Practicing the Presence of God
This week's Lesson Sermon Subject: Doctrine Of Atonement
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Morning Prayer
May the gentle presence of divine Love so reward your lives that you shall so rise in faith and understanding as never to doubt or dread in a single conflict with evil. God, the divine Love that is your Life will govern it. Take courage and trust in this Love with all your heart, and because of this childlike faith good will deliver you from the sense of evil and the evil of material sense, and establish your way in Truth and rightness.
from Mary Baker Eddy’s Lessons of the Seventh Day, (the Brown Book), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 149
Daily Watch
19 — WATCH lest you endeavor to interpret the Bible with any sense of God being separated from man, or operating in the universe except through man. It might even be helpful to declare that man is the expressed activity of God, or God in action, if such a statement would aid one in eliminating any sense that God operates apart from His reflection, man. When the Bible says, "Thus saith the Lord," it means that divine Mind was expressed through the demonstration some individual made to voice God. To trust in the Lord means to trust in one’s ability to demonstrate God’s presence and power. Whenever the Bible speaks of God, if the text involves more than a definition of Him, it must include the fact that God is being reflected by man, or as man. The Lord is our Shepherd through our ability to reflect His protecting presence. Thus the Lord must mean the everpresence of divine Love demonstrated or reflected by man.
Discussion points
Three Essential Statements by Mary Beth Singleterry
1. Isaiah 41 : 10
10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Atonement, from the April 1887 issue of the Christian Science Journal by Grace
Universal Presence of God
from BibleHub by R. Venting.
Psalm 139:7-10
Where shall I go from your spirit? or where shall I flee from your presence?…
The laws and forms of nature are only the methods of God's agency, the habits of His existence and the turns of His thought. Each dewdrop holds an oracle, each bud a revelation, and everything we see is a signal of His presence, present but out of sight. Every colour of the dawning or the dying light; every aspect of the changing seasons and all the mysteries of electricity make us feel the eternal presence of God. "Shores," says one, "on which man has never yet landed lie paved with shells; fields never trod are carpeted with flowers; seas where man has never dived are inlaid with pearls; caverns never mined are radiant with gems of finest forms and purest lustre. But still God is there,"
13 I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me [I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who [a]infuses inner strength into me; I am [b]self-sufficient in Christ’s sufficiency].
Philippians 4:13 from the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
Philippians 4:13
13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
Man has no limited capacity. He has no inherent ability within himself — consequently he has no disability. He exists in God’s reflection, God does the expressing. Man is the term which denotes the expression.
Oneness, from Collected Writings by Bicknell Young
He sustains my individuality. Nay, more — He is my individuality and my Life.
from Unity of Good, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 48
God Is Individual Consciousness by Bicknell Young
It is the spiritualization of thought and Christianization of daily life, in contrast with the results of the ghastly farce of material existence; it is chastity and purity, in contrast with the downward tendencies and earthward gravitation of sensualism and impurity, which really attest the divine origin and operation of Christian Science.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 272
Just For Today, excerpt from “Day” in the Blue Book, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 159
Body, unabridged, attributed to Mary Baker G. Eddy
Hallowed
Consecrated to a sacred use...
The 1828 Webster's Dictionary
There is no life in fire.
from Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, as given by Mary Baker Eddy, page 130
Pleasant View Buildings and Grounds.
The trip to Concord, N. H., from Boston is a pleasant one. The two hours’ ride up the valley of the Merrimac river, through the low hills which are as the foothills of the White Mountains, carries one through a rugged farming country and many factory towns to the sober little capital city, with its wide, shaded streets, old-fashioned homes, and many churches. The city lies, as it were, in a basin, the rim of which is encircling hills. Old elm-trees make roofs of green over the streets, and there is a quiet, sleepy atmosphere about the town.
The public buildings are grouped together in the centre of the city, the capitol, the state library, the post office, and the city building, with six or eight churches grouped around them. Most of the buildings are of New Hampshire granite, and none are more beautiful than the Christian Science church, which was the gift of Mrs. Eddy to her followers in Concord. This building is built of the virgin stone of a freshly opened quarry, and it is almost as fair as marble in color. It has a great tower, which is plain and four-faced, and recedes from its broad base to a lofty belfry, in which are placed tubular chimes on which old hymns are rung out to the city every Sunday morning.
I arrived in the city Saturday afternoon, and was driven almost immediately out Pleasant Street, past the State Asylum, with its beautiful grounds, past the Odd Fellows’ Home, past numerous handsome private homes, until, perhaps a mile from the centre of the city, I reached the grounds of Pleasant View.
The place is to the south, and west of the city. One hundred acres slope from the hill road down to the blue river. There is a low granite curbing, surmounted by an ornamental iron fencing. The grounds are laid off like a park, with very careful landscape gardening. There is a sweep of lawn, in the centre of which stands the modest three-storied frame cottage, with its balconies, verandas, and tower effects, giving large window views to the chambers.
There is an ornamental fountain in the foreground, and a circular drive sweeps up to the door from a granite gateway, in which is set a little iron wicket. Beyond the house the lawn slopes to the river, and in various parts of the grounds are large beds of tulips, pansies, hyacinths. Beyond the garden are orchards, which were in full flower at the time of the visit.
From the house a pathway leads toward a miniature lake, on which is built an ornamental boat-house, and here is kept the small skiff in which Mrs. Eddy has sometimes enjoyed drifting about this placid little body of water. The view across the river is beautiful from the windows of Mrs. Eddy’s room, and, in fact, from all the rooms on that side of the house. Monadnock rears its purple head some miles away, and directly opposite are the hills of Mrs. Eddy’s birthplace.
Final Readings
"Who Did Hinder You?" by Isabelle Louise Guhne
From the June 1917 issue of the Christian Science Journal
How often we hear the remark made, sometimes half heartedly, then again with a certain pathetic yearning in the tone. "Oh, if I just had the understanding that some people have, or if I could talk as well as some people do, I would not mind giving a testimony at a Wednesday evening service, and how glad I would be to give this healing truth to those in need of it!" Let us stop a moment and analyze this desire, for if it be a true one it is prayer, according to the teaching of our dear Leader (see Science and Health, p. 1). Again, on page 326, she says: "Working and praying with true motives, your Father will open the way. "Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?" Who or what is this that claims so little intelligence and understanding, and no ability to give out the truth? Is this the Father's own child, to whom He has given all things, or is it mortal man, who does not know what it means to be either a receptacle or a channel for the truth? And could mortal man ever do anything in or of himself? Is not this the same kind of plea which mortal mind presented to Moses, seeking to hinder him from carrying God's message of deliverance to the Israelites? Moses said, "I am not eloquent, ... I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue." Mortal mind can always find some excuse to hinder our progress and keep us from being about the Father's business. It is then we need to ask, What is man's birthright, and has not God given him dominion over all? Paul declared, "I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me."
God's reply to Moses was: "Who hath made man's mouth? ... Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say." Our first step then must be expressed by a readiness to obey, a letting go of self-will and self-consciousness, and when human thought is emptied of self one is ready to do the Father's will. God said, "Go, and I will ... teach thee." Faith is always required before we can enlist in the Father's service. There must always be a loving confidence in the divine All-power, since God never gives the supply in advance of the demand.
In Matthew's gospel we find a promise given the apostles, when they were sent on their healing mission, similar to that given Moses: "When they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." Moses was not ready to heed the divine command at the time he was called; perhaps he had not learned that divine Mind is the only intelligence. Relying as he seemingly did on human ability and wisdom, he had not the faith or courage to go forward without seeing how the work was to be accomplished, and so God chose Aaron to deliver the message.
Mortal mind would always deny infinite wisdom, understanding, and power; it would deny the very essence of Spirit and create a sense of limitation and lack to hinder every forward step taken by God's child. It would use every subtle means available to silence the voice of Truth and place an obstacle in the way of him who would be about the Father's business; and yet the Father's promise was, "My presence shall go with thee." Later this was repeated in the Master's tender assurance, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
Mortal belief would defraud us of the glorious privilege of serving in the Master's vineyard. It may tell us, as it did Moses, that we cannot give out God's message of truth because we are slow of speech. It may seek to limit us in understanding by the belief in many minds. It may talk to us of our erring nature and unworthiness, and it may seek to discourage even those who live the very closest to God by the belief in lack, as it did the disciples at the feeding of the five thousand, when they, not being able to discern how all these people were to be fed, would have sent them away to buy food in the villages.
But God cannot use sealed lips, the hand that will not open to give, or the feet that refuse to move to do His bidding, for Love is ever active and knows no stagnation. The multitudes could never have been fed by a denial of Truth. Our little store of truth increases as it is put into circulation and used. The Father's children are channels for Love and Truth, and they are never given a command which they cannot obey. Love's channels must be utilized, so then let us not oppose the divine will. Our feet can move at God's bidding, and we read in the Bible, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace." Our hands can do with might whatever they find to do, whether it be to write the word of encouragement to the burdened and sorrowing and discouraged, to lift the fallen, or to raise the sufferer from the bed of pain.
Let us, then, know that we have but one Mind, which can send forth nothing but thoughts of Truth, that always heal and save. Let us then open our lips and voice it, knowing that God always inspires that which is used in His service, letting the healing truth flow freely, and we shall be amazed at the result, for God is with His word, and no labor of love is or ever can be lost.