0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

27	LOVE 

  	    What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what
  	worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the un-
 
 Miscellaneous Writings --- Love                                                  
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 1	derived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the
  	alone God, is Love. 
 3	    By what strange perversity is the best become the most
  	abused, — either as a quality or as an entity? Mortals
  	misrepresent and miscall affection; they make it what
 6	it is not, and doubt what it is. The so-called affection
  	pursuing its victim is a butcher fattening the lamb to
  	slay it. What the lower propensities express, should be
 9	repressed by the sentiments. No word is more mis-
  	construed; no sentiment less understood. The divine
  	significance of Love is distorted into human qualities,
12	which in their human abandon become jealousy and
  	hate. 
  	    Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken
15	down on rare occasions with sugar-tongs and laid on a
  	rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active
  	witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand
18	achievements as its results. Unless these appear, I cast
  	aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring
  	of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or
21	goodness without activity and power. As a human quality,
  	the glorious significance of affection is more than words:
  	it is the tender, unselfish deed done in se...cret; the silent,
24	ceaseless prayer; the self-forgetful heart that overflows;
  	the veiled form stealing on an errand of mercy, out of a
  	side door; the little feet tripping along the sidewalk; the
27	gentle hand opening the door that turns toward want and
  	woe, sickness and sorrow, and thus lighting the dark
  	places of earth. 
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