Strength and Sweetness

It is the masculine thought that feels free to run things with justice, and to forget mercy. It fancies that love is a temptation against which it fancies it must harden itself, that it must rule love out of the heart before it can judge righteous judgement.

It is interesting to consider Samson’s riddle as found in Judges 14: 14, where he said, “Out of the strong came forth sweetness.” Christian Science proves that strength and sweetness must go hand in hand. History proves that every so-called great man that has flourished for a time, and finally been dethroned, either lacked sweetness, or else he had it but lost it. When you find a man in authority losing his sweetness, it is inevitable that he will go down. Mrs. Eddy was the Leader because she had both wisdom and love, strength and sweetness, and she never permitted one to be overshadowed by the other. She taught her followers to distrust any individual, or committee, who found it necessary to bury their sweetness before executing justice.

When students learn the Science of reflecting the power, wisdom and justice of God, they must never forget that it is equally important to reflect divine Love. The Master combined these two qualities. He manifested a wisdom that enabled him to overthrow his enemies. What he asserted to them proved that he was motivated by a wisdom that they did not possess; yet he never forgot to manifest divine Love at the same time. The very name given to his doctrine, namely, Christianity, has come to mean a type of spiritual love, to which Mrs. Eddy added the wisdom of Science, so that no one can truly call himself her follower who does not act up to his highest understanding of justice and mercy.