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Association 2013:  “The Knowledge of God”

 

Post 2012 letter

 

May 26, 2012Dear People,One of the most insidious of mortal mind's suggestions is that we don't know how to pray. You may have been raised in Christian Science and gone to Sunday School, you may have had class instruction and attended year's of Association addresses. And yet, when faced with some unwelcome ill that flesh is heir to, the thought comes: "I don't know how to pray".Sometimes we feel that we aren't experienced enough, or that this problem is harder than others, or that we have been praying but nothing is happening! The bottom line always seems to suggest that you don't know what you're doing or you're doing it wrong.

 

A student wrote:Question: How are we supposed to pray for others? Specifically loved ones who have not asked for prayer, but who are having problems in their lives.My grandson is "going nowhere," can't hold a job and is in varying degrees of trouble frequently. He doesn't seem to "get it." When I pray for him, I acknowledge him as God truly created him- in His image and likeness. (The above description is the mortal picture). I know God loves him and is caring for him. I have prayed that he understand this. However, I am told that I pray amiss. Jesus said, "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Why can't I ask this for my grandson? How should I pray?How do we pray for others who have not asked for treatment but who are having problems?

 

Consider these basic points from class instruction:

 

Prayer is what we are supposed to do when confronted with so-called evidence of anything unGodly. When faced with the appearance of sin, disease, or death, we should turn to God. We might do this very simply by recalling what we know of Love's power and presence. When you truly do know that Love is present and active; omnipotent and absolute, then your work is done and you feel it. That's the "ping" we talk about in class. It's the powerful awareness that all really is well because you can see and feel Love's power. In terms of this past year's Association topic, this is your First Commandment consciousness in action.If the material picture is a continuing argument against divine Truth, then keep pouring in "truth through flood tides of Love" until it is clear that there is only one God and His good is omnipotent and omnipresent.

 

Dealing with "field conditions": If we do not see the correct basis right way; should we be temporarily persuaded by the mortal mind image and find ourselves feeling sad, or mad, or frightened by it, then we need to take the necessary steps to come home to spiritual sense (remember the process as MBE gives it to us on page 298 of Science and Health: "Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality."

 

The first step toward home is the recognition that whatever the discord is, it is an image formed in and cherished by mortal mind and not reality itself. Open the chapter on Christian Science Practice in the textbook and find inspiration to lead your thought out of material illusion and back to God. This activity, earnestly pursued, is prayer. Prayer is simply the mental activity that tends toward monotheism and the First Commandment. When this activity is Christianly Scientific (driven by spiritual love for others and motivated by a genuine desire for Truth and) then it is called treatment and Mind provides the inspiration and information we need. We are simply the grateful witnesses of divine Reality.

 

As we've said in class, the dividing line between the real and unreal when it comes to prayer is the line between Christianly Scientific prayer (also called treatment) and humanly driven thinking that starts with the problem and gets stuck in it. The first is incapable of doing harm and blesses you and all. The second is malpractice. When Mrs. Eddy said that we have no right to break into the thoughts of others unless invited (any more than you have a right to enter someone's house and re-arrange the furniture) she was describing malpractice. Jesus' prayer and Mrs. Eddy's, which healed those in their wake as they passed by was thought fixed on what God is doing, unimpressed by mortal mind's picture.

 

Regarding the specifics in the question:In the second part of the question, addressing a specific case, there is the statement: "I know God loves him and is caring for him." This is followed by a petition that this become clear to the other person. When we know something, it is true for all. If you know that 1+1 = 2 you don't spend a lot of time being concerned that others get this fact. Even if you are teaching kindergarten, you trust that the fact is self-evident. It's enough that the fact is true and you can rely it any time. To know that God's love and care is active and absolute is to see this as clearly as a mathematical fact. You can rely on it, trust it. That knowing is the only mental activity necessary. That knowing is prayer/treatment and the knowledge blesses.

 

I am reminded of a Wednesday evening testimony from a church member who had a growth on her face that was getting progressively larger. She tried to make nothing of it, not be alarmed by it, declare it's insubstantiality but it kept getting bigger. Finally, the thought came that it would be more loving (for her family and those she worked with) to see a doctor and get it taken care of.When she got to the clinic, she found that none of the doctors there knew exactly what the problem was. They recommended more tests and gave her a prescription to try. When she read the side-effects, she realized the cure was worse than the disease. She went home and decided to turn to God.

 

Her prayer was now coming from a very different basis. In her own words, "I realized I hadn't really been praying at all." Whereas before she had been going through the motions, now she knew that only God had the answers she needed and she earnestly set about studying and applying the Truth to her own case. It was no longer a matter of perfunctory declarations and intellectual acknowledgements - her heart and mind and soul were engaged by Truth. The healing came very quickly.

 

Prayer is as effective as it is the earnest, heartfelt witnessing of Truth. Prayer is communion with Truth, Life and Love. If, however, you begin from the basis that there is some spot where God is not absolute, the only power, authority, and presence, then your thought is a form of malpractice and not prayer at all. The dividing line is between reality and unreality.

 

Remember the story of the woman who had lunch with a friend and kept thinking, "I wish she understood the Truth," and "If only she knew..." and "If she would just read the Lesson more and really take the point!". She entertained these sorts of thoughts all afternoon and when that friend called to ask for prayer to overcome a sudden illness, the woman realized that all those well-meaning thoughts had actually been an affirmation of error and now she had to get rid of them in order to start aright.

 

Begin with perfect God and perfect man and don't leave that basis.

 

The best description of how prayer/treatment works is from Recapitulation, follow these steps and you will not go wrong!"When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony." (S&H 495:14)

 

Feel free to let me know if there are further questions on this topic!with love,Caryl

 

association 2012 follow-up

 

Dear People,At our business meeting this year we discussed settling on a date with the least possible stumbling blocks to attendance. We decided that Saturday, May 18, 2013 at 9:00 a.m. at the Christian Science Student Organization in Madison will be the next meeting of the Association. Put the date in your calendars now and consider the following:

 

Top Ten Reasons to come to Association:10: The address might be helpful.9: You know you're supposed to; you agreed to come to every meeting when you applied to class.8: You remember that time spent with spiritual sense is the only real time you have and you want more.7: You recognize attendance as part of God's demand6: It's a right idea.5: It's a reality check.4: It marks the start of your spiritual year.3: You get to spend a whole day thinking about God.2: You know you're an integral part of God's provision for Association.1: It feels like coming home.

 

When you pause to think about it, there is really no excuse not to come to Association. The suggestions that it doesn't matter, or your presence isn't required, or that it's one of those things you can have on your own somewhere else, or that it's too difficult to bother with, or that you have something more important going on are all species of animal magnetism that should be handled as such. A friend recently shared that after missing a few years of her Association she returned and when she approached her teacher after the address his words to her were, "I thought we were friends". It brought home to her, in a rush of apprehension, the bond that their class had shared and the unity of spirit they had felt. She knew that there was nothing as meaningful to her as this bond. The rebuke shocked her into a recognition that she had allowed herself to drift away from what she actually loved best.It is God who "makes us sit together in heavenly places in Christ" and there is nowhere better to be on Association day. As we said at our first Association meeting, we few, "we happy few" are enough to change the world if we come together in Truth and Love. Plan to answer the call!

 

with love,Caryl

 

june 2012 letter

 

June 19, 2012

 

Dear People,Hard to believe, but a month has flown by since our homecoming gathering.Which means that we're coming to the end of that extra month we designated to go on working with the Association assignment. Now is the time to send in your fruitage and remarks on the experience.It occurs to me that correspondence with our Association may be so sparse not because there is a dearth of spiritual thinking and fruitage so much as a resistance to sitting down and sharing it in a letter.You'll be interested to hear that another teacher's Association theme last year was the same citation that we worked with. There truly is one Mind and I thought I'd share with you something that he covered while working with the First Commandment. We all know that we're commanded to have one God and not bow to idols, but do we recognize a material sense of time as one of those idols?Sadly, mortal mind thinks very consistently in terms of "my time" and how much "I" can fit into the time available. There is only God's time and truly, a day with the Lord is as a thousand years. As Mrs. Eddy told Judge Hanna - take that time for God; treat yourself (that is, take the time to identify yourself correctly as the temple of the living God - the place where His qualities are seen and heard). It is natural and normal to express yourself as God's own expression. To perceive spiritual good and share it is what we're made to do. And that certainly includes noting and sharing that good within the Association and at your churches.The heart of our Association is your expression, I look forward to hearing from you!with love,Caryl

 

Fall 2012 letter (assignment)

 

October 24, 2012Dear People,Harvest time has come to this part of the world. It's a time for gratitude, a time to turn thought to spiritual blessings and goodness. The days grow shorter and the dark hours longer but as we become more aware of our light above the sun we are lifted into a spiritual sense of the season and the past year. At this nearly half-way point through our Association year, it is good to consider how we are responding to the ever present spiritual harvest that beckons. The great need, in this season as in all seasons, is faithfulness in our practice.Ascension, as we said in class, is horizontal as well as vertical! As we continue working to apply the First Commandment to every part of our lives, we find a lessening of fear, an increase of hope and joy, and evidence that what blesses one, truly does bless all. We can all be heartened by Mrs. Eddy's words that "as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and temperance have received an impulse, health has been restored, and longevity increased," as she says, "If such are the present fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is more generally understood?"To paraphrase Isaiah, "Is not this the fast that we have chosen?""Ethics," and "temperance" are expressions of morality, divine good, and they are nourished by a clear-eyed sense of spiritual goodness. As we strive to let the mind of Christ be in us, we can make the most of opportunities to find Love nearer, dearer, and more real to us than anything else. Even in an election season. When Jesus said "a house divided against itself cannot stand," he wasn't describing a battle between good and evil, he was recommending divine reality over everything that claimed a power apart from God. Health and longevity are inseparable from an awareness of the dear Father-Mother's love. When we live with a First Commandment sense of divine Love as present and supreme in authority our lives are naturally blessed and blessing.Which brings me to the theme of our next Association meeting. Last year we caught a glimpse of what happens when we have one God. This year we will consider what Jesus' exegesis on the First Commandment: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." (Matt 32:37-40).Loving God and loving your neighbor are one and the same. Knowing God's care and control are pervasive and everywhere, we see His government instead of the mortal counterfeit. Knowing God provides spiritual good liberally to all his ideas, we find His man instead of the children of men. It seems to me that Jesus added the "Second Commandment" to help people understand that prayer is a full-time, everywhere, all the time activity. It's not just for church or for a quiet time in the morning when we do the Lesson. Prayer is the mental work we do to keep God first and foremost in our hearts and minds as we are confronted with the aggressive suggestion of other powers and minds.

 

The title of this coming year's address is, "The Knowledge of God".

 

Our assignment: take this portion of Paul's second letter to the Corinthian Christians and put it into practice in your daily walk: ""though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" (II Cor 10:3-5)What "imaginations" and "high things" need a reality check? What thoughts need to become obedient to Christ and how do you bring them into "captivity". As you work, let us know how it goes!A reminder: Association day 2013 is Saturday, May 18, at 9:00 a.m. at the Christian Science Student Organization in Madison (guests come at 9:15 after the Association business meeting).with love,Caryl

 

christmas 2012 letter

 

Dear PeopleThe Christmas decorations around town say, "Joy," and "Peace on Earth," but there has been very little of either to be found amid the coverage of rampage shootings and the political arguments that fill the media. At a time when we expect to find a respite from worldly woes, those troubles seem to threaten to overwhelm the best intentions of the season. What can we say? What can we do in the face of so much that argues for fear, sorrow, and anger?

 

It is, what a friend has called "a Peter question." Concerned about the future and his own role in it, Peter, seeing John coming up behind him, asked Jesus, "What shall this man do?". And Jesus answered, "What is that to thee? Follow thou me."

 

We wonder how to cope with the painful and powerful emotions that darken the human experience, we look around for comfort and compare how we're doing with some human ideal that seems unreachable; none of this will bring the smallest light. It lacks, as Peter did before he took Jesus' message to heart, the mind of Christ.

 

It may seem normal to react to what we see and hear, as the disciples did when they asked Jesus, "Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" As you may recall, Jesus' reply was, "Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." We may habitually and by suggestion look at life through the wrong end of the telescope, but that perspective is not normal to us. It is not what we were made to understand and respond to.

 

The Christian yardstick of reality tells us: "Blessed are they that mourn," and "Blessed are the poor in spirit". Counterintuitive as it may seem to mortal mind, the most blessed and happy (as the Phillips translation would have it) are those who are drawn nigh to God. It is precisely at these challenging times, when we are more in need of Divine Love, that we are willing to forsake counterfeit comforts and turn to God. The blessing is in the turning and what we find when we do: Love's presence and power. It's not something to merely think about, it's the thought that comes from God that trumps every thought less spiritually substantial. And yes, sometimes it takes effort to uncover how near and dear and real to us it actually is. It means taking up those distinctly not-carnal weapons of trust, gratitude, and hope and going into the closet, or treasure house of spiritual sense; leaving the mortal sense of life out.

 

It's Christmas. It's a good time to remember the coming of Christ and the inevitability of Truth and Love. Spiritual sense must have its say because it is correlated with reality, it is the final word for all times and places. As the Lesson today tells us, "...behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people; but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee" (Isa 60:2).with love at Christmas, 2012Caryl

 

spring 2013 letter

 

Dear People,Association time is drawing near, reminding us to sharpen our focus on things eternal! To help with that, this site now includes the study citations for this year's address; titled "The Knowledge of God".As you may recall our assignment is based on Paul's words in his letter to the Christians at Corinth, "though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;" (II Cor 10:3-5). The idea was to put this exhortation into action; working out what imaginations and "high things" try to come between us and the knowledge (the here-and-now awareness) of God, practicing "casting down" those "high things" with God's arsenal of spiritual weaponry. And then, of course, to send a report on your work, including fruitage to contribute to the Association.This is also the time for you to send questions (either pertaining to your experience with the assignment or with any part of your practice of Christian Science) that you would like to have included in the address on Association day.Some practical details:Association members convene for our business meeting at 9:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 18, in the large meeting room at the CSO on the corner of N. Mills St. and University Ave. Guests will join us at 9:15 a.m. for the address. The day typically ends around 3:30 p.m. (or later if you wish to stay for an appointment to discuss something).There is very limited free parking available at the Student Organization. There is typically room for two cars. We encourage using the reasonably-priced parking at the UW Business School parking ramp on Brooks St. (between University Ave. and Johnson St.).Students and returning guests: Please contact me if you plan to take advantage of the opportunity to read last year's address. It will be available to read on Friday, May 17th by appointment.If you would like to stay at the Student Organization residence on Association weekend, you should get in touch with Bob Ayers at the CSO immediately (and cc me on your email) bob@csomadison.com phone: 608-239-9561.We look forward to seeing you all in the "upper room" on May 18!with love,Caryl

 

association 2013 citations

 

Introduction: The battle of the carnal mind; ye must be born again

 

Matt. 6:20 lay, 21lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

 

Mis. 38:13-24How happened you to establish a college to instruct in metaphysics, when other institutions find little interest in such a dry and abstract subject?

 

Metaphysics, as taught by me at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, is far from dry and abstract. It is a Science that has the animus of Truth. Its practical application to benefit the race, heal the sick, enlighten and reform the sinner, makes divine metaphysics needful, indispensable. Teaching metaphysics at other colleges means, mainly, elaborating a man-made theory, or some speculative view too vapory and hypothetical for questions of practical import.

 

SH 126:15-21The point at issue between Christian Science on the one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall Science explain cause and effect as being both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative hypotheses?

 

John 9:2 hishis disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

 

Luke 7:39 whenwhen the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.

 

Matt 22:35 one, 36one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

 

Mark 4:38And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?

 

John 8:4-6 (to 1st .)They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him.

 

SH 102:18The looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on the subject which the criminal desires. The following is an extract from the Boston Herald: "Mesmerism is a problem not lending itself to an easy explanation and development. It implies the exercise of despotic control, and is much more likely to be abused by its possessor, than otherwise employed, for the individual or society."

 

John 8:34, 38-44Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

 

Mis. 114:7-16, 21-29The teachers of Christian Science need to watch incessantly the trend of their own thoughts; watch that these be not secretly robbed, and themselves misguided, and so made to misteach others. Teachers must conform strictly to the rules of divine Science announced in the Bible and their textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures." They must themselves practise, and teach others to practise, the Hebrew Decalogue, the Sermon on the Mount, and the understanding and enunciation of these according to Christ.

 

Christian Scientists cannot watch too sedulously, or bar their doors too closely, or pray to God too fervently, for deliverance from the claims of evil. Thus doing, Scientists will silence evil suggestions, uncover their methods, and stop their hidden influence upon the lives of mortals. Rest assured that God in His wisdom will test all mankind on all questions; and then, if found faithful, He will deliver us from temptation and show us the powerlessness of evil, — even its utter nothingness.

 

SH 288:3-8The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the understanding of divine Love.

 

SH 234:31-3Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.

 

Mis. 126:8-14Who hath not learned that when alone he has his own thoughts to guard, and when struggling with mankind his temper, and in society his tongue? We also have gained higher heights; have learned that trials lift us to that dignity of Soul which sustains us, and finally conquers them; and that the ordeal refines while it chastens.

 

Mis. 238:22-23Have you renounced self? Are you faithful? Do you love?

 

Mis. 179:8-21Is our consciousness in matter or in God? Have we any other consciousness than that of good? If we have, He is saying to us to-day, "Adam, where art thou?" We are wrong if our consciousness is in sin, sickness, and death. This is the old consciousness.

 

In the new religion the teaching is, "He is not here; Truth is not in matter; he is risen; Truth has become more to us, — more true, more spiritual."

 

Can we say this to-day? Have we left the consciousness of sickness and sin for that of health and holiness?

 

What is it that seems a stone between us and the resurrection morning?

 

It is the belief of mind in matter.'02 5:29-6:2

 

The sacred command, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," silences all questions on this subject, and forever forbids the thought of any other reality, since it is impossible to have aught unlike the infinite.SH 504:3-15

 

Genesis i. 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

 

All questions as to the divine creation being both spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for though solar beams are not yet included in the record of creation, still there is light. This light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This also shows that there is no place where God's light is not seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a creation?

 

My. 318:16-319:4I invited Mr. Wiggin to visit one of my classes in the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, and he consented on condition that I should not ask him any questions. I agreed not to question him just so long as he refrained from questioning me. He held himself well in check until I began my attack on agnosticism. As I proceeded, Mr. Wiggin manifested more and more agitation, until he could control himself no longer and, addressing me, burst out with: "How do you know that there ever was such a man as Christ Jesus?"

 

He would have continued with a long argument, framed from his ample fund of historical knowledge, but I stopped him.

 

"Now, Mr. Wiggin," I said, "you have broken our agreement. I do not find my authority for Christian Science in history, but in revelation. If there had never existed such a person as the Galilean Prophet, it would make no difference to me. I should still know that God's spiritual ideal is the only real man in His image and likeness."

 

II Cor. 6:16-18 whatwhat agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

 

Hymn 258

 

Oft to every man and nationComes the moment to decide,In the strife of Truth with falsehood,For the good or evil side.A great cause, God's new Messiah,Shows to each the bloom or blight,So can choice be made by all menTwixt the darkness and the light.

 

New occasions teach new duties,Time makes ancient creeds uncouth;They must upward still and onwardWho would keep abreast of Truth,And serenely down the futureSee the thought of men inclineTo the side of perfect justiceAnd to God's supreme design.

 

Though the cause of evil prosper,Yet 'tis Truth alone is strong;Though her portion be the scaffold,And upon the throne be wrong,Yet that scaffold sways the future,And behind the dim unknownStandeth God within the shadowKeeping watch above His own.

 

Section 1: though we walk in the flesh...

 

John 17:13 now, 14, 20now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

 

SH 323:17If "faithful over a few things," we shall be made rulers over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost. When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from material sense, removes thought from the body, and elevates even mortal mind to the contemplation of something better than disease or sin. The true idea of God gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that there are other minds, and destroys mortality.

 

SH 196:11"Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell," said Jesus. A careful study of this text shows that here the word soul means a false sense or material consciousness. The command was a warning to beware, not of Rome, Satan, nor of God, but of sin. Sickness, sin, and death are not concomitants of Life or Truth. No law supports them. They have no relation to God wherewith to establish their power. Sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven.

 

SH 196:2-4 ManMan has "sought out many inventions," but he has not yet found it true that knowledge can save him from the dire effects of knowledge.

 

SH 186:28Mortal mind is ignorant of self, or it could never be self-deceived. If mortal mind knew how to be better, it would be better. Since it must believe in something besides itself, it enthrones matter as deity. The human mind has been an idolater from the beginning, having other gods and believing in more than the one Mind.

 

Luke 15:11-24 A (to 1st .)A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.

 

'01 17:1The present self-inflicted sufferings of mortals from sin, disease, and death should suffice so to awaken the sufferer from the mortal sense of sin and mind in matter as to cause him to return to the Father's house penitent and saved; yea, quickly to return to divine Love, the author and finisher of our faith, who so loves even the repentant prodigal — departed from his better self and struggling to return — as to meet the sad sinner on his way and to welcome him home.

 

Mis. 86:26-87:2The atmosphere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal environment. What mortals hear, see, feel, taste, smell, constitutes their present earth and heaven: but we must grow out of even this pleasing thraldom, and find wings to reach the glory of supersensible Life; then we shall soar above, as the bird in the clear ether of the blue temporal sky.

 

SH 591:25 (only, to .)mortal mind.SH 592:7-10 thethe subjective states of error; material senses; that which neither exists in Science nor can be recognized by the spiritual sense; sin; sickness; death.

 

SH 115:19-116:5SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND

 

First Degree: Depravity.physical. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear, depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, deceit , hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, death.

 

Second Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing.moral. Humanity, honesty, affection, compassion , hope, faith, meekness, temperance.

 

Third Degree: Understanding.spiritual. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, spiritual power, love, health, holiness.

 

In the third degree mortal mind disappears, and man as God's image appears.

 

SH 108:19-29When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present; that the opposite of Truth, — called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, — is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so-called mind names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit.

 

SH 189:15-18We call the body material; but it is as truly mortal mind, according to its degree, as is the material brain which is supposed to furnish the evidence of all mortal thought or things.

 

SH 189:18-24The human mortal mind, by an inevitable perversion, makes all things start from the lowest instead of from the highest mortal thought. The reverse is the case with all the formations of the immortal divine Mind. They proceed from the divine source; and so, in tracing them, we constantly ascend in infinite being.

 

SH 189:25-32From mortal mind comes the reproduction of the species, — first the belief of inanimate, and then of animate matter. According to mortal thought, the development of embryonic mortal mind commences in the lower, basal portion of the brain, and goes on in an ascending scale by evolution, keeping always in the direct line of matter, for matter is the subjective condition of mortal mind.

 

Rev. 21:1-5 II saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

 

SH 573:19-23Because St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality.

 

Mis. 86:22-25Even the human conception of beauty, grandeur, and utility is something that defies a sneer. It is more than imagination. It is next to divine beauty and the grandeur of Spirit.

 

Mis. 24:14-24That short experience included a glimpse of the great fact that I have since tried to make plain to others, namely, Life in and of Spirit; this Life being the sole reality of existence. I learned that mortal thought evolves a subjective state which it names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit. Per contra, Mind and man are immortal; and knowledge gained from mortal sense is illusion, error, the opposite of Truth; therefore it cannot be true. A knowledge of both good and evil (when good is God, and God is All) is impossible.

 

SH 512:8-16Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These angels of His presence, which have the holiest charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of Mind, and consequently reproduce their own characteristics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their natures are allied to God's nature; and spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.

 

Mis. 73:18-21 2nd wewe have need to know that the so-called pleasures and pains of matter — yea, that all subjective states of false sensation — are unreal.

 

Mis. 286:19-25The time cometh, and now is, for spiritual and eternal existence to be recognized and understood in Science. All is Mind. Human procreation, birth, life, and death are subjective states of the human erring mind; they are the phenomena of mortality, nothingness, that illustrate mortal mind and body as one, and neither real nor eternal.

 

I Thessalonians 5:5Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

 

Hymn 158It came upon the midnight clear,That glorious song of old,The angels, bending near the earth,Their wondrous story toldOf peace on earth, good will to men,From heaven's all-gracious King;The world in solemn stillness layTo hear the angels sing.

 

O ye beneath life's crushing loadWhose forms are bending low,Who toil along the climbing wayWith painful steps and slow;Look now, for glad and golden hoursCome swiftly on the wing;O rest beside the weary road,And hear the angels sing.

 

For lo, the days are hastening on,By prophets seen of old,When with the ever-circling yearsShall come the time foretold;When the new heaven and earth shall ownThe Prince of Peace their King,And all the world send back the songWhich now the angels sing.

 

Section 2: we do not war after the flesh, our weapons are not carnal"

 

Matt. 6:9 (to ,)After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven,

 

SH 16:20-23, 26-27 Our (to 2nd ,)Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick.

 

Our Father which art in heaven, Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,

 

SH 13:20-14:11If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and fears which attend such a belief, and so we cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infinite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible. Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle, Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely physical, and are ignorant of man as God's image or reflection and of man's eternal incorporeal existence. The world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, — blind to the reality of man's existence, — for the world of sensation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.

 

If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipotence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we would gain, we are not "absent from the body" and "present with the Lord" in the demonstration of Spirit. We cannot "serve two masters." To be "present with the Lord" is to have, not mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demonstration and understanding of Life as revealed in Christian Science. To be "with the Lord" is to be in obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed by divine Love, — by Spirit, not by matter.

 

Rud. 10:5-9You must feel and know that God alone governs man; that His government is harmonious; that He is too pure to behold iniquity, and divides His power with nothing evil or material; that material laws are only human beliefs, which govern mortals wrongfully.

 

Jer. 10:14 2nd every, 15every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

 

No. 16:7-14If God knows evil even as a false claim, this knowledge would manifest evil in Him and proceeding from Him. Christian Science shows that matter, evil, sin, sickness, and death are but negations of Spirit, Truth, and Life, which are positives that cannot be gainsaid. The subjective states of evil, called mortal mind or matter, are negatives destitute of time and space; for there is none beside God or Spirit and the idea of Spirit.

 

Mis. 260:14-19Jesus knew that erring mortal thought holds only in itself the supposition of evil, and that sin, sickness, and death are its subjective states; also, that pure Mind is the truth of being that subjugates and destroys any suppositional or elementary opposite to Him who is All.

 

Truth is supreme and omnipotent.

 

SH 468:9-11 ThereThere is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.

 

Mis 286:28-31 (to 2nd ,)Until this absolute Science of being is seen, understood, and demonstrated in the offspring of divine Mind, and man is perfect even as the Father is perfect, human speculation will go on,

 

Ex. 4:1-8 MosesMoses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod. And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it. And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand: That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee. ¶And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow. And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. And it shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign.

 

SH 223:7-9Matter does not express Spirit. God is infinite omnipresent Spirit. If Spirit is all and is everywhere, what and where is matter?

 

Matt. 5:1-3,5,6And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

 

SH 119:27-120:1As astronomy reverses the human perception of the movement of the solar system, so Christian Science reverses the seeming relation of Soul and body and makes body tributary to Mind. Thus it is with man, who is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it seems otherwise to finite sense.

 

Rom. 5:2-5 2nd wewe stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

 

II Cor. 12:10Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

 

Acts 16:19-26 theythey caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers, And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city, And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans. And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. ¶And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one's bands were loosed.

 

My. 109:12-18Christ is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." "God is Love," the ever-operative divine Principle (or Person, if you please) whose person is not corporeal, not finite. This infinite Person we know not of by the hearing of the ear, yet we may sometimes say with Job, "But now mine eye [spiritual sense] seeth Thee."

 

Rev. 1:8I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

 

Rom. 13:1 there (to :)there is no power but of God:

 

Hymn 14Arise, arise and shine,On thee hath dawned the day;God is thy sun, and Christ thy light,Be thou a steadfast ray.

 

Sing praise, O waking heart,For all thy God hath wrought;For Truth's clear light on thee hath shone,And purified thy thought.

 

No more shall sin and wrongObscure the light divine,For God hath given thee His Son,And lo, all things are thine.

 

Arise, arise and shine,Uplift thee from the sod,And let thy living light show forthMan's unity with God.

 

Section 3:...but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholdsSH 16:28-31 Hallowed (to .)Hallowed be Thy name. Adorable One. Thy kingdom come. Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.

 

SH 3:17-26How empty are our conceptions of Deity! We admit theoretically that God is good, omnipotent, omnipresent, infinite, and then we try to give information to this infinite Mind. We plead for unmerited pardon and for a liberal outpouring of benefactions. Are we really grateful for the good already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks.

 

SH 2:23-2God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind of anything He does not already comprehend? Do we expect to change perfection? Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which is pouring forth more than we accept? The unspoken desire does bring us nearer the source of all existence and blessedness.

 

Asking God to be God is a vain repetition. God is "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" and He who is immutably right will do right without being reminded of His province.

 

SH 6:17-18"God is Love." More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go.

 

SH vii:1-2To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.

 

SH 15:25-30Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God. Self-forgetfulness, purity, and affection are constant prayers. Practice not profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and they assuredly call down infinite blessings.

 

Mis. 16:9-26 TheThe Principle of Christianity is infinite: it is indeed God; and this infinite Principle hath infinite claims on man, and these claims are divine, not human; and man's ability to meet them is from God; for, being His likeness and image, man must reflect the full dominion of Spirit — even its supremacy over sin, sickness, and death.

 

Here, then, is the awakening from the dream of life in matter, to the great fact that God is the only Life; that, therefore, we must entertain a higher sense of both God and man. We must learn that God is infinitely more than a person, or finite form, can contain; that God is a divine Whole, and All, an all-pervading intelligence and Love, a divine, infinite Principle; and that Christianity is a divine Science. This newly awakened consciousness is wholly spiritual; it emanates from Soul instead of body, and is the new birth begun in Christian Science.

 

SH 444:10-12Step by step will those who trust Him find that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

 

SH 297:20-24Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of material sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the ever-present, is becoming understood.

 

Heb. 11:30By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.

 

Josh. 6:1-5, 15, 16, 20Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And the Lord said unto Joshua, See, I have given into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of valour. And ye shall compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days. And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns: and the seventh day ye shall compass the city seven times, and the priests shall blow with the trumpets. And it shall come to pass, that when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, and when ye hear the sound of the trumpet, all the people shall shout with a great shout; and the wall of the city shall fall down flat, and the people shall ascend up every man straight before him.And it came to pass on the seventh day, that they rose early about the dawning of the day, and compassed the city after the same manner seven times: only on that day they compassed the city seven times.And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you the city.So the people shouted when the priests blew with the trumpets: and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the trumpet, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city.

 

SH 131:10-11The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.

 

SH 227:21-29Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: "Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!" Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the "glorious liberty of the children of God," and be free! This is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being.

 

SH 249:1-4Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.

 

SH 340:15-29"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri-unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal. One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.

 

SH 492:19-21Science says: All is Mind and Mind's idea. You must fight it out on this line.

 

Ex. 7:10-12 MosesMoses and Aaron went in unto Pharaoh, and they did so as the Lord had commanded: and Aaron cast down his rod before Pharaoh, and before his servants, and it became a serpent. Then Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers: now the magicians of Egypt, they also did in like manner with their enchantments. For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.

 

Mis. 208:11-12Mortals have only to submit to the law of God, come into sympathy with it, and to let His will be done.

 

Mis. 468:27-469:4Every one must see or feel for himself in order to be convinced; but I am satisfied that any who will lay aside their preconceived notions, and deal honestly with themselves and the light they have, will come to a knowledge of the truth as illustrated in the teachings and life of Jesus Christ; that is, that Mind, or Soul, or whatever you may be pleased to call it, is the real Ego, or self, and that mortal mind with its body is the unreal and vanishing, and eventually goes back to its native nothingness.

 

Isa. 28:10 preceptprecept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

 

SH 480:1-5When the substance of Spirit appears in Christian Science, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is not, evil becomes nothing, — the opposite of the something of Spirit.

 

SH 191:8-15As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine Principle of man dawns upon human thought, and leads it to "where the young child was," — even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual sense of being and of what Life includes. Thus the whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error.

 

Hymn 207Mother's Evening PrayerMary Baker Eddy

 

O gentle presence, peace and joy and power;O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour,Thou Love that guards the nestling's faltering flight!Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight.

 

Love is our refuge; only with mine eyeCan I behold the snare, the pit, the fall:His habitation high is here, and nigh,His arm encircles me, and mine, and all.

 

O make me glad for every scalding tear,For hope deferred, ingratitude, disdain!Wait, and love more for every hate, and fearNo ill, — since God is good, and loss is gain.

 

Beneath the shadow of His mighty wing;In that sweet secret of the narrow way,Seeking and finding, with the angels sing:"Lo, I am with you alway," — watch and pray.

 

No snare, no fowler, pestilence or pain;No night drops down upon the troubled breast,When heaven's aftersmile earth's tear-drops gain,And mother finds her home and heav'nly rest.

 

Section 4 Casting down imaginations, (how spiritual weapons overcome sin)

 

SH 17:1-3 Thy (to .)Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on earth, — God is omnipotent, supreme.Rev. 12:7-11 there (to ;)there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;

 

Hymn 10

 

All power is given unto our Lord,On Him we place reliance;With truth from out His sacred wordWe bid our foes defiance.With Him we shall prevail,Whatever may assail;He is our shield and tower,Almighty is His power;His kingdom is forever.

 

Rejoice, ye people, praise His name,His care doth e'er surround us.His love to error's thralldom came,And from its chains unbound us.Our Lord is God alone,No other power we own;No other voice we heed,No other help we need;His kingdom is forever.

 

O then give thanks to God on high,Who life to all is giving;The hosts of death before Him fly,In Him we all are living.Then let us know no fear,Our King is ever near;Our stay and fortress strong,Our strength, our hope, our song;His kingdom is forever.

 

SH 192:17-19Moral and spiritual might belong to Spirit, who holds the "wind in His fists;" and this teaching accords with Science and harmony.

 

SH 192:19-23In Science, you can have no power opposed to God, and the physical senses must give up their false testimony. Your influence for good depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale.

 

SH 192:23-26The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a mockery of strength, which erelong betrays its weakness and falls, never to rise.

 

Rom. 7:19-25 1st the (to 1st .)the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

I Cor. 15:56, 57The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Mis. 30:16-21The great Way-shower illustrated Life unconfined, uncontaminated, untrammelled, by matter. He proved the superiority of Mind over the flesh, opened the door to the captive, and enabled man to demonstrate the law of Life, which St. Paul declares "hath made me free from the law of sin and death."

 

SH 38:24-32Jesus mapped out the path for others. He unveiled the Christ, the spiritual idea of divine Love. To those buried in the belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure or the gratification of the senses, he said in substance: Having eyes ye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should understand and be converted, and I might heal you. He taught that the material senses shut out Truth and its healing power.

 

Ret. 63:7-9 (to ;)We attack the sinner's belief in the pleasure of sin, alias the reality of sin, which makes him a sinner, in order to destroy this belief and save him from sin;

 

Luke 19:1-10 JesusJesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to-day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

 

Rud. 2:23-27 (to ;)Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Christian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin;

 

Mis. 5:4-7Science reveals man as spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. This should be understood. Our College should be crowded with students who are willing to consecrate themselves to this Christian work.

 

Ret. 63:14-18God is good, hence goodness is something, for it represents God, the Life of man. Its opposite, nothing, named evil, is nothing but a conspiracy against man's Life and goodness. Do you not feel bound to expose this conspiracy, and so to save man from it?

 

Ret. 63:11-13When we deny the authority of sin, we begin to sap it; for this denunciation must precede its destruction.

 

Mis. 367:5-6Matter and evil are subjective states of error or mortal mind.

 

Mis. 367:9-12Thus, whatever is wrongfully-minded will disappear in the proportion that Science is understood, and the reality of being — goodness and harmony — is demonstrated.

 

Luke 5:3-8And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon's, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship. Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake. And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came, and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink. When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.

 

Matt. 14:23-32 1st whenwhen he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray: and when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased.

 

Matt. 16:21-23¶From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

 

John 21:14-17This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he was risen from the dead. ¶So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

 

John 21:20-22Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is he that betrayeth thee? Peter seeing him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? Jesus saith unto him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? follow thou me.

 

Hymn 298:3Sinner, it calls you, — "Come to this fountain,Cleanse the foul senses within;'Tis the Spirit that makes pure,That exalts thee, and will cureAll thy sorrow and sickness and sin."

 

Ret. 64:3-8The sin is the sinner, and vice versa, for such is the unity of evil; and together both sinner and sin will be destroyed by the supremacy of good. This, however, does not annihilate man, for to efface sin, alias the sinner, brings to light, makes apparent, the real man, even God's "image and likeness."

 

Mis. 30:26-32Take courage, dear reader, for any seeming mysticism surrounding realism is explained in the Scripture, "There went up a mist from the earth [matter];" and the mist of materialism will vanish as we approach spirituality, the realm of reality; cleanse our lives in Christ's righteousness; bathe in the baptism of Spirit, and awake in His likeness.

 

I Cor. 15:58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

 

Section 5 "...and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God..."

 

SH 17:4-5 Give (to 2nd ;)Give us this day our daily bread; Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections;

 

Matt. 7:9-11 whatwhat man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

 

SH 214:19-21Mortals are inclined to fear and to obey what they consider a material body more than they do a spiritual God.

 

SH 481:12-23The forbidden fruit of knowledge, against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death, and good and evil to be capable of commingling. This is the significance of the Scripture concerning this "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," — this growth of material belief, of which it is said: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Human hypotheses first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and then assume the necessity of these evils because of their admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the procurers of all discord.

 

SH 165:1-5Physiology is one of the apples from "the tree of knowledge." Evil declared that eating this fruit would open man's eyes and make him as a god. Instead of so doing, it closed the eyes of mortals to man's God-given dominion over the earth.

 

Matt. 6:25Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

 

SH 165:12-15Obedience to the so-called physical laws of health has not checked sickness. Diseases have multiplied, since man-made material theories took the place of spiritual truth.

 

SH 166:8-14The Mohammedan believes in a pilgrimage to Mecca for the salvation of his soul. The popular doctor believes in his prescription, and the pharmacist believes in the power of his drugs to save a man's life. The Mohammedan's belief is a religious delusion; the doctor's and pharmacist's is a medical mistake.

 

SH 166:23-26Failing to recover health through adherence to physiology and hygiene, the despairing invalid often drops them, and in his extremity and only as a last resort, turns to God.

 

SH 167:1-3Should we implore a corporeal God to heal the sick out of His personal volition, or should we understand the infinite divine Principle which heals?

 

SH 167:6-10We apprehend Life in divine Science only as we live above corporeal sense and correct it. Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines the harmony of our existence, — our health, our longevity, and our Christianity.

 

SH 168:15-23Because man-made systems insist that man becomes sick and useless, suffers and dies, all in consonance with the laws of God, are we to believe it? Are we to believe an authority which denies God's spiritual command relating to perfection, — an authority which Jesus proved to be false? He did the will of the Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called material law, but in accordance with God's law, the law of Mind.

 

John 9:1-3 asas Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

 

John 9:6, 7When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.

 

Mark 8:22-26¶And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought. And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

 

Mark 8:27-29¶And Jesus went out, and his disciples, into the towns of Caesarea Philippi: and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Whom do men say that I am? And they answered, John the Baptist: but some say, Elias; and others, One of the prophets. And he saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Peter answereth and saith unto him, Thou art the Christ.

 

Matt. 4:23-25¶And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.

 

SH 14:25-30Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth. This understanding casts out error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak "as one having authority."

 

SH 390:12-26When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let your higher sense of justice destroy the false process of mortal opinions which you name law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last farthing, the last penalty demanded by error. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him." Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying that necessity and healing the sick.

 

SH 390:27-391:6"Agree to disagree" with approaching symptoms of chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consumption, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages of disease with as powerful mental opposition as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage of an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit. Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in sickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to the judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, "Thou art whole!"

 

SH 391:7-12Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against them. Banish the belief that you can possibly entertain a single intruding pain which cannot be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way you can prevent the development of pain in the body.

 

Hymn 195:1Not what I am, O Lord, but what Thou art;That, that alone can be my soul's true rest;Thy love, not mine, bids fear and doubt depart,And stills the tumult of my troubled breast.

 

Hymn 195:3

 

'Tis what I know of Thee, my Lord and God,That fills my soul with peace, my lips with song;Thou art my health, my joy, my staff, my rod;I lean on Thee, in weakness I am strong.

 

SH 487:3-6Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of man, never attainable through death, but gained by walking in the pathway of Truth both before and after that which is called death.

 

SH 487:15-21 SpiritSpirit is all-knowing; this precludes the need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind understands. The body cannot believe. The believer and belief are one and are mortal. Christian evidence is founded on Science or demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and there is in reality no such thing as mortal mind.

 

SH 284:31-32The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man.

 

Hymn 96

 

He stood of old, the holy Christ,Amid the suffering throng,With whom his lightest touch sufficedTo make the weakest strong.That healing gift God gives to themWho use it in His name;The power that filled the garment's hemIs evermore the same.

 

So shalt thou be with power enduedLike him who went aboutThe Syrian hillsides doing goodAnd casting demons out.The Great Physician liveth yetThy friend and guide to be;The Healer by GennesaretShall walk the rounds with thee.

 

'01 15:7-12The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen sin, disease, and death, and he overcomes them through Christ, Truth, teaching him that they cannot overcome us. The resistance to Christian Science weakens in proportion as one understands it and demonstrates the Science of Christianity.

 

SH 182:15-17The hypotheses of mortals are antagonistic to Science and cannot mix with it. This is clear to those who heal the sick on the basis of Science.

 

SH 182:30-32To admit that sickness is a condition over which God has no control, is to presuppose that omnipotent power is powerless on some occasions.

 

SH 183:23-24Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength.

 

SH 481:7-23Material sense never helps mortals to understand Spirit, God. Through spiritual sense only, man comprehends and loves Deity. The various contradictions of the Science of Mind by the material senses do not change the unseen Truth, which remains forever intact. The forbidden fruit of knowledge, against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death, and good and evil to be capable of commingling. This is the significance of the Scripture concerning this "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," — this growth of material belief, of which it is said: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Human hypotheses first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and then assume the necessity of these evils because of their admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the procurers of all discord.

 

SH 482:13-16Question. — Is it important to understand these explanations in order to heal the sick?Answer. — It is, since Christ is "the way" and the truth casting out all error.

 

SH xi:9-21The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are the sign of Immanuel, or "God with us," — a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime, To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense], And recovering of sight to the blind, To set at liberty them that are bruised.

 

Section 6 "and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"

 

SH 427:13-14Death is but another phase of the dream that existence can be material.

 

SH 427:17-21If man is never to overcome death, why do the Scriptures say, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"? The tenor of the Word shows that we shall obtain the victory over death in proportion as we overcome sin.

 

SH 17:6-7 And (to ;)And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And Love is reflected in love;

 

SH 11:1-4 JesusJesus' prayer, "Forgive us our debts," specified also the terms of forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he said, "Go, and sin no more."

 

SH 23:1-5Wisdom and Love may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin. One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires constant self-immolation on the sinner's part.

 

SH 427:21-25The great difficulty lies in ignorance of what God is. God, Life, Truth, and Love make man undying. Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.

 

SH 427:29-428:2The dream of death must be mastered by Mind here or hereafter. Thought will waken from its own material declaration, "I am dead," to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, "There is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor reaction."

 

SH 39:13-30The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them. He was "the way." To him, therefore, death was not the threshold over which he must pass into living glory.

 

"Now," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," — meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is the time for so-called material pains and material pleasures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible in Science. To break this earthly spell, mortals must get the true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists and governs the universe harmoniously. This thought is apprehended slowly, and the interval before its attainment is attended with doubts and defeats as well as triumphs.

 

John 11:1 (to .)Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

 

John 11:4-7, 11-17 Our, 20-27 MarthaWhen Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again.

 

Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.

 

Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord: I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.

 

John 11:30-44Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, And said, Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him! And some of them said, Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

 

SH 75:12-20Jesus said of Lazarus: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." Jesus restored Lazarus by the understanding that Lazarus had never died, not by an admission that his body had died and then lived again. Had Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have resuscitated it.

 

SH 134:21-30The true Logos is demonstrably Christian Science, the natural law of harmony which overcomes discord, — not because this Science is supernatural or preternatural, nor because it is an infraction of divine law, but because it is the immutable law of God, good. Jesus said: "I knew that Thou hearest me always;" and he raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There is divine authority for believing in the superiority of spiritual power over material resistance.

 

SH 493:28-494:4If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever intact in his perfect state, and to govern man's entire action? Jesus said: "Destroy this temple [body], and in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;" and he did this for tired humanity's reassurance.

 

SH 494:11-14It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.

 

SH 108:19-109:10When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present; that the opposite of Truth, — called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, — is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so-called mind names matter, thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit.

 

My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed mind produces all the organism and action of the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels, and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in Mind-science.

 

Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen to be supported by sensible evidence, until its divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen, no other conclusion can be reached.

 

Rom. 8:2 1st thethe law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

 

SH 253:25-31Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, disease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is destroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life instead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit instead of the flesh.

 

SH 253:32-254:8The divine demand, "Be ye therefore perfect," is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable. Individuals are consistent who, watching and praying, can "run, and not be weary; . . . walk, and not faint," who gain good rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and yield not to discouragement. God requires perfection, but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought and the victory won.

 

Rom. 8:6-9 1st to (to 1st .)to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

 

SH 76:32-77:4The recognition of Spirit and of infinity comes not suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said: "I cannot turn at once from good to evil." Neither do other mortals accomplish the change from error to truth at a single bound.

 

SH 242:15-20 InIn patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error, — self-will, self-justification, and self-love, — which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death.

 

SH 77:6-11Error brings its own self-destruction both here and hereafter, for mortal mind creates its own physical conditions. Death will occur on the next plane of existence as on this, until the spiritual understanding of Life is reached.

 

SH 76:22-26The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, — constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual.

 

SH 450:19-22The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good.

 

SH 428:6Man's privilege at this supreme moment is to prove the words of our Master: "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear, — this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, "whose builder and maker is God."

 

Hymn 218O Life that maketh all things new,The blooming earth, the thoughts of men;Our pilgrim feet, wet with Thy dew,In gladness hither turn again.

 

From hand to hand the greeting flows,From eye to eye the signals run,From heart to heart the bright hope glows,The seekers of the Light are one:

 

One in the freedom of the truth,One in the joy of paths untrod,One in the heart's perennial youth,One in the larger thought of God; —

 

The freer step, the fuller breath,The wide horizon's grander view;The sense of Life that knows no death, —The Life that maketh all things new.

 

Section 7 Don't let the spiritual idea be stolen

 

SH 17:8-11 And (to .)And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil; And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

 

Mis. 81:25-82:1 (to ,)In the desolation of human understanding, divine Love hears and answers the human call for help; and the voice of Truth utters the divine verities of being which deliver mortals out of the depths of ignorance and vice. This is the Father's benediction. It gives lessons to human life, guides the understanding, peoples the mind with spiritual ideas,

 

Mis. 367:17-27If God is infinite good, He knows nothing but good; if He did know aught else, He would not be infinite. Infinite Mind knows nothing beyond Himself or Herself. To good, evil is never present; for evil is a different state of consciousness. It was not against evil, but against knowing evil, that God forewarned. He dwelleth in light; and in the light He sees light, and cannot see darkness. The opposite conclusion, that darkness dwelleth in light, has neither precedent nor foundation in nature, in logic, or in the character of Christ.

 

Ret. 63:1-7Why do Christian Scientists say God and His idea are the only realities, and then insist on the need of healing sickness and sin? Because Christian Science heals sin as it heals sickness, by establishing the recognition that God is All, and there is none beside Him, — that all is good, and there is in reality no evil, neither sickness nor sin.

 

SH 269:29-270:4The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter; (2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life. The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist and cooperate. One only of the following statements can be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that everything is Mind.

 

Mis. 102:24-26Whatever seems material, seems thus only to the material senses, and is but the subjective state of mortal and material thought.

 

SH 126:32-127:8If Christendom resists the author's application of the word Science to Christianity, or questions her use of the word Science, she will not therefore lose faith in Christianity, nor will Christianity lose its hold upon her. If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of the spiritual universe, including man, then everything entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity.

 

Un. 13:1-7Science reverses the evidence of the senses in theology, on the same principle that it does in astronomy. Popular theology makes God tributary to man, coming at human call; whereas the reverse is true in Science. Men must approach God reverently, doing their own work in obedience to divine law, if they would fulfil the intended harmony of being.

 

SH 442:19-32 WhenWhen Christ changes a belief of sin or of sickness into a better belief, then belief melts into spiritual understanding, and sin, disease, and death disappear. Christ, Truth, gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the material, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man is clothed and fed spiritually. St. Paul says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling:" Jesus said, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." This truth is Christian Science.Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake.

 

Section 8 Holy groundSH 17:12-15 ForFor Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

 

SH 596:3-6Paganism and agnosticism may define Deity as "the great unknowable;" but Christian Science brings God much nearer to man, and makes Him better known as the All-in-all, forever near.

 

Ex. 3:1-5 MosesMoses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt. And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

 

No. 27:23-26Who can say what the absolute personality of God or man is? Who living hath seen God or a perfect man? In presence of such thoughts take off thy shoes and tread lightly, for this is holy ground.

 

Job 38:1-7Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it? Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

 

Job 42:1-3, 5Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.

 

Ps. 119:161 mymy heart standeth in awe of thy word.

 

Ps. 33:6, 8By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.

 

No. 9:25-10:5Divinely defined, Science is the atmosphere of God; humanly construed, and according to Webster, it is "knowledge, duly arranged and referred to general truths and principles on which it is founded, and from which it is derived." I employ this awe-filled word in both a divine and human sense; but I insist that Christian Science is demonstrably as true, relative to the unseen verities of being, as any proof that can be given of the completeness of Science.

 

No. 9:22-24Science is not the shibboleth of a sect or the cabalistic insignia of philosophy; it excludes all error and includes all Truth.

 

Mis. 15:22-25What a faith-lighted thought is this! that mortals can lay off the "old man," until man is found to be the image of the infinite good that we name God, and the fulness of the stature of man in Christ appears.

 

Rev. 1:10I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

 

SH 574:5-575:6 RevelationRevelation xxi. 9: —And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife.

 

This ministry of Truth, this message from divine Love, carried John away in spirit. It exalted him till he became conscious of the spiritual facts of being and the "New Jerusalem, coming down from God, out of heaven," — the spiritual outpouring of bliss and glory, which he describes as the city which "lieth foursquare." The beauty of this text is, that the sum total of human misery, represented by the seven angelic vials full of seven plagues, has full compensation in the law of Love. Note this, — that the very message, or swift-winged thought, which poured forth hatred and torment, brought also the experience which at last lifted the seer to behold the great city, the four equal sides of which were heaven-bestowed and heaven-bestowing.

 

Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sackcloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-winged dove descending upon you. The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers: "Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb's wife, — Love wedded to its own spiritual idea." Then cometh the marriage feast, for this revelation will destroy forever the physical plagues imposed by material sense.

 

Hymn 108Here, O my Lord, I'd see Thee face to face;Here would I touch and handle things unseen;Here grasp with firmer hand th' eternal grace,And all my weariness upon Thee lean.

 

Here would I feed upon the bread of God;Here drink anew the royal wine of heaven;Here would I lay aside each earthly load,Here taste afresh the calm of sin forgiven.

 

And as we rise, the symbols disappear;The feast, though not the love, is past and gone;The bread and wine remove, but Thou art here,Nearer than ever, still my shield and sun.

 

Feast after feast thus comes and passes by;Yet passing, points to the glad feast above,Giving sweet foretaste of the festal joy,The Lamb's great bridal feast of bliss and love.

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