Not Even the Smell of Fire
This week's Lesson Sermon Subject: Matter
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Morning Prayer
God is All. To have God is to have all — harmony. Discord comes from looking away from all, thinking there is something else. You heal disease by knowing there is none. You heal sin in the same way. The prodigal goes into a far country thinking there is something there. I go after them thinking they have gone after something, and so it goes. But we must look to the spiritual as Paul says — II Corinthians 4: 17, 18, ‘For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.’
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the "Blue Book"), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 31
Daily Watch
408 — WATCH that you hold a correct conception of the relation of the objective to the subjective. Mind never assumes an unscientific position by ascribing independent entity to the objective, any more than a battery of searchlights would fear lest the different beams collide and produce a serious accident. A motion picture projector would never fear lest some unforeseen accident might happen on the screen, or that something on the screen might be lost.
If manifestation as matter is considered to be like ice, it is logical that only when it is melted, or resolved into thought, can it be purified. Thought is flexible and volatile always. All that makes any case of disease seem stubborn is the degree to which the manifestation seems to be objective — that is, an entity in and of itself. Mrs. Eddy once said, "Whatever we see objectively is simply the subjective state of our own belief of consciousness."
Discussion points
In considering John’s Revelation, I know that you see clearly that there are two elements to be found therein. First the false claims of evil to be handled, and secondly the absolute truth with which to handle them. John was working out the problem of good and evil, seeing the nothingness of evil and the allness of good. If he had just presented absolute truth, such as is found in the last two chapters of his Apocalypse, his would not have been a great document. Every great moral treatise deals with the working out of the problem of evil. The whole Bible is full of the claims of error to handle and the absolute truth with which to handle them. In the Ten Commandments for instance, we find claims as to how some people would seem to get away from perfection. In the two commandments of our Master we have the remedy — the absolute truth as it were. ...
Take one of history’s most famous speeches — Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. Here we find the same two important elements. First, Lincoln gave the truth “Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” Then he takes up the claim “Now we are engaged in a great Civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure.” In this second part he is taking up the claim that such idealism as was to be found in our Bill of Rights could not last. As you read the rest of the address, you will note the same two elements.
Now as it is with all great documents, so it is with the writings of our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. On every page there are to be found two things. First, the claims of error that need to be handled, and secondly the absolute truth with which to handle them. ...
...our Leader says on page 411 of the textbook that “the procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is fear, ignorance or sin.” Two pages farther on, on page 415 she says “Immortal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a cause nor an effect.” Then two pages farther she says that “Neither disease itself, sin, nor fear has the power to cause disease or a relapse.” Now in the first passage quoted it is brought out that disease is the effect of something — fear, ignorance or sin. In the second and third passages it brings out that disease cannot be the effect of anything. It would look, on the surface, as though there were a contradiction in the textbook. ...
“but this severance of fleshy ties serves to unite thought more closely to God?” Sure, if you’re going to think about your ties as fleshly, they will be severed, because there’s nothing eternal about flesh or fleshly ties. But if you think about your ties as ties of Love and Spirit, and mutual holy interests — ties of Truth — then there is nothing to be severed. Then your thought is already united with God, and does not have to be severed from something in order to unite it more closely with the heavenly Father. ...
“for Love supports the struggling heart.” Is that absolute or is it a claim? Of course, the struggling heart concept is the claim. “Love supports” — that is the absolute truth. Love supports man and thus reveals that there is no such thing as a struggling heart. That of course is the remedy for heart disease. In your practice every one of you will be called upon to handle the argument “there is a struggling heart” somewhere. You handle it of course by knowing that Love supports all of its ideas.
from the 1953 Association Address by Herbert Rieke
1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 497
Psalm 127:1
Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
Golden Text: Zechariah 4 : 6
“Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.”
From Our Exchanges
from the August 26, 1916 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, originally in the Western Christian Advocate
The Bible proclaims the supremacy of the things of the Spirit. These are accounted as more valuable. They are pointed out as more powerful. They are proclaimed as having greater permanence. In fact, they are the only abiding things. The things of material life pass away; the things of the Spirit are alone eternal. No Scriptural writers make this more clear than the prophets. Their concern was for the supremacy of the Spirit. They hoped for a nation which was led by the Spirit. Zechariah voiced this spiritual sentiment, characteristic of all the prophets, when he wrote, "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."
Psalm 91:8
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
Our High Calling by John B. Willis
from the November 2, 1907 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
One of the greatest stimulants to human aspiration is recognition at the hands of our peers. To be called out and up, named as capable of a splendid part and set to the doing of it, this helps men. and as nothing else perhaps, to find themselves and to measure up to their highest possibilities. This fact will account in part for the quickening which Christ Jesus imparted to his followers, and for the astonishing efficiency to which they so quickly attained. Through his own accessibility to Truth he reached that transcendent consciousness which is disclosed in the 17th chapter of St. John, and which enabled him to say. "I and my Father are one." He then addressed the simple countrymen who had become his disciples, not only as friends, but as associates and successors in the sublimest undertaking and greatest rule of which men could dream. He recognized their true selfhood and service; that their dignity and power was commensurate with his own.
Speaking to them of their high calling, he did not say, ye may become, but ye are the salt of the earth. In the present tense of spiritual realization he expressed what to their faith could hardly have been even a vision of possibilities, but what he saw in them their love for and responsiveness to him enabled them to see in themselves; and John is soon heard declaring, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God." This is the wonder and worth of Christ Jesus call to men, and this Christian Science repeats, in that it lifts the sense of man's greatness and capacity until the heart is encouraged and strengthened for an order of endeavor that seems strangely new to modern Christianity. namely, to do the Master's works.
The relation of a true sense of self to a true sense of sufficiency is discovered in due time by every earnest and thoughtful worker for the Master. "Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it" (Science and Health, p. 395). The vastness of "the earth" of false belief, and the seeming mightiness of the momentum toward evil which humanity has acquired through the ages of false sense,—all this would stagger if not overwhelm one who has not learned that the true man is privileged to stand as did Christ Jesus when, with a self-assertion which was no less humble than divine, he faced the black abyss of error with the mighty declaration. "I am the light of the world." He who stands for and with the Christ-idea may say with the psalmist of old, "Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." Thus to realize that our human sense of weakness and unworthiness is not the determinative fact, but that God, eternal Truth, is at work in and through us, to will and to do of His own good pleasure,—this gives a sense of sufficiency which counts. A gentle, loving sense it is, but it can face the world, the flesh, and the devil, if so be, without hesitation and without a tremor.
"The salt of the earth"! What a world-wide range this gives to our redemptive influence and activity! The Christlike man is to be a corrective and uplifting thought on every plane of life, in every worthy vocation, and amid all his associations. He is to sweeten the atmosphere of every place, to appreciate and conserve all that is good, to add the wine of inspiration to the water of every moral undertaking and reform, and to be a blessing and a joy to all "the earth." This is our calling of God. It is the expectation of our Leader. It is the hope of humanity. And how are we responding to it?
...Jesus spares us not one individual experience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and all have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed through divine Love.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 26
The Smell of Fire, from the March 1920 Christian Science Journal by Louise Knight Wheatley
Final Readings
from the December 26, 1914 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, by Lizzie E. Smith with contributions from Kate A. Molloy
It is with a heart full of gratitude that I tell of some of the blessings which our family have received through the study of Christian Science. On one occasion I was protected in a gasoline explosion, which occurred while I was cleaning a garment. The garment, being saturated in gasoline, became a sheet of flames in my hands, completely enveloping me. Every burnabl=-e substance in the room caught fire, and it seemed at first that the whole house was in danger; but the blaze was finally extinguished. My mother and I were all the while realizing the Bible truth as taught by Christian Science,—that God is all powerful and ever present, and that nothing can prevail against His power when He is earnestly sought. I was not hurt, none of my clothing was scorched, and my hair was only slightly singed. My sister and a visitor whom she was entertaining in the front part of the house were surprised when my mother and I went into the room and told them what had happened. In studying the Bible I had always been much impressed, and more especially after coming into Christian Science, by the account of the delivery of the three young Hebrews, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego, whom the king had sentenced to be cast into a burning furnace because they refused to worship any other but the true and living God; also by Daniel's deliverance from the lions. So, when passing through this experience I realized the power and presence of the true and living God to save His children from all harm.
My brother, a boy of fifteen, was healed by Christian Science from the effects of wounds caused by bullets from a rifle. He was accidentally shot twice within a year, the bullet entering and lodging the first time in the thigh, and the second time just beneath the shoulder-blade. A doctor came and tried to extract the bullet on each occasion, but failed to do so. Both bullets are still embedded in the boy's body, but they have never given him any trouble. The first time he was shot, he was confined indoors about four days, and the last time about half a day. He had no other help than Christian Science.
For these healings, as well as for many other blessings, we are indeed thankful to God, and grateful to Mrs. Eddy, who has shown us by her clear understanding and explanation of the Bible in her wonderful book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," how to lay hold of and apply this truth, which has always been within reach of all, but like a buried treasure needed to be revealed. When understood and intelligently applied to the ills of mortal existence, it is able to prove its divinity and efficacy.