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.”
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New Thoughts on Old Doctrines
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