0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

9	    Who is thine enemy that thou shouldst love him? Is
  	it a creature or a thing outside thine own creation? 
  	    Can you see an enemy, except you first formulate this
12	enemy and then look upon the object of your own con-
  	ception? What is it that harms you? Can height, or
  	depth, or any other creature separate you from the
15	Love that is omnipresent good, — that blesses infinitely
  	one and all? 
  	    Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles,
18	defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should
  	reflect. Whatever purifies, sanctifies, and consecrates
  	human life, is not an enemy, however much we suffer in
21	the process. Shakespeare writes: "Sweet are the uses
  	of adversity." Jesus said: "Blessed are ye, when men
  	shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all
24	manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake; . . .
  	for so persecuted they the prophets which were before
  	you." 
27	    The Hebrew law with its "Thou shalt not," its de-
  	mand and sentence, can only be fulfilled through the
  	gospel's benediction. Then, "Blessed are ye," inso-

Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                 9

 1	much as the consciousness of good, grace, and peace,
  	comes through affliction rightly understood, as sanctified
 3	by the purification it brings to the flesh, — to pride, self-
  	ignorance, self-will, self-love, self-justification. Sweet,
  	indeed, are these uses of His rod! Well is it that the...
 6	Shepherd of Israel passes all His flock under His rod
  	into His fold; thereby numbering them, and giving them
  	refuge at last from the elements of earth. 
 9	    "Love thine enemies" is identical with "Thou hast
  	no enemies." Wherein is this conclusion relative to
  	those who have hated thee without a cause? Simply, in
12	that those unfortunate individuals are virtually thy best
  	friends. Primarily and ultimately, they are doing thee
  	good far beyond the present sense which thou canst enter-
15	tain of good. 
  	    Whom we call friends seem to sweeten life's cup and
  	to fill it with the nectar of the gods. We lift this cup
18	to our lips; but it slips from our grasp, to fall in frag-
  	ments before our eyes. Perchance, having tasted its
  	tempting wine, we become intoxicated; become lethar-
21	gic, dreamy objects of self-satisfaction; else, the con-
  	tents of this cup of selfish human enjoyment having lost
  	its flavor, we voluntarily set it aside as tasteless and
24	unworthy of human aims. 
  	    And wherefore our failure longer to relish this fleet-
  	ing sense, with its delicious forms of friendship,
27	wherewith mortals become educated to gratification in
  	personal pleasure and trained in treacherous peace? 
  	Because it is the great and only danger in the path
30	that winds upward. A false sense of what consti-
  	tutes happiness is more disastrous to human progress
  	than all that an enemy or enmity can obtrude upon
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                10

 1	the mind or engraft upon its purposes and achievements
  	wherewith to obstruct life's joys and enhance its sor-
 3	rows. 
  	    We have no enemies. Whatever envy, hatred, revenge
  	 — the most remorseless motives that govern mortal mind
 6	 — whatever these try to do, shall "work together for good
  	to them that love God." 
  	    Why? 
 9	    Because He has called His own, armed them, equipped
  	them, and furnished them defenses impregnable. Their
  	God will not let them be lost; and if they fall they shall
12	rise again, stronger than before the stumble. The good
  	cannot lose their God, their help in times of trouble. 
  	If they mistake the divine command, they will recover
15	it, countermand their order, retrace their steps, and
  	reinstate His orders, more assured to press on safely. 
  	The best lesson of their lives is gained by crossing
18	swords with temptation, with fear and the besetments
  	of evil; insomuch as they thereby have tried their
  	strength and proven it; insomuch as they have found
21	their strength made perfect in weakness, and their fear
  	is self-immolated. 
  	    This destruction is a moral chemicalization, wherein
24	old things pass away and all things become new. The
  	worldly or material tendencies of human affections and
  	pursuits are thus annihilated; and this is the advent of
27	spiritualization. Heaven comes down to earth, and
  	mortals learn at last the lesson, "I have no enemies." 
  	    Even in belief you have but one (that, not in reality),
30	and this one enemy is yourself — your erroneous belief
  	that you have enemies; that evil is real; that aught but
  	good exists in Science. Soon or late, your enemy will
 
Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                11

 1	wake from his delusion to suffer for his evil intent; to
  	find that, though thwarted, its punishment is tenfold. 
 3	    Love is the fulfilling of the law:  it is grace, mercy,
  	and justice. I used to think it sufficiently just to abide
  	by our State statutes; that if a man should aim a ball at
 6	my heart, and I by firing first could kill him and save
  	my own life, that this was right. I thought, also, that
  	if I taught indigent students gratuitously, afterwards
 9	assisting them pecuniarily, and did not cease teach-
  	ing the wayward ones at close of the class term, but
  	followed them with precept upon precept; that if my
12	instructions had healed them and shown them the sure way
  	of salvation, — I had done my whole duty to students. 
  	    Love metes not out human justice, but divine mercy. 
15	If one's life were attacked, and one could save it only
  	in accordance with common law, by taking another's,
  	would one sooner give up his own? We must love our
18	enemies in all the manifestations wherein and whereby
  	we love our friends; must even try not to expose their
  	faults, but to do them good whenever opportunity
21	occurs. To mete out human justice to those who per-
  	secute and despitefully use one, is not leaving all retribu-
  	tion to God and returning blessing for cursing. If special
24	opportunity for doing good to one's enemies occur not,
  	one can include them in his general effort to benefit the
  	race. Because I can do much general good to such as
27	hate me, I do it with earnest, special care — since they
  	permit me no other way, though with tears have I striven
  	for it. When smitten on one cheek, I have turned the
30	other: I have but two to present. 
  	    I would enjoy taking by the hand all who love me not,
  	and saying to them, "I love you, and would not know-  

Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                12

1	ingly harm you." Because I thus feel, I say to others:
  	Hate no one; for hatred is a plague-spot that spreads
 3	its virus and kills at last. If indulged, it masters us;
  	brings suffering upon suffering to its possessor, through-
  	out time and beyond the grave. If you have been badly
 6	wronged, forgive and forget:  God will recompense this
  	wrong, and punish, more severely than you could, him
  	who has striven to injure you. Never return evil for evil;
 9	and, above all, do not fancy that you have been wronged
  	when you have not been. 
  	    The present is ours; the future, big with events. 
12	Every man and woman should be to-day a law to him-
  	self, herself, — a law of loyalty to Jesus' Sermon on the
  	Mount. The means for sinning unseen and unpunished
15	have so increased that, unless one be watchful and stead-
  	fast in Love, one's temptations to sin are increased a
  	hundredfold. Mortal mind at this period mutely works
18	in the interest of both good and evil in a manner least
  	understood; hence the need of watching, and the danger
  	of yielding to temptation from causes that at former
21	periods in human history were not existent. The action
  	and effects of this so-called human mind in its silent argu-
  	ments, are yet to be uncovered and summarily dealt with
24	by divine justice. 
  	    In Christian Science, the law of Love rejoices the heart;
  	and Love is Life and Truth. Whatever manifests aught
27	else in its effects upon mankind, demonstrably is not Love. 
  	We should measure our love for God by our love for man;
  	and our sense of Science will be measured by our obedience
30	to God, — fulfilling the law of Love, doing good to all;
  	imparting, so far as we reflect them, Truth, Life, and Love
  	to all within the radius of our atmosphere of thought.   

Miscellaneous Writings --- Love Your Enemies                                13

1	    The only justice of which I feel at present capable,
  	is mercy and charity toward every one, — just so far as
 3	one and all permit me to exercise these sentiments toward
  	them, — taking special care to mind my own business. 
  	    The falsehood, ingratitude, misjudgment, and sharp
 6	return of evil for good — yea, the real wrongs (if wrong
  	can be real) which I have long endured at the hands of
  	others — have most happily wrought out for me the law
 9	of loving mine enemies. This law I now urge upon the
  	solemn consideration of all Christian Scientists. Jesus
  	said, "If ye love them which love you, what thank have
12	ye? for sinners also love those that love them." 
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