Why Should We Love? WILLIAM E. M. McCUNE          The one supreme Scriptural demand upon man is, that he shall love. Jesus, the Christ, the anointed of God, when asked, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" in making his reply, began with these words: "Thou shalt love;" then he immediately stated the second which he said was like unto the first, and it began: "Thou shalt love." He concluded by saying, "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."          There are a great many things that we regard as duties; but they are all comprehended in a very few words, viz.: Thou shalt love God with all thy heart, mind, and soul; and thy neighbor as thyself.          No doubt nine out of ten, and perhaps ninety-nine out of a hundred, in thinking of this demand for love to our neighbor, do so with the impression that this requirement is made as a kindness or favor to our neighbor. That we are to love our neighbor for the neighbor's sake, when the fact is, we need to love our neighbor especially for our own sake. We are required to love God, but this is not because God needs to be loved by us, but because we most emphatically need to love.          So it is with loving our neighbor, we must do so for our own sake. Because it takes love to make us happy, to make us harmonious; it takes love to make us good companions, to constitute true friendship; and it takes love to heal sickness and to overcome sin in ourselves or others.          The Apostle Paul declares very strongly in his first epistle to the Corinthians (chapter 13), that anything, whatsoever we may do, has no value to us, if it is without love. He enumerates a number of things which of themselves would seem to be among the most commendable deeds one could perform, yet he declares if love be lacking they profit us nothing.          When we learn that we live only in proportion as we love, we shall be more careful not to allow error to deceive, and swindle us out of the infinite blessings that flow into our own consciousness through the channel of love for others. This is by no means encouraging a selfish view of loving others, but rather emphasizing the fact that a man's attitude of thought toward his neighbor is a matter that concerns himself vastly more than it does his neighbor. The hatred entertained by mortals toward those who are in the consciousness of ever-present divine Love, cannot hurt those toward whom it is directed, but it does cast over those who entertain it, a shadow of deep darkness, filled with fear and evil forebodings, while the heart overflowing with love, even if it meets with no response, but resentment from many for whom it is entertained, is illuminated and filled with joy by the present and forthcoming goodness, grandeur, and bliss which this cherished and reflected love reveals.          Why then should we love? Primarily for the effects of love upon ourselves, that we may be made able and worthy to do kindnesses and favors to others. Poor, indeed, would be the bestowals from one whose treasures were not the rare results and rich rewards of having loved.          Think of the incontrovertible fact, that our knowledge of God and His creation, of the true nature of man and his relation to his Maker; our hope of heaven, or a harmonious state of being; our real appreciation of beauties, benefits, friendships, and sweet associations of the present, all hinge upon the unfoldment of love in the individual consciousness. Shall we then willingly, allow a single moment to pass that does not bear outward and upward its full measure of love?          Spiritual love is the divine nature of which the Apostle Peter says we may be made partakers, through the exceeding great and precious promises of the Father, who is Love.          Is anyone selfish, envious, jealous, contentious, sorrowful, destitute, sick, sinful — then the need is for a fuller measure of that love which is divine, not because his neighbor is so much in need of sympathy and charity, as because his own poor, wretched self is in such direful need of the cleansing waters that can flow from no other source.          Open the door of thine own poor, famished heart to the inpouring of ever-present Love, that its fountains, long dried up, may be cleansed and refreshed, then shall it well up with unceasing rise and flow quenching first thine own thirst and then that of thy neighbors.          It seems that the reasons why we should love for our own sake are so innumerable as to preclude forever a moment's willing entertainment of a single opposite thought or sentiment.          Does it seem hard to love those who return only resentment, malice, envy, or hatred? Then look away from this view of the case, and think more of the glorious results that are being wrought out in your own life and character, such as patience, meekness, gentleness, tenderness, and a steadfast love of the pure and the good, which is ever making the task easier by this reflection of love under seeming difficulties.          May we not truly say that moments of love, under any stress, are moments of great gain to him who loves?   "Why Should We Love?" by William E. M. McCune The Christian Science Journal, August, 1901

 

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