Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

All the old traditions tell us that there is more than one path to the Great Goal. Just as there is more than one road up every great mountain, and yet all roads meet at the top, so in the Spiritual Quest there are several roads, all of which lead in due season to the One Great End.

There is the path of knowledge. True knowledge of Divine things is one of the appointed paths to attainment; but that path is by no means for everyone. And there is the pathway of action—of organized activity, perhaps one had better say—and the world needs this too; but this again usually calls for a special gift, and special circumstances in which to apply it. And there are others.

The shortest and the easiest pathway of all is the Pathway of Love. This really is the Royal Road to the attainment of the Great Goal. It is the simplest of all the paths, and it is the most direct and the easiest too. And it is the one pathway which is open to all, everywhere, irrespective of what their personal conditions or surrounding circumstances may be. For Everyman, everywhere, the true Initiation, through the Yoga of Love, awaits every day.

In metaphysics we understand that Divine Love is the complete expression of all that is meant by the word Religion; that having that we have all, and lacking that, we have nothing. It, therefore, behooves us to have some little attention to the consideration of what we really mean when we talk about Love.

Of course, it goes without saying that we do not mean personal love. That is well in its own time and place, but it is not what we are considering here. In the Christian teaching, Love stands for something much bigger and finer and more powerful than any merely personal sentiment. Unfortunately, as with many other spiritual ideas, there is no word in the language which is perfectly appropriate to express it. Material language is made to fit material needs, and it simply will not satisfactorily express true spiritual ideas. For these we need the new Tongue of which Jesus spoke. We seldom realize, I think, how very much we really are in the hands of the dictionary. We think certain thoughts; we have certain experiences; and then language, with its hard and fast boundaries, says, “You shall not say that wonderful thing—you shall say only this”—and we find on paper the pale lifeless shadow of the thing that came to life in our soul.

So there is really no word in modern English to express the true Christian idea of Love. Our English Bible uses the word “Charity,” and while no doubt this word fitted the need fairly well hundreds of years ago, it has since changed so much in connotation that there is now hardly a word in the dictionary more removed from the thing that we really wish to express.

“As cold as charity,” has become a by-word. The very thought of charity—that is, of needing to receive charity—has alone led thousands of people to take their own lives sooner than have to contact the dreadful thing. And yet, in its true meaning it should convey just what we mean by Love.

Perhaps we can best approach the idea by saying that Christianity understands by Love the idea of universal good will, but plus something very much more than ordinary good will—that something which is nothing less than God, Himself.

Love is the motive power in Mind, and it is the quality of Love in Mind that leads it to seek for fuller and fuller expression, for Love always must be expressed. What we call Service, to use the term that has happily come into very general use of late, is really Love in action.

The principal aspects of God are: Life, Truth, and Love. These are the great Trinity in which Mind expresses itself, and we shall see now in what sense they are one and the same thing. Life is existence, and this is the Truth of Being. Naturally Life must have free expression, and Love is just this very thing, this perfect expression of Life. In other words, what we call Love is really the full and unrestricted expression of Divine Life itself. That is why it always means perfect peace, perfect holiness, perfect beauty, perfect joy—and why Jesus said, “I am come that they might have Life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Now we see why the converse of Love is fear; and why fear is the supreme enemy of mankind. Everybody recognizes this fact today. All academic psychology is turning its attention to the overcoming of fear, and most schools of philosophy too now teach that fear is the thing that has to be rooted out. And fear turns out to be simply the absence of Love. “Fear hath torment but perfect Love casteth out fear.”

The only reason we have any fear at all is because we do not love God enough. If we really loved God one-half as much as we love ourselves, of what should we be afraid? A great mystic said, “Love God—and do what you please,” knowing that with the love of God in our hearts our expression could only be perfect; and a modern seer has told us, “You can get rid of any difficulty whatever from your life as soon as you can love God more than you love the error.”

Anger, spite, resentment, and hate—all such things—are just so many alternative expressions of fear. Jealousy, malice, and “all uncharitableness” denote a belief that there is not enough good to go around and, therefore, if the other fellow gets all that he wants of good, we shall have to go short; and what is this but to constrict the expression of Life in one’s own soul? If you tie a ligature very tightly around a human limb you know what happens; first it becomes paralyzed, and ultimately, if the process is kept going long enough, the limb withers away altogether.

Now, the absence of Love has exactly this effect upon the Soul. Condemnation, resentment, ill-will, are just so many constrictions upon the free flow of Life, and since they are allowed to exist, more or less, in so many human souls, is it any wonder that the world is filled with sin, sickness, and death?—that men and women grow old, and tired, and wrinkled, and worn, and ultimately lose their bodies altogether?—that the earth is desolated by wars, and famine, and pestilence?

Thus we begin to see the reason why the Jesus Christ teaching, under whatever name it may have been given out, has always laid so much stress upon the outstanding importance of Love. Unless we build up within our own souls a real and practical Love-consciousness, our other activities will be more or less futile. If we have the impersonal Love-consciousness sufficiently well developed toward all, everything else will follow. Indeed, many students have found that very remarkable things have followed upon even a few days’ special work done on this subject. All sorts of personal difficulties simply vanish away after people have treated themselves a while for Love. As the months go along their faces sometimes alter in a remarkable way, for the body is almost the first thing to respond to freedom from fear and resentment. People have told me that they have felt twenty years roll off their shoulders, after treating themselves for a few days along these lines—and as they were their shoulders, they should know.

The more you learn of your religion, the more meetings you attend, and the more books you read, the more powerful becomes your thought, and the more sensitive your soul. You cannot afford today to hold wrong thoughts that would have mattered very little five years ago. You will be much more severely punished for every lapse now than you would have been in the beginning, and this is altogether well.

The Pathway of Love which is open to everyone in all circumstances, and upon which you may step at any moment—at this moment if you like—requires no formal introduction, has no entrance examination, and no conditions whatever. It calls for no expensive laboratory in which to work, because your own daily life, and your ordinary daily surroundings are your laboratory. It needs no reference library, no professional training, no external apparatus of any kind. All it does need is that you should begin steadfastly to expel from your mentality every thought of personal condemnation (you must condemn a wrong action, but not the actor), of resentment for old injuries, and of everything which is contrary to the law of Love. You must not allow yourself to hate—either person, or group, or nation, or anything whatever.

You must build up by faithful daily exercise the true Love-consciousness, and then all the rest of spiritual development will follow upon that. Love will heal you. Love will comfort you. Love will guide you. Love will illumine you. Love will redeem you from sin, sickness, and death, and lead you into the promised land, the place that is altogether lovely.

You may say to yourself definitely: “My mind is made up; I have measured the undertaking; I have counted the cost; and I am resolved to attain the Goal by the Yoga of Love. I can do this, and I will. Others may pursue knowledge to the farthest reaches of its wondrous growth; others again may organize great and marvelous enterprises for the benefit and uplifting of humanity; and still others may teach, and heal, and explore, or—if they feel the call—may scale the austere heights of asceticism; but I have chosen the Yoga of Love. Henceforth my field of work is right here in my own consciousness, and all my efforts and energies shall be directed to the cleansing and purifying of that from all that is not Love. Moment by moment, day by day, and week by week, I shall root out from my own heart, every atom of condemnation of my brother man, no matter who or where he may be, or what he may have done; every atom of resentment for any unkindness or injustice that has ever been shown to me, or to one that I love; every particle of jealousy of others, however cleverly it may be disguising itself; every smallest thought or feeling, in short, which is not an expression of Divine Love. My own heart is to be my workshop, my laboratory, my great enterprise and contribution to humanity.”

This is the Yoga of Love, and while it requires no equipment beyond the readiness to practice it, yet that readiness is likely to cost so much in the way of effective self-sacrifice that those who truly seek it are comparatively few. It is not only the simplest, it is the greatest of all the paths, great in the magnitude of its individual results, and great in the work that it accomplishes for the whole race. To practice effectively the Yoga of Love is the guickest way to demonstrate over all your own difficulties, and because your mind is part of the race mind, it is actually the quickest and most far-reaching way in which you can elevate the race too.

It is the one path that is in practice open for every one to enter, at any moment. Here the isolated student is at no disadvantage as compared with him who can command efficient teaching. Here the poor man has perfect equality with the millionaire, and the dull has exactly the same advantages, no more and no less, as the intellectually brilliant.

The plain man earning a modest living in the factory or store can practice the Yoga of Love right there among the very surroundings in which he finds himself. The housekeeper at home, the sailor on the high seas, the farmer in his field, the nurse or the doctor in the ward, have all around them in their duties the perfect material for the Yoga of Love. The only question is whether one is really willing to pay the price—is really prepared to put God first.

EMMET FOX