March
30, 2008 The
canonical writings, together with the word
of our textbook, corroborating and
explaining the Bible texts in their
spiritual import and application to all
ages, past, present, and future,
constitute a sermon undivorced from truth,
uncontaminated and unfettered by human
hypotheses, and divinely
authorized. Subject:
REALITY Responsive
Reading: — Psalms 112:1-7;
113:1-4. The
following Citations comprise our Sermon.
From
the Christian Science Quarterly, March 30,
1919
Originally published in the early
years of the Christian Science movement,
these lessons are comprised of citations
from the Bible (King James Version) and
the Christian Science textbook, Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy.
EXPLANATORY NOTE:
Friends:
The Bible and the Christian Science
textbook are our only preachers. We shall
now read Scriptural texts, and their
correlative passages from our
denominational textbook; these comprise
our sermon.
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Golden
Text: Psalms 125:1. They that
trust in the Lord shall be as mount Zion,
which cannot be removed, but abideth for
ever.
1 Praise ye the Lord. Blessed is
the man that feareth the Lord, that
delighteth greatly in his
commandments.
2 His seed shall be mighty upon
earth: the generation of the upright shall
be blessed.
3 Wealth and riches shall be in his
house: and his righteousness endureth for
ever.
4 Unto the upright there ariseth
light in the darkness: he is gracious, and
full of compassion, and righteous.
5 A good man sheweth favour, and
lendeth: he will guide his affairs with
discretion.
6 Surely he shall not be moved for
ever: the righteous shall be in
everlasting remembrance.
7 He shall not be afraid of evil
tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in
the Lord.
1 Praise ye the Lord. Praise, O ye
servants of the Lord, praise the name of
the Lord.
2 Blessed be the name of the Lord
from this time forth and for evermore.
3 From the rising of the sun unto
the going down of the same the Lord's name
is to be praised.
4 The Lord is high above all
nations, and his glory above the
heavens.
Section
One
Section
Two
Section
Three
Section
Four
Section
Five
Section
Six
This lesson
was prepared by early students of Christian Science to
reinforce the class teaching given by Mary Baker Eddy in the
Massachusetts Metaphysical College in the 1880s and 1890s.
Consistent with the outline used in her teaching, the six
sections of the early lessons usually followed a general
outline: Section
One: The relation of the subject to
God.
Section
Two: The relation of the subject to man or Christ Jesus.
Section Three: The presentation of Christian Science
through a relative law, as related to the
subject.
Section
Four: The application of the relative law presented in
section three. Section Five: The demonstration of the
relative law from section three. Section Six: The
triumph or victory of the relative law, leaving the student
in the kingdom of God. For more information, visit our
Bible
Lessons
information page.
Study Guide
(2) Ps
71:16, 17, 19 (3) Rom
11:33, 36 (2)
112:16 (3)
208:20
The Holy Bible
King
James Version
(1) Ps
68:34, 35
Ascribe ye strength unto God: his
excellency is over Israel, and his
strength is in the clouds. O God, thou art
terrible out of thy holy places: the God
of Israel is he that giveth strength and
power unto his people. Blessed be
God.
I will go in the strength of the Lord God:
I will make mention of thy righteousness,
even of thine only. O God, thou hast
taught me from my youth: and hitherto have
I declared thy wondrous works. Thy
righteousness also, O God, is very high,
who hast done great things: O God, who is
like unto thee!
O the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! how
unsearchable are his judgments, and his
ways past finding out! For of him, and
through him, and to him, are all things:
to whom be glory for ever.
Amen.
Science
and Health
with Key to the Scriptures
by
Mary Baker Eddy
(1)
275:10-24
To grasp the reality and order of being in
its Science, you must begin by reckoning
God as the divine Principle of all that
really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love,
combine as one, — and are the
Scriptural names for God. All substance,
intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality,
cause, and effect belong to God. These are
His attributes, the eternal manifestations
of the infinite divine Principle, Love. No
wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is
true, no love is lovely, no life is Life
but the divine; no good is, but the good
God bestows. Divine metaphysics, as
revealed to spiritual understanding, shows
clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is
God, omnipotence, omnipresence,
omniscience, — that is, all power,
all presence, all Science. Hence all is in
reality the manifestation of
Mind.
From the infinite One in Christian Science
comes one Principle and its infinite idea,
and with this infinitude come spiritual
rules, laws, and their demonstration,
which, like the great Giver, are "the same
yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" for
thus are the divine Principle of healing
and the Christ-idea characterized in the
epistle to the Hebrews.
Let us learn of the real and eternal, and
prepare for the reign of Spirit, the
kingdom of heaven, — the reign and
rule of universal harmony, which cannot be
lost nor remain forever unseen.
(5)
Phil 3:13, 14 (5)
21:25-6 (6)
426:5-9 (7)
262:10
(4)
I Cor 9:24-27
Know ye not that they which run in a race
run all, but one receiveth the prize? So
run, that ye may obtain. And every man
that striveth for the mastery is temperate
in all things. Now they do it to obtain a
corruptible crown; but we an
incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as
uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that
beateth the air: But I keep under my body,
and bring it into subjection: lest that by
any means, when I have preached to others,
I myself should be a castaway.
Brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended: but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind,
and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press toward the mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.
(4)
353:22
When we learn that error is not real, we
shall be ready for progress, "forgetting
those things which are behind."
Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly
man is at the beck and call of error, and
will be attracted thitherward. He is like
a traveller going westward for a
pleasure-trip. The company is alluring and
the pleasures exciting. After following
the sun for six days, he turns east on the
seventh, satisfied if he can only imagine
himself drifting in the right direction.
Byand-by, ashamed of his zigzag course, he
would borrow the passport of some wiser
pilgrim, thinking with the aid of this to
find and follow the right road. Vibrating
like a pendulum between sin and the hope
of forgiveness, — selfishness and
sensuality causing constant retrogression,
— our moral progress will be
slow.
The discoverer of Christian Science finds
the path less difficult when she has the
high goal always before her thoughts, than
when she counts her footsteps in
endeavoring to reach it. When the
destination is desirable, expectation
speeds our progress.
We must reverse our feeble flutterings
— our efforts to find life and truth
in matter — and rise above the
testimony of the material senses, above
the mortal to the immortal idea of God.
These clearer, higher views inspire the
God-like man to reach the absolute centre
and circumference of his being.
(9)
490:20 (10)
353:1 (11)
306:25
(6)
Matt 7:21-29
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven; but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven. Many will say
to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? and in thy name
have cast out devils? and in thy name done
many wonderful works? And then will I
profess unto them, I never knew you:
depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings
of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him
unto a wise man, which built his house
upon a rock: And the rain descended, and
the floods came, and the winds blew, and
beat upon that house; and it fell not: for
it was founded upon a rock. And every one
that heareth these sayings of mine, and
doeth them not, shall be likened unto a
foolish man, which built his house upon
the sand: And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat
upon that house; and it fell: and great
was the fall of it. And it came to pass,
when Jesus had ended these sayings, the
people were astonished at his doctrine:
For he taught them as one having
authority, and not as the
scribes.
(8)
269:21
The testimony of the material senses is
neither absolute nor divine. I therefore
plant myself unreservedly on the teachings
of Jesus, of his apostles, of the
prophets, and on the testimony of the
Science of Mind. Other foundations there
are none. All other systems — systems
based wholly or partly on knowledge gained
through the material senses — are
reeds shaken by the wind, not houses built
on the rock.
Human belief — or knowledge gained
from the so-called material senses —
would, by fair logic, annihilate man along
with the dissolving elements of clay. The
scientifically Christian explanations of
the nature and origin of man destroy all
material sense with immortal testimony.
This immortal testimony ushers in the
spiritual sense of being, which can be
obtained in no other way.
The Christianly scientific real is the
sensuous unreal. Sin, disease, whatever
seems real to material sense, is unreal in
divine Science. The physical senses and
Science have ever been antagonistic, and
they will so continue, till the testimony
of the physical senses yields entirely to
Christian Science.
Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of
the material senses, Science, still
enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the
immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,
— is unfolding Life and the universe,
ever present and eternal.
(13)
169:29-8 (14)
52:29-2 (15)
422:2 (16)
185:22 (9) Isa
26:4 (10)
Isa 30:19, 21 (11)
John 14:2, 4-6 (18)
286:9-11 (19)
241:23-27 (20)
174:9 (21)
566:1 (13)
Rev 21:2-4, 16, 23-25 (23)
577:19
(7)
Matt 12:22-28
Then was brought unto him one possessed
with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he
healed him, insomuch that the blind and
dumb both spake and saw. And all the
people were amazed, and said, Is not this
the son of David? But when the Pharisees
heard it, they said, This fellow doth not
cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the
prince of the devils. And Jesus knew their
thoughts, and said unto them, Every
kingdom divided against itself is brought
to desolation; and every city or house
divided against itself shall not stand:
And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided
against himself; how shall then his
kingdom stand? And if I by Beelzebub cast
out devils, by whom do your children cast
them out? therefore they shall be your
judges. But if I cast out devils by the
Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is
come unto you.
(12)
230:22-4
According to Holy Writ, the sick are never
really healed by drugs, hygiene, or any
material method. These merely evade the
question. They are soothing syrups to put
children to sleep, satisfy mortal belief,
and quiet fear. We think that we are
healed when a disease disappears, though
it is liable to reappear; but we are never
thoroughly healed until the liability to
be ill is removed. So-called mortal mind
or the mind of mortals being the remote,
predisposing, and the exciting cause of
all suffering, the cause of disease must
be obliterated through Christ in divine
Science, or the so-called physical senses
will get the victory. Unless an ill is
rightly met and fairly overcome by Truth,
the ill is never conquered.
Whatever teaches man to have other laws
and to acknowledge other powers than the
divine Mind, is anti-Christian. The good
that a poisonous drug seems to do is evil,
for it robs man of reliance on God,
omnipotent Mind, and according to belief,
poisons the human system. Truth is not the
basis of theogony. Modes of matter form
neither a moral nor a spiritual system.
The discord which calls for material
methods is the result of the exercise of
faith in material modes, — faith in
matter instead of in Spirit. Did Jesus
understand the economy of man less than
Graham or Cutter?
The accusations of the Pharisees were as
self-contradictory as their religion. The
bigot, the debauchee, the hypocrite,
called Jesus a glutton and a wine-bibber.
They said: "He casteth out devils through
Beelzebub," and is the "friend of
publicans and sinners."
Wiser than his persecutors, Jesus said:
"If I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by
whom do your children cast them
out?"
Jesus cast out evil and healed the sick,
not only without drugs, but without
hypnotism, which is the reverse of ethical
and pathological Truth-power.
(8)
Ps 5:8
Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness
because of mine enemies; make thy way
straight before my face.
Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the
Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting
strength:
For the people shall dwell in Zion at
Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he
will be very gracious unto thee at the
voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it,
he will answer thee. And thine ears shall
hear a word behind thee, saying, This is
the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to
the right hand, and when ye turn to the
left.
In my Father's house are many mansions: if
it were not so, I would have told you. I
go to prepare a place for you. And whither
I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas
saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither
thou goest; and how can we know the way?
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the
truth, and the life: no man cometh unto
the Father, but by me.
(17)
192:27-29
We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love
by following the example of our Master in
the understanding of divine
metaphysics.
The Master said, "No man cometh unto the
Father [the divine Principle of
being] but by me," Christ, Life,
Truth, Love; for Christ says, "I am the
way."
One's aim, a point beyond faith, should be
to find the footsteps of Truth, the way to
health and holiness. We should strive to
reach the Horeb height where God is
revealed; and the corner-stone of all
spiritual building is purity.
The footsteps of thought, rising above
material standpoints, are slow, and
portend a long night to the traveller; but
the angels of His presence — the
spiritual intuitions that tell us when
"the night is far spent, the day is at
hand" — are our guardians in the
gloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian
Science is a pilgrim and stranger, marking
out the path for generations yet
unborn.
As the children of Israel were guided
triumphantly through the Red Sea, the dark
ebbing and flowing tides of human fear,
— as they were led through the
wilderness, walking wearily through the
great desert of human hopes, and
anticipating the promised joy, — so
shall the spiritual idea guide all right
desires in their passage from sense to
Soul, from a material sense of existence
to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared
for them who love God. Stately Science
pauses not, but moves before them, a
pillar of cloud by day and of fire by
night, leading to divine
heights.
(12)
Ps 48:1, 2, 8 (to 1st .)
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be
praised in the city of our God, in the
mountain of his holiness. Beautiful for
situation, the joy of the whole earth, is
mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the
city of the great King. As we have heard,
so have we seen in the city of the Lord of
hosts, in the city of our God: God will
establish it for ever.
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 the
city lieth foursquare, and the length is
as large as the breadth: and he measured
the city with the reed, twelve thousand
furlongs. The length and the breadth and
the height of it are equal. And the city
had no need of the sun, neither of the
moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God
did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light
thereof. And the nations of them which are
saved shall walk in the light of it: and
the kings of the earth do bring their
glory and honour into it. And the gates of
it shall not be shut at all by day: for
there shall be no night there.
(22) 575:7-10, 16-7
This sacred city, described in the
Apocalypse (xxi. 16) as one that "lieth
foursquare" and cometh "down from God, out
of heaven," represents the light and glory
of divine Science. Taken in its
allegorical sense, the description of the
city as foursquare has a profound meaning.
The four sides of our city are the Word,
Christ, Christianity, and divine Science;
"and the gates of it shall not be shut at
all by day: for there shall be no night
there." This city is wholly spiritual, as
its four sides indicate. As the Psalmist
saith, "Beautiful for situation, the joy
of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the
sides of the north, the city of the great
King." It is indeed a city of the Spirit,
fair, royal, and square. Northward, its
gates open to the North Star, the Word,
the polar magnet of Revelation; eastward,
to the star seen by the Wisemen of the
Orient, who followed it to the manger of
Jesus; southward, to the genial tropics,
with the Southern Cross in the skies,
— the Cross of Calvary, which binds
human society into solemn union; westward,
to the grand realization of the Golden
Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of
Harmony. This heavenly city, lighted by
the Sun of Righteousness, — this New
Jerusalem, this infinite All, which to us
seems hidden in the mist of remoteness,
— reached St. John's vision while yet
he tabernacled with mortals.
This city of our God has no need of sun or
satellite, for Love is the light of it,
and divine Mind is its own interpreter.
All who are saved must walk in this light.
Mighty potentates and dynasties will lay
down their honors within the heavenly
city. Its gates open towards light and
glory both within and without, for all is
good, and nothing can enter that city,
which "defileth, . . . or maketh a
lie."