No more scientific advice was ever uttered on this earth than "Love your enemies." Nothing will take the sting out of unkindness like kindness; nothing will disarm prejudice, hatred, and jealousy like love. It is impossible for any one to continue to hate us, when we send out to him only love thoughts, love vibrations, or to be jealous of us when we send out to him only kindly, generous, helpful thoughts. Hatred or the spirit of revenge cannot live in the presence of love any more than an acid can retain its eating, biting qualities in the presence of an alkali.
One whose heart is filled with love for all cannot possibly have an enemy very long, because love dissolves all enmity, all jealousy, neutralizes, antidotes all hatred. One-sided hatred cannot exist because there is nothing to keep it alive. It must be fed in some way or the fire will die out for lack of fuel.
It is simply impossible to keep on feeling unkindly towards another, to continue hating him very long when we discover that he feels kindly toward us and is willing to help us. I have never felt so humiliated in my life as when years ago, in my hot youth, I was rendered a very great service by a man whom I disliked intensely, and against whom I had for some time cherished a grudge. His great-hearted, generous act, which was a real help to me, made me feel utterly ashamed of myself. It showed me as nothing else could have done what a mean, unworthy, contemptible thing it is to nurse a feeling of hate or revenge toward a fellow-being.
We cannot hold the love thought without feeling the uplift, the glow, the divine energy which it sends through the whole system. Nor, on the other hand, can we hold the hate thought, the revenge, the jealous, the envious, or any other mean, selfish thought, without a feeling of depression, a feeling of smallness, of contemptibleness, which robs us of self-respect and of power.
When you denounce and condemn others, when you nurse bitterness and ill will in your heart, you start boomerang vibrations which impair your cell life and seriously mar your happiness and efficiency. One of the great benefits of devotional exercise, of prayer, of contemplation, of divine thinking, is that this mental attitude sets in motion vibrations which have a helpful, uplifting influence on both mind and body. Where love and affection are habitually vibrating through the cell life they develop a poise and serenity of character, a sweetness and strength, a peace and satisfaction that reënforce the whole being. Love soothes and strengthens. Hate lacerates, wrinkles, weakens. The character of people who keep themselves continually stirred up by discordant emotions, who live in discordant homes where there is perpetual wrangling, criticism, denunciation, scolding, twitting are cold, skeptical, unlovely, selfish. Their affections become marbleized. There is nothing outside of vice which will deform the character so quickly as living in an atmosphere of perpetual hatred, jealousy, envy and revenge. The wear and tear of their vicious vibrations is ever getting in its deadly work.
Love is the great disciplinarian, the supreme harmonizer, the true peacemaker. It is the great balm for all that blights happiness or breeds discontent, a sovereign panacea for malice, revenge, and all brutish passions and propensities. As cruelty melts before kindness, so the evil passions find their antidote in sweet charity and loving sympathy.
One reason why a happy home is the sweetest, most beautiful spot on earth is because the love atmosphere, the harmony vibrations give a blessed sensation of harmony, of rest, of safety, security and power. The moment we enter such a place we feel its soothing, reassuring, uplifting atmosphere. It produces a feeling of mental poise, of serenity which we do not experience anywhere else.
During a recent visit to a large family I was much impressed by the power of one person to create this beautiful home spirit. In this family was one sister who, though the youngest member, seemed to take the place of the mother, who was dead. This young girl was the apparent center of the home. Nothing of importance was undertaken by any of her brothers without consulting her. Not one of them would leave the house without first kissing her good-by, and she was the first one they sought when they came home. They all seemed anxious to confide to her their little secrets, to tell her of what had happened to them during the day, to have her opinion and advice in all difficulties.
The secret of this young girl's influence lay in her great interest in the boys, and her wonderful love for them. In talking with the brothers I discovered that each thought that the sister was especially interested in him and his affairs, and that he would not think of undertaking or deciding anything of importance without first consulting her. Each and all of them seemed to prefer her company to that of any other young lady, and were always proud to escort her when she went anywhere. Those boys are all clean-minded, open, frank and chivalrous, and I could not help thinking that a great deal of it was due to the sister's influence.
"To love, and to be loved," said Sydney Smith, "is the greatest happiness of existence." Every one, rich and poor, high and low, is reaching out for love. What will not a man do to win the love of one who embodies his ideal of womanhood; one in whom he sees all the beautiful qualities that he himself lacks! This love is really a divine hunger, the longing for possession of what would make him a whole man instead of the half one he feels he is.