"That is because, in our previous study of the Scriptures, we were
governed by human opinions, doctrines and creeds, instead of by
the spiritual law of interpretation, which always brings the proof
of its supremacy."
"But it makes one wish one hadn't been quite so pert in flaunting
one's feathers before finer birds," drawled Sadie, as she shot a
peculiar glance at Katherine, "like a turkey we had at home once
that had never seen a peacock's plumage until after he had done a
good deal of strutting around, with his own self-sufficient
appendage spread out to its widest extent. He collapsed, though,
when he saw that blaze of glory."
"Thank you, Sadie, for so pat an illustration of an exceedingly
uncomfortable frame of mind," said Prof. Seabrook, with a merry
twinkle in his fine eyes, while an appreciative laugh ran around
the circle.
The girl flushed scarlet in sudden dismay.
"Prof. Seabrook!" she faltered, "I didn't mean--I was only
thinking of what I said to Katherine about being a Christian
Scientist the day she came here. I told her, very grandly, that I
was an Episcopalian, that my grandfather was an Episcopalian
clergyman, and I had my doubts about his resting easy in his grave
if he knew what a rank heretic I had for a roommate. Well, she
just unfurled a white banner of Love to me, and I've wanted to
hide my diminished head every time I've thought of it since."
"All right, Sadie; there's no offense," returned the principal,
with a smiling glance at her still flushed cheeks, "and I think
there may be some others among us who have learned a salutary
lesson from our modest but stanch 'brown-eyed lassie,' for she
certainly has tried, as she told me she would on that same day,
'to live her religion of Love.' But," turning again to Mrs.
Minturn, "that reminds me of something else I wished to ask you."
Reopening his book, he read aloud the sixth tenet, emphasizing the
phrase "to love one another."
"I find, in reading this book," he resumed, "that you Scientists
give a higher signification to that word 'love' than is implied by
the ordinary interpretation. Mere sentiment or emotion have
nothing in common with your concept of its meaning?"
"Our Leader says, in her book of 'Miscellaneous Writings,'
[Footnote: By Mary Baker G. Eddy, page 230.] that 'no word is more
misconstrued, no sentiment less understood,'" said Mrs. Minturn.
"Spiritual love is governed by its principle--divine Love.
Emotional or sentimental love has no principle. It is governed by
mortal impulse, moods, personal attraction, and so forth. Divine
Love has but one impulse--infinite impersonal good. Paul's sublime
definition of charity, or the love that 'beareth all things,'
'that never faileth,' 'that thinketh no evil,' is the Christian
Science idea of love, and as our text-book teaches, nothing short
of this, lived and demonstrated in the daily life, is Christian
Science love."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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