Is the heart a well left empty?

None but God its void can fill;

Nothing but a ceaseless fountain

Can its ceaseless longings still.

Is the heart a living power?

Self-entwined its strength sinks low;

It can only live in loving,

And, by serving, love will grow.

Matt. 6:1-2

Matt. 6:1-4 (NLT)

Mark 12:41—44, 38-40 (NLT)

Jesus sat down near the collection box in the Temple and watched as the crowds dropped in their money. Many rich people put in large amounts. Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she had to live on.”

Is. 1:16-17 (NLT)

Wash yourselves and be clean! . . . . Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed.

Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.

I Cor. 13:1-7 (NLT), 8 (KJV)

If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.

Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

Charity never faileth.

Luke 19:1-9 (NLT)

Jesus entered Jericho and made his way through the town. There was a man there named Zacchaeus. He was the chief tax collector in the region, and he had become very rich. He tried to get a look at Jesus, but he was too short to see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree beside the road, for Jesus was going to pass that way.

When Jesus came by, he looked up at Zacchaeus and called him by name. “Zacchaeus!” he said. “Quick, come down! I must be a guest in your home today.”

Zacchaeus quickly climbed down and took Jesus to his house in great excitement and joy. But the people were displeased. “He has gone to be the guest of a notorious sinner,” they grumbled.

Meanwhile, Zacchaeus stood before the Lord and said, “I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have cheated people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as much!”

Jesus responded, “Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a true son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.”

Luke 12:33, 34 (NLT)

Sell your possessions and give to those in need. This will store up treasure for you in heaven! And the purses of heaven never get old or develop holes. Your treasure will be safe; no thief can steal it and no moth can destroy it. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be..

Luke 10:25, 27, 29-37 (NLT)

One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” . .. “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.'”

The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road.

“By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by. A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side. Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him, the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’ “Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”

Luke 6:38

Acts 9:36-41 (NLT)

There was a believer in Joppa named Tabitha (which in Greek is Dorcas. She was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor. About this time she became ill and died. Her body was washed for burial and laid in an upstairs room. But the believers had heard that Peter was nearby at Lydda, so they sent two men to beg him, “Please come as soon as possible!”

So Peter returned with them; and as soon as he arrived, they took him to the upstairs room. The room was filled with widows who were weeping and showing him the coats and other clothes Dorcas had made for them. But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed. Turning to the body he said, “Get up, Tabitha.” And she opened her eyes! When she saw Peter, she sat up! He gave her his hand and helped her up. Then he called in the widows and all the believers, and he presented her to them alive.

II Cor. 9:7, 8

Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

SH 270:23-24

Meekness and charity have divine authority.

SH 79:31-32

Giving does not impoverish us in the service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us.

SH 447:12-14

Ignorance, subtlety, or false charity does not forever conceal error; evil will in time disclose and punish itself.

SH 30:30

We cannot choose for ourselves, but must work out our salvation in the way Jesus taught. In meekness and might, he was found preaching the gospel to the poor. Pride and fear are unfit to bear the standard of Truth, and God will never place it in such hands.

SH 483:30-32

One must fulfil one’s mission without timidity or dissimulation, for to be well done, the work must be done unselfishly.

SH 58:7-11

Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, — these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence.

SH 3:32-2

While the heart is far from divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the ingratitude of barren lives.

SH 587:23-24

Heart. Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and sorrows.

SH 446:18-20

A wrong motive involves defeat. In the Science of Mind-healing, it is imperative to be honest, for victory rests on the side of immutable right.

SH 8:28-30 –

We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are.

SH 329:21-23

There is no hypocrisy in Science. Principle is imperative. You cannot mock it by human will. Science is a divine demand, not a human.

SH 365:25-19

If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its way into the chambers of disease through the would-be healer, it would, if it were possible, convert into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy Ghost, — the patient’s spiritual power to resuscitate himself. The unchristian practitioner is not giving to mind or body the joy and strength of Truth. The poor suffering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace, patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father’s loving-kindness.

In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus attain the spiritual freedom which will enable him to cast physical evils out of his patient; but heal he cannot, while his own spiritual barrenness debars him from giving drink to the thirsty and hinders him from reaching his patient’s thought, — yea, while mental penury chills his faith and understanding.

The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-being is deficient in human affection, and we have the apostolic warrant for asking: “He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” Not having this spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which alone confers the healing power.

SH 672:1-22 (np)

HEALTH AND UNDERSTANDING GAINED

From birth I was considered a very weakly child .. .. Sickness and medicine were continually before me, . . . .but I was not healed. . . .. The first week that I heard of Christian Science, I visited the home of dear Christian Science friends, and was at once refreshed by their purity of thought and example. I bought a copy of Science and Health, and, after studying it a little while with the Bible, I saw that if the Bible was true, Science and Health must also be true. . . . I was healed .

Christian Science then taught me to love the church, and to appreciate what it had already done for mankind. I often thought of the old adage, “Charity begins at home,” and after three years’ preparation I felt able to take Christian Science to my home, where it found, in due time, ready acceptance and willing disciples. This gave me even greater joy than my own healing. . . . Christian Science changed my course from the first, and gave me a nobler aim and purpose in life. I was not so easily influenced by other people’s shortcomings, when I learned that evil has neither personality nor place. I was not so ready to take offence, when I found out the way to work unselfishly for the upbuilding of the Cause.  — A. E. J., Toledo, Ohio.

SH 113:5-6

The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love.

SH 454:17-21

Love for God and man is the true incentive in both healing and teaching. Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action.

SH 384:6-9

God never punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, cold, heat, contagion.

SH 435:19-23

Watching beside the couch of pain in the exercise of a love that “is the fulfilling of the law,” — doing “unto others as ye would that they should do unto you,” — this is no infringement of law, for no demand, human or divine, renders it just to punish a man for acting justly.

SH 436:11

Giving a cup of cold water in Christ’s name, is a Christian service. Laying down his life for a good deed, Mortal Man should find it again. Such acts bear their own justification, and are under the protection of the Most High.

SH 385:1-11

It is proverbial that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists engaged in humane labors have been able to undergo without sinking fatigues and exposures which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derived from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds.

SH 518:15-19

The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother’s need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another’s good.

Feed my lambs, tend my sheep,

Over all a vigil keep;

In my name lead them forth

gently as a shepherd.

When they wander, when they stray,

their protector be.

As ye do unto my flock,

thus ye do to me.

Unto all who lose the way,

hope and comfort be.

As ye do unto my flock,

thus ye do to me.

Love is life’s true crown and glory,

Love the splendor of the light,

Truly is God’s counsel gentle,

Truly all His ways are bright;

Jesus knew the law of kindness,

Healing mind and heart of blindness;

And in heavenly wisdom taught

Holy works of love he wrought.