LOVE
W.
John Murray
New
Thoughts on Old Doctrines
Divine Science Publishing Co.
New York, N.Y., 1918
The shortest
definition of Love is given by John the
Disciple, “God is love; and He that
dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.”
Jesus said, “Greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends.” John 15:13.
How do we professing Christians apply
this saving Love? We are not often called
upon to lay down our lives for our
friends, owing to the refining influence
of the teachings of him who did this very
thing. How often do we lay down the
simplest things in life for our friends?
It was the Samaritan with Love in his
heart who was neighbor to the man. The
priest and the Levite had love and law on
their lips. They laid it down as a duty
to be performed by others, but they
themselves “passed by on the other
side.” The Samaritan laid down his
money for the care and keep of this
bruised and beaten stranger. Love is not
a something to be confined to the narrow
limitations of one's own immediate family
and friends.
Love is universal in
its adaptations and it is only when we
try to limit it to ourselves that we
suffer. Inverted love is a mental
stiletto by which we ignorantly and
unintentionally commit mental and
physical suicide. Love is like the sun in
one respect, for it is only when it
shines out from itself to others that it
can be said to be performing its true
function. If the sun could shine in upon
itself as men become self-centered
through self love, it would presently
become
self-extinguished.
The true nature of man
is the true nature of the sun, both exist
for the purpose of expressing the highest
and the best, but the sun never does what
man is constantly doing, it never
violates its true
nature.
We often hear it said
that, “There is little love in the
world,” and “What the world
needs is more love.” Really there
is an abundance of love in the world, and
the only misfortune is that it is not
properly directed. We love things instead
of thoughts, and power instead of people.
We are not lacking in love quite so much
as we are lacking in wisdom to exercise
it properly.
We pray for more love
when we are not giving the fullest
expression to the love we have. We suffer
from suppression. We stifle our best and
noblest, and permit our worst and most
ignoble impulses to occupy the field of
consciousness, and then we wonder why we
develop physical diseases. We do not see
the association of anger and apoplexy. We
do not seem to realize that hate kills
the hater, and that we die of the poison
which our animosities have generated in
the system, and not realizing these facts
we can not understand that love is the
only and infallible remedy. We do not
need more love any more than we need more
electricity; all we need is to utilize
love more freely. When electricity began
to be used extensively, learned
professors wrote long articles on the
possibility of its exhaustion. We were
told that the commercialization of this
marvelous force was devitalizing the
atmosphere, and that it was only a
question of time when plant life and
animal life would feel the awful
consequences. Since that time it has been
used and is now being used to assist
plant life and to hatch chickens, and
some go so far as to say that its use
through mechanical devices will destroy
wrinkles, restore genuine youth and
produce longevity. Electricians tell us
that this marvelous force is
inexhaustible, that every demand that is
made upon it only creates a vacuum which
this ever-present force hastens to fill.
A wise man says: "The love we give is the
love we keep."
If we should say the
cash we give is the cash we keep, we
should have some difficulty digesting the
statement, and yet there are those who
can testify to the truth of this
statement also. Jesus said: "Give, and it
shall be given you; good measure, pressed
down, shaken together and running over,
shall men give into your bosoms: for
whatsoever ye mete it shall be meted unto
you again." This giving, however, must be
done in the proper spirit if we would
receive as much again, for back of this
is a law as fixed as the law of the Medes
and Persians, which rewards not according
to gifts but according to godliness; not
according to acts but according to
motives.
Love in human
consciousness serves to enrich the soul
of the benefactor while ministering to
the needs of the body of the beneficiary.
The highest love is that wherein it is
seen that there is no beneficiary but the
benefactor. This Truth is seen in those
words of Jesus, "It is more blessed to
give than to receive." "Love doth not
behave itself unseemly." It is kind and
courteous, gentle, and easy to be
entreated. It fears not, for "Perfect
Love casteth out fear." Where Love is,
fear cannot be, and Love is the
omnipresent God, therefore fear is a
figment of the imagination and the
natural result of a belief in the
presence of something apart from God.
True love is equivalent to true
knowledge, or a knowledge of Truth. It
recognizes no hate nor anger, no lust nor
avarice. It sees only the brightness of
its own character. It is too pure to
behold iniquity, too chaste to indulge in
unchastity. Love destroys tumors as
effectually as it dries tears. It rolls
away the stone from the sepulchre of
discouragement and disease, and the
individual who has been entombed through
and by spiritual ignorance walks forth
into "The glorious liberty of the Sons of
God." Have you, as [a] student of Divine
Metaphysics, been called forth, as was
Lazarus of old, from the damp and
darkened chamber of hopelessness and
helplessness? If so, then arise to your
responsibilities. Let the grave-clothes
fall from your hands, and eyes, and feet
and listen to the final injunction of
Truth, "Loose him, and let him go." You
must be about your Father's business, but
you cannot do this if you are bound by
the grave-clothes of your past fears and
limitations. The grave-clothes of reason
must be cast aside, "laid down" in the
presence of that revelation which bids
you, "Go ye into all the world (of
spiritual ignorance about you) and preach
the Gospel (of the All-ness of God) to
every creature." These signs shall follow
you if you believe in this Allness, "In
my name (in the name of omnipotent Love)
shall they cast out devils (all seeming
evil) ; they shall speak with new tongues
(the tongues of the learned in Divine
Metaphysics). They shall take up
serpents, and if they drink any deadly
thing it shall not hurt them; they shall
lay hands on the sick and they shall
recover." So, then, after the greatest
expression and expresser of Love this
world has ever seen had given these
powers unto men he was received up into
heaven (the most perfect state of mental
harmony) and sat on the right hand of
God. That is to say, he entered into such
a glorious realization of what Love is as
to make him invisible to those whose
knowledge of Love is limited and carnal.
As we grow in the spirit of Love,
manifesting it in the healing of the sick
and the comforting of the sorrowing, we
shall grow "unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ." We
shall see Love as Love is, and we shall
be like It in thought and deed, here and
now, "And every man that hath this hope
in him purifieth himself even as he
(Love) is pure."
Chapter
4
* * * * *
New Thoughts on Old
Doctrines
Table of
Contents
(Formerly at
Northwoods Divine Science Resource
Center)
