You Can Run But You Can't Hide
This week's Lesson Sermon Subject: Everlasting Punishment
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Morning Prayer
The government of divine Love is supreme. Love rules the universe, and its edict hath gone forth: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," and "Love thy neighbor as thyself." Let us have the molecule of faith that removes mountains, — faith armed with the understanding of Love, as in divine Science, where right reigneth. ...
God is Father, infinite, and this great truth, when understood in its divine metaphysics, will establish the brotherhood of man, end wars, and demonstrate "on earth peace, good will toward men."
from Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 278 and 279
Daily Watch
86 — WATCH lest you interpret the spiritual blessings of Christian Science in terms of material blessings alone, and continue year after year to apply your understanding with them in mind. The Children of Israel in Egypt are an illustration of an effort to appropriate the spiritual idea humanly year after year. The Egyptians enslaved them and made them work for them, refusing to let them go. In like manner it would appear as if mortal man captures the spiritual idea, or knowledge of Truth, and makes it work for him as a slave, to bring to human sense health, peace and prosperity. While this is the beginner’s conception of Christian Science, the call soon comes to release the spiritual idea from this slavery to material sense, in order that it may become his spiritual guide out of the materiality of Egypt into the Promised Land.
It is possible that if one refuses to take this forward step when the right time comes, he will experience suffering and chastening, until he releases his concept of Christian Science from the narrow limits of being just a better means of keeping him happy and harmonious in hell. The Master’s final experience on the cross illustrates this higher concept of the spiritual idea, since he refused to use it to protect himself humanly and physically, and employed it wholly to lead his thought up to God and to keep it there. In that way he gained his resurrection and final freedom from all materiality.
Discussion points
Resigned to the Will of God — Excerpt
by Editor (Judge Septimus Hanna)
Mortals seek health and happiness, but want to find them in their own way. Thus they pass the long night of error in fruitless toil. When the morning dawns and they are willing to deny self, and sacrifice human opinions and beliefs, letting God's will be done, they speedily find their heart's desire. It would seem that one experience ought to be sufficient to teach the needed lesson. But mortals so soon forget how they failed to find when they followed their own inclinations, and were finally compelled to seek in God's way. Thus one experience after another seems necessary to enforce submission to the will of Truth and Love. Constant self-denial, and surrender of human desires and opinions, demonstrates meekness and humility resigned to the will of God. "Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth," says the apostle. The false sense is rebuked and stripped of its disguise, that man may be willing to part with it. The psalmist declared that he was comforted by the rod as well as the staff: "Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me." A staff to lean upon symbolizes the supporting influence of Truth and Love. The rod means correction. He who earnestly desired to be saved from all evil was comforted and encouraged when he was corrected as well as when he was strengthened. To be thus comforted one must possess an earnest desire for good, and a willingness to deny self, and make any sacrifice necessary to gain the true consciousness of being.
"Behold now is the day of salvation," if one is willing to be saved. Mortals are ever willing to be saved from discord and suffering, but are they as willing to part with the error of thought that makes suffering possible? If not, they are not completely resigned to the will of God, and should not be surprised if they are not made every whit whole. The healing work of Christian Science can be wrought in no other way than in accordance with the law of God which expresses His will. This is scientific healing, for it can remove the effect only as it first removes the cause.
Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In 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.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 242
The Way of Holiness by Mary Beth Singleterry
"Ever-present Love must seem ever absent to ever-present selfishness or material sense."
No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy, page 20
Jonah
by Ellen B. Pease
In studying the account of the prophet Jonah's experiences, several helpful lessons have come to the writer. As we read the story we find that his first mistake, when he was commanded to go to Nineveh, was in thinking that he could get away from God's presence. The attempt seemed to succeed, for he went down to Joppa and there he found a ship which would take him to Tarshish. Then, his fears being lulled to rest by a false sense of safety, he fell asleep in the hold of the ship. But Jonah was not to escape so easily, for we are told that "the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea," and if we read the definition of wind as given in Science and Health (p. 597) in this connection, we shall get a clearer thought of what is meant. Here we find it defined as "that which indicates the might of omnipotence and the movements of God's spiritual government, encompassing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal passions." To the mariners on the ship it meant the latter, but Jonah, when they had awakened him, recognized it as an indication of God's omnipotence.
Jonah then saw that his disobedience was endangering the well-being of others no less than his own, and for the first time in this account we find him willing to take a step in the right direction. He said to the men, "Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall this sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you." Science and Health (p. 240) tells us that "the divine method of paying sin's wages involves unwinding one's snarls and learning from experience how to divide between sense and Soul." Jonah's willingness to save others saved himself, for though he was thrown into the sea God had prepared a place of safety for him, and there for three days Jonah wrestled with error. He found that, as our Leader says, "sorrow for wrongdoing is but one step toward reform" (Ibid., p. 5). and it was not until he determined to obey the command of God that deliverance came.
Now when, in obedience to the second command of the Lord, Jonah went to Nineveh, his words caused the people of that wicked city to repent in sackcloth and ashes. This was all that Truth required: by falling into line with God's law they escaped the punishment that Jonah had prophesied, and which would otherwise have been theirs. But the mercy thus extended, we read, "displeased Jonah exceedingly. and he was very angry." Truth again gave him a lesson, by means of a gourd, so "came up in a night" and shaded Jonah from the sun as he sat outside the city, waiting to see if may hap the destruction he had foretold would come to pass. Then a worm, typical of the sin which had all but destroyed Nineveh, "smote the gourd that it withered;" and now Jonah saw that even as he had pity in his heart for the gourd, so the divine Mind had gained His end with the people of Nineveh and their human sense of life was not destroyed.
Thus Jonah learned the lessons which many of us are just beginning to learn today, namely: That we cannot escape from God's presence, for there is no place where God is not; and that, "if living in disobedience to Him, we ought to feel no security, although God is good" (Science and Health, p. 19). Jonah also discovered that the results for wrong-doing were not confined to himself, and that he must not contend for his own opinions as to the proper methods of bringing about God's ends. Sooner or later we must all learn what it means to pray with understanding, "Not my will, but thine, be done."
Psalm 136 : 1
“O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
Mercy: That benevolence, mildness or tenderness of heart which disposes a person to overlook injuries, or to treat an offender better than he deserves; the disposition that tempers justice, and induces an injured person to forgive trespasses and injuries, and to forbear punishment, or inflict less than law or justice will warrant. In this sense, there is perhaps no word in our language precisely synonymous with mercy That which comes nearest to it is grace. It implies benevolence, tenderness, mildness, pity or compassion, and clemency, but exercised only towards offenders. mercy is a distinguishing attribute of the Supreme Being. (1828 Webster Dictionary)
“O give thanks unto the Lord." The exhortation is intensely earnest: the Psalmist pleads with the Lord's people with an "O," three times repeated. Thanks are the least that we can offer, and these we ought freely to give. The inspired writer calls us to praise Jehovah for all his goodness to us, and all the greatness of his power in blessing his chosen. We thank our parents, let us praise our heavenly Father; we are grateful to our benefactors, let us give thanks unto the Giver of all good. "For he is good." …All that he does is good, relatively he is good to his creatures.
Let us thank him that we have seen, proved, and tasted that he is good. He is good beyond all others; indeed, he alone is good in the highest sense; he is the source of good, the good of all good, the sustainer of good, the perfecter of good, and the rewarder of good. For this he deserves the constant gratitude of his people. "For his mercy endureth for ever." … It is the sweetest stanza that a man can sing. What joy that there is mercy, mercy with Jehovah, enduring mercy, mercy enduring for ever. We are ever needing it, trying it, praying for it, receiving it: therefore let us forever sing of it. "When all else is changing within and around, in God and his mercy no change can be found.”
Association Address of 1951 by Herbert E. Rieke
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
Theodore Roosevelt
Brain-Washing — A Synthesis of the Russian Textbook on Psychopolitics
Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 106
Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 243
Spirit Versus Matter — 1961 Association Address by Herbert E. Rieke
When asked by members of her household to tell them what was the most simple yet profound prayer that could be uttered, it is recorded that Mary BAker Eddy said, “Pray without ceasing: O God, show me Thy way and keep me in that way.”
from Collectanea, by Mary Baker Eddy
Caesar’s government was overthrown, based as it was on physics and political economy, whose foundations are matter, even the beliefs of mortal mind. But the government that Jesus supported cannot be overthrown, based, as it is, on divine economy, on metaphysics or immortal Mind. Friends, which of these two governments do we acknowledge, and conform to
from Essays and Other Footprints, (the "Red Book"), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 28
Final Readings
Peace and Grace
by Maria Schloz
The prophet Isaiah exclaims, "The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." This divine message is a voice "with healing in his wings." What joy the words contain for the one who has found God; and what comfort and gentle invitation they include for the one straying in the world of materialism and sin, and, like a tired wanderer, striving to find his way home!
Without doubt the words just quoted must have been a constant support and comfort to the Christians of the early centuries. How could they have borne the persecutions they met with and have kept their faith, had they not been conscious of God's presence? They understood the wonderful secret of grace, a secret, however, only to those standing outside, to those who are not seeking Soul but the gratification of the material senses. One of the loyal Christians, the Apostle Paul, wrote to the congregation in Ephesus, "By grace are ye saved ... and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast."
Grace is the free gift of divine Love, the royal gift of God; it is the seal wherewith we as God's children are sealed for all eternity. Because of this the Lord's beloved disciple, John, was led to exclaim, "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." The sons of God! Think what it means to be a son of God! It is to possess the highest nobility, because man, created in and of God, is the royal reflection. Do we not recognize this in the example of our Master, who knew no higher honor than to be called the Son of God? It was he who recognized and proved so perfectly man's sonship with God. The purpose of his wonderful mission was to bring to human consciousness the understanding of man's unity or sonship with God; for in this realization lay salvation, liberation from the yoke of the bondage of evil, from the dream of life in matter.
We are God's children; we do not have to petition to become God's children. We need not fear that we shall not be chosen to sonship with God. Sonship with God is an eternal, immutable fact, which has always existed. On page 476 of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, we read, "Mortals will disappear, and immortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man." Are Christian Scientists proving this? Are we who stand on this foundation overbearing, arrogant, presumptuous? Hear the words of Christ Jesus, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." How wonderful is this grace, this knowledge of the sonship of God!
You who are sad and discouraged, look up and remember that now we are the children of God! You who wish to be free from the illusion of sickness, sin, and fear, throw off the chains of self- condemnation and doubt, and accept the promise, "My kindness shall not depart from thee." No material condition can alter the fact of the presence of peace and grace. The storm may rage, but we cannot sink. God's everlasting covenant of peace with man exists. We cannot perish, "for in him we live, and move, and have our being." This being so, our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes in Science and Health (p. 495): "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." Here is the wonder of grace for us: "God has made man capable of this" (ibid., p. 393). We are His children!
Oh, may we look up to Him with shouts of praise and lives of loyal exemplification; for His kindness shall not depart from us, neither shall the covenant of His peace be removed.