Love’s Allness

That God is Love is one of the fundamental postulates of all Christian religions; that He created all things “visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers,” is also a matter of universal belief. Love, then, is the one great cause, infinite, the substance out of which all things spring. Thus Paul says in his epistle to the Ephesians, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend … and to know the love of Christ.”

Accepting the statement of Love’s allness as an indisputable fact, let us consider its implications, what this belief involves. If Love has created all things, then nothing “visible or invisible” could have been created by any other agency; but looking out upon the world of appearances, how are we to account for what we see there? Discord, suffering, injustice, evil rampant in all forms, is the report which the physical senses bring to us. How are we to reconcile these terrible conditions with the fact that Love is the only creator? The fundamental fact remains unchanged and unaffected by the diverse material interpretations thereof.

Here Mrs. Eddy’s declaration becomes illuminating. She says, “Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,—is unfolding Life and the universe” (Science and Health, p. 306). Christian Science is teaching mankind to cling fast to basic truth, regardless of the perverse misconceptions of the human mind; to look beyond the seeming and the temporal, the partial and the limited, to that which is eternal and everlasting. It calls upon us to give up fixed opinions and beliefs, the pride of intellect and love of material possessions. It bids us drop these heavy burdens from our shoulders, and learn the sweet trustfulness and willing obedience of a little child; then we are shown the way to peace and joy.

Love, divine Love, is the only creator! “But I suffer, I am sick,” cries a sense-blinded mortal; “I am weighed down by poverty and misfortune,” moans another; “Fame and power are mine,” exults a third; and ever above the wild, unreasoning din and clamor of human ignorance and wilfulness, Love, compassionate, merciful, just, and wise, speaks in solemn tones: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, … which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.”

In the fulness of time, when spiritual understanding is sufficiently matured, there comes to the earnest seeker the vision of Truth, and he knows, no longer believes, that infinite Love is the only creator, and that all that He made is “very good.” Then, too, he realizes something of the constant guidance, the tender sheltering, the sustaining Love which environs him by night and by day, and in deepest humility and gratitude raises anew the psalmist’s song of rejoicing: “Bless the Lord, O my soul, … who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tender mercies.”