A Hole in Nothing
This week's Lesson Sermon Subject: Reality
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Morning Prayer
Mortal mind is to be denied; Spirit overcomes it. We must cease to admit in our thinking the reality and power in themselves of sin, sickness and death, of misery, pain, evil in all forms; and we must steadfastly and persistently think the Truth which stands opposite to them. We do in this way overcome discordant conditions of consciousness now. Everyone who persists in this course many times each day will have signs of the lessening of all evil. ...
No person, no thing, in all the universe, no claim of circumstances, can by any possibility interfere between me and all joy, and all good.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the "Blue Book"), by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 267 and 282
Daily Watch
291 — WATCH lest you forget that the body, or material sense, only echoes one’s own belief. Matter seems to have conversational powers, but it has none. If mortal mind says, I will kill you, as a mere suggestion that does not frighten you as much as when the body echoes this assertion, and says, I will kill you. Yet the second should not frighten you any more than the first, since an echo is no more dangerous than that which produces it. Pain is only an echo, or an ache-o, since in reality it never is in the place where it seems to be!
In the 16th edition of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy quotes from a sermon by William Ellery Channing as follows:
"The philosopher... has often been led to question whether anything really exists in the universe, beyond Mind and Spirit; whether matter and the body have any substantial being; whether apparently external nature be not an actual creation of our own thought; or, in other words, whether, in believing in an outward world, we do anything more than ascribe reality to our own conceptions."
Discussion points
8. 88 : 9-15 (to ,)
How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from illusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts, proceeding from the brain or from matter, are offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material beliefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs proceed from the so-called material senses,
Handling Animal Magnetism, from Lessons of the Seventh Day, (the “Brown Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy
Are you going to tolerate such irrationality? Of course not. Then reject each lie with the truth you know about yourself, the Self of you, until you no longer listen either complacently, or fearfully, to anything that does not emanate from God, the one cause.
Christian Science, Its Clear, Correct Teaching by Herbert Eustace, pages 541 to 542
Drive Thru History - "The Gospels"
Drive Thru History - "Acts to Revelation"
From Jesus the Game Changer, Season 3 Episode 04:
Robert Woodberry’s great-grandfather and grandfather were missionaries in China, and his parents were missionaries in Pakistan. The story of his family actually has a long history connected to the missionary movement:
My great-grandfather was a businessman in Michigan and owned a chain of hardware stores. He had a conversion experience and became a Methodist. He felt called to the mission field, but because he was older, and he had four kids, and one of them was crippled, no one would take him. So, he sold his chain of hardware stores. and financed himself and his family to go to China in 1895. He worked for the Christian Missionary Alliance, and for the first bit, he did their books because he was a businessman. He felt he was too old to become fluent in Chinese, so his goal was to raise up Chinese missionaries to spread the gospel in China. But the first year, my grandfather got smallpox, and he got it very seriously. He was put into the hospital, and he went into a coma. The doctors called in my great-grandmother, Kitty, and said, If you want to see him alive, you need to come now. She came and wanted the elders to come, anoint him with oil, and pray for him. But they were afraid of getting smallpox. So, she just went in by herself, and she anointed his head with oil. She began to sing the doxology, and in the middle of it, he sat up and started singing with her, and he was completely healed. The doctors were all shocked because they thought he was going to die. He wanted to go home, so they said, “Well, as soon as we burn all your clothes and all the bedsheets and everything, then you can go home.” A huge proportion of the doctors and the medical students then became Christians through that experience. This was in Tientsin, in China. It was pronounced “Tinjin” at the time. Through that, he formed a Chinese congregation, and within two years, they had sent Chinese missionaries to every province of China. My grandparents and my parents followed. My grandfather went to China when he was two, and he never left China until he came to college, met my grandmother, and they went back.
Responsive Reading: Colossians 3 : 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 14-16
1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
4. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
9. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10. And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
14. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
The Golden Rule, from the Christian Science Sentinel, August 8, 1908, by Philip O. Peirce
The Covenant by Nathaniel Dickey
Spirit Versus Matter — 1961 Association Address by Herbert E. Rieke
Burdened Thoughts by Doris White Evans
14. 261 : 4-7
Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.
Science and Health, the First Edition, 1875 by Mary Baker Glover (Eddy)
Final Readings
Our Hymnal by Ralph W. Coffin
from the December 23, 1922 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Mrs. Eddy, in speaking of her work "Christ and Christmas," says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 372), "'Christ and Christmas' voices Christian Science through song and object-lesson." In reading this statement it came to the consciousness of a student how truly our Christian Science Hymnal, also, "voices Christian Science through song." Every number in our Hymnal voices spiritual truth; and with the perception of spiritual truth comes healing from discord. Even in the most ordinary human experience, we know a cheery song has a tendency to brighten every outlook, and causes one to see the "silver lining" to the seeming cloud of discouragement, or whatever the cloud may call itself. If this be true of the ordinary type of song, how much more should these chosen hymns, voicing spiritual facts, chase away all the claims of seeming inharmony.
The small edition of the Christian Science Hymnal for soldiers was a great blessing to the writer; and in many instances the truth written therein saved the day against error. Upon embarking for foreign service, while the submarine warfare was supposed to be at its worst, the hymn which begins, "In heav'nly love abiding," on page 168 of the Hymnal, drove out all fear; and many nights the student of Christian Science would go out on deck alone, and sing this song over and over, until peace, confidence, and perfect assurance of God's ever-presence were gained. Another time, when the danger of crossing the English Channel was voiced, almost immediately the words, "Make channels for the streams of love" (p. 89), echoed through his consciousness. This song brought a vision of the only real channels, that they are eternally filled with love, and that no danger could possibly lurk therein. Many times the writer was confronted with problems of such seemingly large proportions that even a start to get at the trouble by mental means seemed well-nigh impossible. Then sometimes the Hymnal was taken, and hymn after hymn was sung until light began to dawn in consciousness, leaving the student able to cope with the errors by the mental affirmation and denial which Christian Science teaches.
On Christmas Eve of 1919, in the reading rooms of the Christian Science War Relief Committee established in Nevers, France, the Christian Science workers gathered together with those who loved Christian Science; and for more than an hour they sang songs of praise and thanksgiving to the Christ, Truth. This was also done at the time of the signing of the Armistice and at the coming in of the New Year. No sense of loneliness could find a foothold when singing these hymns. Mrs. Eddy speaks of this comfort on page 234 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," when she says, "Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love—be it song, sermon, or Science—blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty."
Paul says: "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." David speaks of the Lord's song being with him in the night; and he sings, "Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance." John speaks in Revelation of "a new song;" and in Matthew we read that when Jesus and his disciples "had sung an hymn, they went out into the mount of Olives." Thus, spiritual songs help to cleanse and purify thought, and we can never cease to be grateful for the wisdom shown by our beloved Leader in providing the Christian Science Hymnal. After we have used the Hymnal in our daily work for a while, we find a song frequently abides in consciousness, and we are thereby blessed with "crumbs of comfort from Christ's table."