February
2, 2025
From
the Christian Science Quarterly, January 30,
1916
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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.
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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.
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.
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Subject:
LOVE
Golden
Text: I John 4:7. Beloved, let us
love one another: for love is of God; and
every one that loveth is born of God, and
knoweth God.
Responsive
Reading: Psalms 17:1, 3-7;
63:1-5, 7.
1 Hear the right, O Lord, attend
unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that
goeth not out of feigned lips.
3 Thou hast proved mine heart; thou
hast visited me in the night; thou hast
tried me, and shalt find nothing; I am
purposed that my mouth shall not
transgress.
4 Concerning the works of men, by
the word of thy lips I have kept me from
the paths of the destroyer.
5 Hold up my goings in thy paths,
that my footsteps slip not.
6 I have called upon thee, for thou
wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear
unto me, and hear my speech.
7 Shew thy marvellous
lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy
right hand them which put their trust in
thee from those that rise up against
them.
1 O God, thou art my God; early
will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for
thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry
and thirsty land, where no water is;
2 To see thy power and thy glory,
so as I have seen thee in the
sanctuary.
3 Because thy lovingkindness is
better than life, my lips shall praise
thee.
4 Thus will I bless thee while I
live: I will lift up my hands in thy
name.
5 My soul shall be satisfied as
with marrow and fatness; and my mouth
shall praise thee with joyful lips:
7 Because thou hast been my help,
therefore in the shadow of thy wings will
I rejoice.
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The
following Citations comprise our Sermon.
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Study Guide
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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.
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Section One
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The Holy Bible
King
James Version
(1)
Job 36:3, 5
I will fetch my knowledge from afar, and
will ascribe righteousness to my Maker.
Behold, God is mighty, and despiseth not
any: he is mighty in strength and
wisdom.
(2) Ps
11:4, 7
The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's
throne is in heaven: his eyes behold, his
eyelids try, the children of men. For the
righteous Lord loveth righteousness; his
countenance doth behold the
upright.
(3) Ps
145:8, 9, 17
The Lord is gracious, and full of
compassion; slow to anger, and of great
mercy. The Lord is good to all: and his
tender mercies are over all his works. The
Lord is righteous in all his ways, and
holy in all his works.
(4)
Luke 11:42
But woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye tithe
mint and rue and all manner of herbs, and
pass over judgment and the love of God:
these ought ye to have done, and not to
leave the other undone.
(5)
John 14:21
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth
them, he it is that loveth me: and he that
loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and
I will love him, and will manifest myself
to him.
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Science
and Health
with Key to the Scriptures
by
Mary Baker Eddy
(1) 2:23
(only), 31 God
God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more?
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. The wisdom of man is not
sufficient to warrant him in advising
God.
(2)
3:12
The Divine Being must be reflected by man,
else man is not the image and
likeness of the patient, tender, and true,
the One "altogether lovely;" but to
understand God is the work of eternity,
and demands absolute consecration of
thought, energy, and desire.
(3)
19:6
Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by
giving man a truer sense of Love, the
divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and
this truer sense of Love redeems man from
the law of matter, sin, and death by the
law of Spirit, the law of divine
Love.
(4)
231:20-25
To hold yourself superior to sin, because
God made you superior to it and governs
man, is true wisdom. To fear sin is to
misunderstand the power of Love and the
divine Science of being in man's relation
to God, to doubt His government and
distrust His omnipotent care.
(5)
4:17-22
Simply asking that we may love God will
never make us love Him; but the longing to
be better and holier, expressed in daily
watchfulness and in striving to assimilate
more of the divine character, will mould
and fashion us anew, until we awake in His
likeness.
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Section Two
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(6)
Ps 97:1, 10
The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice;
let the multitude of isles be glad
thereof. Ye that love the Lord, hate evil:
he preserveth the souls of his saints; he
delivereth them out of the hand of the
wicked.
(7)
Amos 5:14, 15
Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live:
and so the Lord, the God of hosts, shall
be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the
evil, and love the good, and establish
judgment in the gate: it may be that the
Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto
the remnant of Joseph.
(8)
John 3:16, 17, 19, 20
For God so loved the world, that he gave
his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. For God sent not
his Son into the world to condemn the
world; but that the world through him
might be saved. And this is the
condemnation, that light is come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than
light, because their deeds were evil. For
every one that doeth evil hateth the
light, neither cometh to the light, lest
his deeds should be reproved.
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(6)
23:1-2
Wisdom and Love may require many
sacrifices of self to save us from
sin.
(7)
11:12-18
Mere legal pardon (and there is no other,
for divine Principle never pardons our
sins or mistakes till they are corrected)
leaves the offender free to repeat the
offence, if indeed, he has not already
suffered sufficiently from vice to make
him turn from it with loathing. Truth
bestows no pardon upon error, but wipes it
out in the most effectual
manner.
(8)
240:21
If at present satisfied with wrong-doing,
we must learn to loathe it. If at present
content with idleness, we must become
dissatisfied with it. Remember that
mankind must sooner or later, either by
suffering or by Science, be convinced of
the error that is to be
overcome.
(9)
265:3-15, 24
Man understands spiritual existence in
proportion as his treasures of Truth and
Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate
Godward, their affections and aims grow
spiritual, they must near the
broader interpretations of being, and gain
some proper sense of the infinite,
in order that sin and mortality may be put
off. This scientific sense of being,
forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means
suggests man's absorption into Deity and
the loss of his identity, but confers upon
man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere
of thought and action, a more expansive
love, a higher and more permanent peace.
The aspiration after heavenly good comes
even before we discover what belongs to
wisdom and Love. The loss of earthly hopes
and pleasures brightens the ascending path
of many a heart. The pains of sense
quickly inform us that the pleasures of
sense are mortal and that joy is
spiritual.
(10)
451:2
Christian Scientists must live under the
constant pressure of the apostolic command
to come out from the material world and be
separate. They must renounce aggression,
oppression and the pride of power.
Christianity, with the crown of Love upon
her brow, must be their queen of
life.
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Section Three
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(9)
Eph 1:3, 4
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in
Christ: According as he hath chosen us in
him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love:
(10) I
Cor 2:9, 10, 13, 14
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into
the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him. But
God hath revealed them unto us by his
Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. Which
things also we speak, not in the words
which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual
things with spiritual. But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of
God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.
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(11)
33:18-22
When the human element in him struggled
with the divine, our great Teacher said:
"Not my will, but Thine, be done!"
that is, Let not the flesh, but the
Spirit, be represented in me. This is the
new understanding of spiritual
Love.
(12)
266:6-23
Would existence without personal friends
be to you a blank? Then the time will come
when you will be solitary, left without
sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is
already filled with divine Love. When this
hour of development comes, even if you
cling to a sense of personal joys,
spiritual Love will force you to accept
what best promotes your growth. Friends
will betray and enemies will slander,
until the lesson is sufficient to exalt
you; for "man's extremity is God's
opportunity." The author has experienced
the foregoing prophecy and its blessings.
Thus He teaches mortals to lay down their
fleshliness and gain spirituality. This is
done through self-abnegation. Universal
Love is the divine way in Christian
Science. The sinner makes his own hell by
doing evil, and the saint his own heaven
by doing right. The opposite persecutions
of material sense, aiding evil with evil,
would deceive the very elect.
(13)
534:24-1
There will be greater mental opposition to
the spiritual, scientific meaning of the
Scriptures than there has ever been since
the Christian era began. The serpent,
material sense, will bite the heel of the
woman, will struggle to destroy the
spiritual idea of Love; and the woman,
this idea, will bruise the head of lust.
The spiritual idea has given the
understanding a foothold in Christian
Science.
(14)
264:24
Spiritual living and blessedness are the
only evidences, by which we can recognize
true existence and feel the unspeakable
peace which comes from an all-absorbing
spiritual love.
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Section Four
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(11)
Deut 7:9
Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he
is God, the faithful God, which keepeth
covenant and mercy with them that love him
and keep his commandments to a thousand
generations;
(12) Ps
130:7, 8
Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the
Lord there is mercy, and with him is
plenteous redemption. And he shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities.
(13)
Luke 1:50
And his mercy is on them that fear him
from generation to generation.
(14)
Eph 2:4-6
But God, who is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us, Even
when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us together with Christ, (by grace ye are
saved;) And hath raised us up together,
and made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus:
(15)
Matt 5:7
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall
obtain mercy.
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(15)
465:14
The attributes of God are justice, mercy,
wisdom, goodness, and so on.
(16)
6:18
To suppose that God forgives or punishes
sin according as His mercy is sought or
unsought, is to misunderstand Love and to
make prayer the safety-valve for
wrong-doing.
(17)
36:7, 19
Escape from punishment is not in
accordance with God's government, since
justice is the handmaid of mercy. A
selfish and limited mind may be unjust,
but the unlimited and divine Mind is the
immortal law of justice as well as of
mercy. It is quite as impossible for
sinners to receive their full punishment
this side of the grave as for this world
to bestow on the righteous their full
reward. It is useless to suppose that the
wicked can gloat over their offences to
the last moment and then be suddenly
pardoned and pushed into heaven, or that
the hand of Love is satisfied with giving
us only toil, sacrifice, cross-bearing,
multiplied trials, and mockery of our
motives in return for our efforts at well
doing.
(18)
538:7
Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword
of Truth gleams afar and indicates the
infinite distance between Truth and error,
between the material and spiritual,
the unreal and the real.
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Section Five
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(16)
Luke 10:1, 17-19
After these things the Lord appointed
other seventy also, and sent them two and
two before his face into every city and
place, whither he himself would come. And
the seventy returned again with joy,
saying, Lord, even the devils are subject
unto us through thy name. And he said unto
them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall
from heaven. Behold, I give unto you power
to tread on serpents and scorpions, and
over all the power of the enemy: and
nothing shall by any means hurt
you.
(17)
Acts 28:1-5, 8, 9
And when they were escaped, then they knew
that the island was called Melita. And the
barbarous people shewed us no little
kindness: for they kindled a fire, and
received us every one, because of the
present rain, and because of the cold. And
when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks,
and laid them on the fire, there came a
viper out of the heat, and fastened on his
hand. And when the barbarians saw the
venomous beast hang on his hand, they said
among themselves, No doubt this man is a
murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the
sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
And he shook off the beast into the fire,
and felt no harm. And it came to pass,
that the father of Publius lay sick of a
fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul
entered in, and prayed, and laid his hands
on him, and healed him. So when this was
done, others also, which had diseases in
the island, came, and were
healed:
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(19)
243:4, 25 Love
The divine Love, which made harmless the
poisonous viper, which delivered men from
the boiling oil, from the fiery furnace,
from the jaws of the lion, can heal the
sick in every age and triumph over sin and
death. It crowned the demonstrations of
Jesus with unsurpassed power and love. But
the same "Mind . . . which was also in
Christ Jesus" must always accompany the
letter of Science in order to confirm and
repeat the ancient demonstrations of
prophets and apostles. That those wonders
are not more commonly repeated to-day,
arises not so much from lack of desire as
from lack of spiritual growth. Love has no
sense of hatred. Life has no partnership
with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a
law of annihilation to everything unlike
themselves, because they declare nothing
except God.
(20)
514:26-2
Understanding the control which Love held
over all, Daniel felt safe in the lions'
den, and Paul proved the viper to be
harmless. All of God's creatures, moving
in the harmony of Science, are harmless,
useful, indestructible. A realization of
this grand verity was a source of strength
to the ancient worthies. It supports
Christian healing, and enables its
possessor to emulate the example of
Jesus.
(21)
274:12-16
The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and
they demonstrate Truth and Life. Hence
Christianity and the Science which
expounds it are based on spiritual
understanding, and they supersede the
so-called laws of matter.
(22)
374:5-6
Hatred and its effects on the body are
removed by Love.
(23)
375:15
All unscientific mental practice is
erroneous and powerless, and should be
understood and so rendered fruitless. The
genuine Christian Scientist is adding to
his patient's mental and moral power, and
is increasing his patient's spirituality
while restoring him physically through
divine Love.
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Section Six
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(18)
John 13:34
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye
love one another; as I have loved you,
that ye also love one another.
(19) I
John 4:12, 16-21
No man hath seen God at any time. If we
love one another, God dwelleth in us, and
his love is perfected in us. And we have
known and believed the love that God hath
to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
Herein is our love made perfect, that we
may have boldness in the day of judgment:
because as he is, so are we in this world.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love
casteth out fear: because fear hath
torment. He that feareth is not made
perfect in love. We love him, because he
first loved us. If a man say, I love God,
and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for
he that loveth not his brother whom he
hath seen, how can he love God whom he
hath not seen? And this commandment have
we from him, That he who loveth God love
his brother also.
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(24) 510:18-19
Love alone can impart the limitless idea
of infinite Mind.
(25)
520:3-9 The
The depth, breadth, height, might,
majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill
all space. That is enough! Human language
can repeat only an infinitesimal part of
what exists. The absolute ideal, man, is
no more seen nor comprehended by mortals,
than is his infinite Principle,
Love.
(26)
336:14-16
The spiritual man's consciousness and
individuality are reflections of God. They
are the emanations of Him who is Life,
Truth, and Love.
(27)
305:22-27
In the illusion of life that is here
to-day and gone to-morrow, man would be
wholly mortal, were it not that Love, the
divine Principle that obtains in divine
Science, destroys all error and brings
immortality to light.
(28)
138:14
The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation
on which Jesus built. His sublime summary
points to the religion of Love.
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