to us, we shall fulfill our destiny only as we accept this ministry.
The work is done through the understanding that God is the only Mind. Jesus met every issue on the basis of the one Mind. We can solve our problems today only by the realization of the same Mind. We can never solve the discordant problems of the world by beginning with the premise of many minds and then trying to bring out unity, or even harmonious compromise. In order to solve our problems, individual and collective, we must begin with the actual spiritual fact that there is one Mind, hence no conflict, no differing interests. As we hold to this premise, we shall see so-called differences disappear and discord vanish in harmony.
It is the work of every Christian today to maintain the one Mind so clearly and positively that misunderstandings among men and nations will disappear. All Christians are united in a desire to see universal brotherhood established, and Christian Scientists, rejoice in this and in every evidence of unity with their fellow Christians. They long and pray for the day when, in the words of their textbook (p. 571), "The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity."
As the Mind which is Love is expressed, unity will follow, for the carnal mind will yield progressively. When men's unity with God is universally understood and demonstrated, all their problems will be solved, for he who loves God and is at one with Him will unfailingly obey the Scriptural command to love his brother also; and where there is love, there is no need of human laws to protect or arms to defend.
The fact that there is one Mind, the Mind of Love, is the antidote to all the evils engendered by the so-called carnal mind. To find the cure for these, men have tried everything except Love; yet the Bible says that "love never faileth" (I Cor. 13:8, Revised Version), and that it is the only thing which does not fail. It says that prophecies fail, languages disappear, knowledge vanishes, but Love remains constant, unalterable. It is available to men in the measure that they themselves express it. To the extent they express it, and to that extent alone, can they understand reality. Paul tells us this in the following arresting words (Eph. 3:17-19): "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."
Love is the key to happiness, our passport into the kingdom of God. Love is more than mere kindness, though those who reflect it must express kindness; it is more than mere affection or goodwill, though it includes both affection and goodwill; it is greater than any quality or series of qualities which go to make it up. It is the nature of the Holy One, the incomparable Father-Mother God.
[Delivered July 26, 1953, in The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts, and published in The Christian Science Monitor, July 27, 1953.]