Chapter 10

Love, The Magic Key

LOVE is life and hate is death, shall we not choose the Path of Life? Love is the magic key that unlocks the doors of heaven. We do not have to ask for love, but only to give it—to express it. Love is the supreme law of life: guided by Wisdom it rules the universe. Every thought, every desire, every word, every emotion that is not Love, or which is against Love, or is out of harmony with the Law of Love, creates disorder, suffering, discord, ugliness, unhappiness, from which there is no escape. “Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap.” Nothing is truer than this—that we are mixed up with the disorder of our own sowing, that we cannot escape from it, except we make the supreme surrender to the Law of Love, and bring every thought, word, deed, and desire into captivity to it.

We are so slow to learn. Our Lord came so long ago to teach us this wonderful gospel of love. Have we learnt it? Have we surrendered to it? Have we obeyed it? Have the nations of the earth obeyed it? Alas, no. This gospel is so simple, yet so difficult. Only to love—that is all. Two thousand years of Christian teaching, and yet look at the nations today! So little love, but so much suspicion and hatred, jealousy and envy. Instead of following the Lord of Love have we not made Him a scapegoat, by which we might save our miserable souls and get to heaven, no matter what might happen to others? No creed or dogma, or theological theory, good and necessary though it be, can ever take the place of the complete surrender to, and the sincere following of, the Lord of Love.

We said just now that we cannot evade the consequence of our sowing. That if we sow seeds of hate, indifference, coldness, ill-will, selfishness, envy, or anything that is out of harmony with Divine Love, we must of necessity reap an appropriate harvest. If a farmer sowed weeds instead of corn, no matter how much he might pray about the matter, the crop that he would reap would be weeds and not corn. In the same way, so long as we sow to the flesh, with its hates and lusts, we reap disharmony and corruption. When, however, we surrender to the Lord of Love and follow Him, no matter where He may lead: when we establish our life on the Principle of Love: when we obey to the uttermost the dictates of the Law of Love, we not only cease sowing seeds of suffering and discord, but also the Divine Order begins to manifest in our life and affairs. This is because we cease fighting against the trials, troubles, sufferings, and disciplines which we have brought upon ourselves, and leave off rebelling against the sorrowful experiences of life which are the result of sin against Love’s law; and, instead, co-operate with life’s experiences, transmuting them so that they become a source of blessing instead of a curse or scourge.

The Path of Attainment is the Way of Love. It is the Path our Lord has trodden before us. We can but follow in His blessed footsteps, along the hallowed way of Love and Service. Love to all, service to all; self being forgotten and left behind.