WEDNESDAY EVENING READING
APRIL 11, 2012 “SYMBOLS: MIST AND SHADOW”
FROM THE BIBLE:
PSALMS
23:1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. 2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. 4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. 107:8 Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 13 … they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. 14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and brake their bands in sunder.
GENESIS
1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. 6 ¶And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. 31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. 2:6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground. 7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
DANIEL
12:2 … many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
ACTS
13:2 … Barnabas and Saul … 4 ¶ … being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto Seleucia; and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. 6 And when they had gone through the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Barjesus: 7 Which was with the deputy of the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man; who called for Barnabas and Saul, and desired to hear the word of God. 8 But Elymas the sorcerer (for so is his name by interpretation) withstood them, seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. 9 Then Saul, (who also is called Paul,) filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him, 10 And said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? 11 And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the sun for a season. And immediately there fell on him a mist and a darkness; and he went about seeking some to lead him by the hand. 12 Then the deputy, when he saw what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of the Lord.
II PETER
2:1 … there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, …. 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
17 These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest: to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
JEREMIAH
13:16 Give glory to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains, and, while ye look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death, and make it gross darkness.
FROM JOHN IN THE NEW ENGLISH BIBLE
4:7 …a Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 9 The Samaritan woman said, “What! You, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a Samaritan woman? 10 Jesus answered her, “If only you knew what God gives, and who it is that is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.
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14 … “whoever drinks the water that I shall give him will never suffer thirst any more. The water that I shall give him will be an inner spring always welling up for eternal life. 23 “… the time approaches, indeed it is already here, when those who are real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Such are the worshippers whom the Father wants.
24 “God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
AND AGAIN FROM THE KING JAMES VERSION. ISAIAH
9:2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
PSALMS
91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. 4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. 8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
HEBREWS
11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 10:34 … ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. 35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
SCIENCE & HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES BY MARY BAKER EDDY
S&H 505:4-8
Genesis i. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Spiritual understanding, by which human conception, material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament.
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S&H 521:21
Genesis ii. 6 … there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
S&H 523:7
The creations of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from mystification, and not from the firmament, or understanding, which God erects between the true and false. In error everything comes from beneath, not from above. All is material myth, instead of the reflection of Spirit.
S&H 546:13
This represents error as starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It supposes God and man to be manifested only through the corporeal senses, although the material senses can take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea.
S&H 523:3-7
Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that God knows error and that error can improve His creation. Although presenting the exact opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth.
S&H 205:15
Befogged in error (the error of believing that matter can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear glimpses of God only as the mists disperse, or as they melt into such thinness that we perceive the divine image in some word or deed which indicates the true idea,–the supremacy and reality of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil.
S&H 596:20-27
VALLEY. Depression; meekness; darkness. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.” (Psalm xxiii. 4.) Though the way is dark in mortal sense, divine Life and Love illumine it, destroy the unrest of mortal thought, the fear of death, and the supposed reality of error. Christian Science, contradicting sense, maketh the valley to bud and blossom as the rose.
S&H 331:1
God is divine Life, and Life is no more confined to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its shadow. If life were in mortal man or material things, it would be subject to their limitations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator reflected in His creations. If He dwelt within what He creates, God would not be reflected but absorbed, and the Science of being would be forever lost through a mortal sense, which falsely testifies to a beginning and an end.
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S&H 140:23-27
The Jewish tribal Jehovah was a man-projected God, liable to wrath, repentance, and human changeableness. The Christian Science God is universal, eternal, divine Love, which changeth not and causeth no evil, disease, nor death.
S&H 351:27
The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow. They thought to worship Spirit from a material standpoint, but this was impossible. They might appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently understand God to be able to demonstrate His power to heal, — to make harmony the reality and discord the unreality.
S&H 140:19
Judaic and other rituals are but types and shadows of true worship. “The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”
S&H 257:4-6
If matter, so-called, is substance, then Spirit, matter’s unlikeness, must be shadow; and shadow cannot produce substance.
S&H 468:17-21 Substance Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Hebrews: “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”
S&H 278:4-8
Spirit is the only substance and consciousness recognized by divine Science. The material senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil.
S&H 584:28
DUST. Nothingness; the absence of substance, life, or intelligence.
S&H 545:27
Truth has but one reply to all error, — to sin, sickness, and death: “Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness] shalt thou return.”
S&H 299:24
Truth never destroys God’s idea. Truth is spiritual, eternal substance, which cannot destroy the right reflection. Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth, health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth, will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial peaks.
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S&H 557:18
Divine Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.
PUBLICATIONS QUOTATION: Miscellaneous Writings By Mary Baker Eddy MIS 263:5; 205:3
“These two words in Scripture suggest the sweetest similes to be found in any language — rock and feathers: “Upon this rock I will build my church;” “He shall cover thee with His feathers.” How blessed it is to think of you as “beneath the shadow of a great rock in a weary land,” safe in His strength, building on His foundation, and covered from the devourer by divine protection and affection. Always bear in mind that His presence, power, and peace meet all human needs and reflect all bliss.
“This practical Christian Science is the divine Mind, the incorporeal Truth and Love, shining through the mists of materiality and melting away the shadows called sin, disease, and death.”
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