July
1, 2012 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:
GOD Responsive
Reading: — Psalms
96:1-13. The
following Citations comprise our Sermon.
From
the Christian Science Quarterly, July 6,
1913
Originally published in the early
years of the Christian Science movement,
these lessons are composed 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: Isaiah 40:18. To whom then
will ye liken God? or what likeness will
ye compare unto him?
1 O sing unto the Lord a new song:
sing unto the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing unto the Lord, bless his
name; shew forth his salvation from day to
day.
3 Declare his glory among the
heathen, his wonders among all people.
4 For the Lord is great, and
greatly to be praised: he is to be feared
above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the nations
are idols: but the Lord made the
heavens.
6 Honour and majesty are before
him: strength and beauty are in his
sanctuary.
7 Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds
of the people, give unto the Lord glory
and strength.
8 Give unto the Lord the glory due
unto his name: bring an offering, and come
into his courts.
9 O worship the Lord in the beauty
of holiness: fear before him, all the
earth.
10 Say among the heathen that the
Lord reigneth: the world also shall be
established that it shall not be moved: he
shall judge the people righteously.
11 Let the heavens rejoice, and let
the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and
the fulness thereof.
12 Let the field be joyful, and all
that is therein: then shall all the trees
of the wood rejoice before the Lord:
13 For he cometh, for he cometh to
judge the earth: he shall judge the world
with righteousness, and the people with
his truth.
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) Isa
44:6, 8 (3) Isa
55:8 my, 9 (4) I
Cor 8:5, 6 (2)
140:23-27 (3)
224:12-16 (4)
257:15, 27 (5)
258:1-3
The Holy Bible
King
James Version
(1)
Job 5:8, 9
I would seek unto God, and unto God would
I commit my cause: Which doeth great
things and unsearchable; marvellous things
without number:
Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel,
and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am
the first, and I am the last; and beside
me there is no God. Fear ye not, neither
be afraid: have not I told thee from that
time, and have declared it? ye are even my
witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea,
there is no God; I know not
any.
My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For
as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways, and
my thoughts than your thoughts.
For though there be that are called gods,
whether in heaven or in earth, (as there
be gods many, and lords many,) But to us
there is but one God, the Father, of whom
are all things, and we in him; and one
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,
and we by him.
Science
and Health
with Key to the Scriptures
by
Mary Baker Eddy
(1) 587:5,
17
GOD.
The great I AM;
the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting,
all-wise, all-loving, and eternal;
Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life;
Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.
God is one God, infinite and perfect, and
cannot become finite and
imperfect.
The Jewish tribal Jehovah was a
man-projected God, liable to wrath,
repentance, and human changeableness. The
Christian Science God is universal,
eternal, divine Love, which changeth not
and causeth no evil, disease, nor
death.
Centuries ago religionists were ready to
hail an anthropomorphic God, and array His
vicegerent with pomp and splendor; but
this was not the manner of truth's
appearing.
The material senses and human conceptions
would translate spiritual ideas into
material beliefs, and would say that an
anthropomorphic God, instead of infinite
Principle, — in other words, divine
Love, — is the father of the rain,
"who hath begotten the drops of dew," who
bringeth "forth Mazzaroth in his season,"
and guideth "Arcturus with his sons."
Infinite Mind cannot be limited to a
finite form, or Mind would lose its
infinite character as inexhaustible Love,
eternal Life, omnipotent Truth.
A mortal, corporeal, or finite conception
of God cannot embrace the glories of
limitless, incorporeal Life and
Love.
(6) Rom
1:20-22, 25 (7)
John 4:23, 24 (8) Rom
11:36 (7)
204:30-12 The error (8)
27:17 (9)
279:16-29
(5)
Ps 104:24
O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in
wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth
is full of thy riches.
For the invisible things of him from the
creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are
made, even his eternal power and Godhead;
so that they are without excuse: Because
that, when they knew God, they glorified
him not as God, neither were thankful; but
became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they
became fools, Who changed the truth of God
into a lie, and worshipped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is
blessed for ever. Amen.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the
true worshippers shall worship the Father
in spirit and in truth: for the Father
seeketh such to worship him. God is a
Spirit: and they that worship him must
worship him in spirit and in
truth.
For of him, and through him, and to him,
are all things: to whom be glory for ever.
Amen.
(6) 129:11-12
Pantheism may be defined as a belief in
the intelligence of matter, — a
belief which Science
overthrows.
The error, which says that Soul is in
body, Mind is in matter, and good is in
evil, must unsay it and cease from such
utterances; else God will continue to be
hidden from humanity, and mortals will sin
without knowing that they are sinning,
will lean on matter instead of Spirit,
stumble with lameness, drop with
drunkenness, consume with disease, —
all because of their blindness, their
false sense concerning God and man. When
will the error of believing that there is
life in matter, and that sin, sickness,
and death are creations of God, be
unmasked? When will it be understood that
matter has neither intelligence, life, nor
sensation, and that the opposite belief is
the prolific source of all
suffering?
Jesus' parables explain Life as never
mingling with sin and death. He laid the
axe of Science at the root of material
knowledge, that it might be ready to cut
down the false doctrine of pantheism,
— that God, or Life, is in or of
matter.
In proportion as the belief disappears
that life and intelligence are in or of
matter, the immortal facts of being are
seen, and their only idea or intelligence
is in God. Spirit is reached only through
the understanding and demonstration of
eternal Life and Truth and Love. Every
system of human philosophy, doctrine, and
medicine is more or less infected with the
pantheistic belief that there is mind in
matter; but this belief contradicts alike
revelation and right reasoning. A logical
and scientific conclusion is reached only
through the knowledge that there are not
two bases of being, matter and mind, but
one alone, — Mind.
(10) Ps
102:25-27 (11)
Nah 1:5 (12)
Matt 24:35 (11)
263:32-3 (12)
264:7-10, 13 (13)
267:1-5 (to 1st .)
(9)
Ps 145:1, 3, 13
I will extol thee, my God, O king; and I
will bless thy name for ever and ever.
Great is the Lord, and greatly to be
praised; and his greatness is
unsearchable. Thy kingdom is an
everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion
endureth throughout all
generations.
Of old hast thou laid the foundation of
the earth: and the heavens are the work of
thy hands. They shall perish, but thou
shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax
old like a garment; as a vesture shalt
thou change them, and they shall be
changed: But thou art the same, and thy
years shall have no end.
The mountains quake at him, and the hills
melt, and the earth is burned at his
presence, yea, the world, and all that
dwell therein.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away.
(10)
127:4
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.
The fading forms of matter, the mortal
body and material earth, are the fleeting
concepts of the human mind. They have
their day before the permanent facts and
their perfection in Spirit
appear.
Mortals must look beyond fading, finite
forms, if they would gain the true sense
of things. Where shall the gaze rest but
in the unsearchable realm of Mind? As
mortals gain more correct views of God and
man, multitudinous objects of creation,
which before were invisible, will become
visible. When we realize that Life is
Spirit, never in nor of matter, this
understanding will expand into
self-completeness, finding all in God,
good, and needing no other
consciousness.
Every object in material thought will be
destroyed, but the spiritual idea, whose
substance is in Mind, is eternal. The
offspring of God start not from matter or
ephemeral dust. They are in and of Spirit,
divine Mind, and so forever
continue.
(14) Ps
97:9 (15)
Isa 17:7, 8 (16)
Isa 42:8 (17)
Col 3:1, 5, 6 (15)
146:5 (16)
173:6, 30-8 (17)
174:17 (19)
Isa 45:22, 24 (20)
John 14:10 (21) Ps
103:1, 3, 4 (19)
158:1-4, 6-23 (20)
369:23-26 (21)
226:18 (23) Ps
100:5 (24) I
John 4:16 God is (25)
Hos 6:3 (23)
204:3, 18 (24)
340:15
(13) Deut 4:35
Unto thee it was shewed, that thou
mightest know that the Lord he is God;
there is none else beside him.
For thou, Lord, art high above all the
earth: thou art exalted far above all
gods.
At that day shall a man look to his Maker,
and his eyes shall have respect to the
Holy One of Israel. And he shall not look
to the altars, the work of his hands,
neither shall respect that which his
fingers have made, either the groves, or
the images.
I am the Lord: that is my name: and my
glory will I not give to another, neither
my praise to graven images.
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek
those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Mortify
therefore your members which are upon the
earth; fornication, uncleanness,
inordinate affection, evil concupiscence,
and covetousness, which is idolatry: For
which things' sake the wrath of God cometh
on the children of
disobedience:
(14)
535:12-14
A belief in other gods, other creators,
and other creations must go down before
Christian Science.
The first idolatry was faith in matter.
The schools have rendered faith in drugs
the fashion, rather than faith in Deity.
By trusting matter to destroy its own
discord, health and harmony have been
sacrificed. Such systems are barren of the
vitality of spiritual power, by which
material sense is made the servant of
Science and religion becomes
Christlike.
When the supposition, that Spirit is
within what it creates and the potter is
subject to the clay, is individualized,
Truth is reduced to the level of error,
and the sensible is required to be made
manifest through the insensible. The idols
of civilization are far more fatal to
health and longevity than are the idols of
barbarism. The idols of civilization call
into action less faith than Buddhism in a
supreme governing intelligence. The
Esquimaux restore health by incantations
as consciously as do civilized
practitioners by their more studied
methods. Is civilization only a higher
form of idolatry, that man should bow down
to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to baths,
diet, exercise, and air? Nothing save
divine power is capable of doing so much
for man as he can do for
himself.
The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the
Mount are pursuing and will overtake the
ages, rebuking in their course all error
and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven on
earth. Truth is revealed. It needs only to
be practised.
(18)
Isa 40:28-31
Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard,
that the everlasting God, the Lord, the
Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth
not, neither is weary? there is no
searching of his understanding. He giveth
power to the faint; and to them that have
no might he increaseth strength. Even the
youths shall faint and be weary, and the
young men shall utterly fall: But they
that wait upon the Lord shall renew their
strength; they shall mount up with wings
as eagles; they shall run, and not be
weary; and they shall walk, and not
faint.
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the
ends of the earth: for I am God, and there
is none else. Surely, shall one say, in
the Lord have I righteousness and
strength: even to him shall men come; and
all that are incensed against him shall be
ashamed.
Believest thou not that I am in the
Father, and the Father in me? the words
that I speak unto you I speak not of
myself: but the Father that dwelleth in
me, he doeth the works.
Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is
within me, bless his holy name. Who
forgiveth all thine iniquities; who
healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth
thy life from destruction; who crowneth
thee with lovingkindness and tender
mercies;
(18)
146:13-14
Material medicine substitutes drugs for
the power of God — even the might of
Mind — to heal the body.
It is recorded that the profession of
medicine originated in idolatry with pagan
priests, who besought the gods to heal the
sick and designated Apollo as "the god of
medicine." It is here noticeable that
Apollo was also regarded as the sender of
disease, "the god of pestilence."
Hippocrates turned from image-gods to
vegetable and mineral drugs for healing.
This was deemed progress in medicine; but
what we need is the truth which heals both
mind and body. The future history of
material medicine may correspond with that
of its material god, Apollo, who was
banished from heaven and endured great
sufferings upon earth. Drugs, cataplasms,
and whiskey are stupid substitutes for the
dignity and potency of divine Mind and its
efficacy to heal. It is pitiful to lead
men into temptation through the byways of
this wilderness world, — to victimize
the race with intoxicating prescriptions
for the sick, until mortal mind acquires
an educated appetite for strong drink, and
men and women become loathsome
sots.
The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is,
the preventive and curative) arts belong
emphatically to Christian Science, as
would be readily seen, if psychology, or
the Science of Spirit, God, was
understood.
Human codes, scholastic theology, material
medicine and hygiene, fetter faith and
spiritual understanding. Divine Science
rends asunder these fetters, and man's
birthright of sole allegiance to his Maker
asserts itself.
(22)
Ps 36:7-9
How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O
God! therefore the children of men put
their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
They shall be abundantly satisfied with
the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt
make them drink of the river of thy
pleasures. For with thee is the fountain
of life: in thy light shall we see
light.
For the Lord is good; his mercy is
everlasting; and his truth endureth to all
generations.
God is love; and he that dwelleth in love
dwelleth in God, and God in
him.
Then shall we know, if we follow on to
know the Lord: his going forth is prepared
as the morning; and he shall come unto us
as the rain, as the latter and former rain
unto the earth.
(22) 203:32-1
God is at once the centre and
circumference of being.
All forms of error support the false
conclusions that there is more than one
Life; that material history is as real and
living as spiritual history; that mortal
error is as conclusively mental as
immortal Truth; and that there are two
separate, antagonistic entities and
beings, two powers, — namely, Spirit
and matter, — resulting in a third
person (mortal man) who carries out the
delusions of sin, sickness, and death.
Such theories are evidently erroneous.
They can never stand the test of Science.
Judging them by their fruits, they are
corrupt. When will the ages understand the
Ego, and realize only one God, one Mind or
intelligence?
"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
triunity 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.