Be Ye Steadfast

May 8, 2019
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The Bible and Science & Health With Key to the Scriptures By Mary Baker Eddy

JOB

27:3 All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;

4 My lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit.

5 … till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.

6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go:  

7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

8  For what is the hope of the hypocrite, though he hath gained, when God taketh away his soul?

TITUS

3:8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that they which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH

SH 261:4

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.

SH 451:2-5

Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate. They must renounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power. 

SH 183:21-22
Divine Mind rightly demands man’s entire obedience, affection, and strength.

FROM MATTHEW AND MARK

Matthew 17:14 And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying,

15 Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatic, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water.

16 And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him.

Mark 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
24 And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.

Matthew 17:17 Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me.

18 And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

19 Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast him out?

20 And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

21 Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH

SH 23:21-2

In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the words corresponding thereto have these two definitions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One kind of faith trusts one’s welfare to others. Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how to work out one’s “own salvation, with fear and trembling.” “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!” expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the injunction, “Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!” demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spiritual understanding and confides all to God.
The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or to be constant. This certainly applies to Truth and Love understood and practised. 

SH 495:14-20

When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. 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. 

SH 417:10-16

Maintain the facts of Christian Science, — that Spirit is God, and therefore cannot be sick; that what is termed matter cannot be sick; that all causation is Mind, acting through spiritual law. Then hold your ground with the unshaken understanding of Truth and Love, and you will win. 

SH 495:20

Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.

ROMANS

12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

9 … Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.

10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;

12 Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

13 Bless them which persecute you: 

15 Be of the same mind one toward another. 

17 If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.

21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

HEBREWS

10:23 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering;

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.

12:1 … let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH

SH 495:28-31

Adhere to the divine Principle of Christian Science and follow the behests of God,
abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and Love.

SH 20:27
St. Paul wrote, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us;” that is, let us put aside material self and sense, and seek the divine Principle and Science of all healing.

SH 43:27-4

The divine must overcome the human at every point. The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelligence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such beliefs. 

Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must seal the victory over error and death, before the thorns can be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow, 

“Well done, good and faithful servant,” and the supremacy of Spirit be demonstrated.

JAMES

1:2 My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

3 Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.

7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.

8 A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.

12 Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH

SH 387:27

The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering.

SH 209:31-1

Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God. It shows the superiority of faith by works over faith in words.

SH 267:28

“Blessed is the man that endureth [overcometh] temptation: for when he is tried,
[proved faithful], he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.” (James i. 12).

I CORINTHIANS

15:58 … my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

I PETER

5:6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:

7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

9 Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.

I THESSALONIANS

5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
22 Abstain from all appearance of evil.
17 Pray without ceasing.
18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

SCIENCE AND HEALTH

SH 15:20-22

We must “pray without ceasing.” Such prayer is answered, in so far as we put our desires into practice.

SH 16:2

The highest prayer is not one of faith merely; it is demonstration. Such prayer heals sickness, and must destroy sin and death. It distinguishes between Truth that is sinless and the falsity of sinful sense.

SH 323:13-18 (to ;)

In order to apprehend more, we must put into practice what we already know. We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated. If “faithful over a few things,” we shall be made rulers over many; …

SH 569:6-14

The Scripture, “Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many,” is literally fulfilled, when we are conscious of the supremacy of Truth, by which the nothingness of error is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in proportion to its wickedness. He that touches the hem of Christ’s robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, — in a sweet and certain sense that God is Love. 

SH 464:19

Thus it is that we “prove all things; [and] hold fast that which is good.”

PUBLICATIONS EXCERPT

“Be ye stedfast”

By Helen Hixon

The Christian Science Sentinel

September 14, 1940

In I Corinthians we read, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, immoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” What comfort, encouragement, and strength these words offer to those who faithfully strive to follow the Christ! In time of strain and the pressure of world tension, made apparent in so many ways, when mortal sense would argue that evil is prospering and good overshadowed, how inspiring and renewing to read again this assurance that our “labour is not in vain” when we are working with God, even though the path for the moment may seem dark!

Christian Scientists have need now, perhaps more than ever before, to stand fast in the truth they have learned and proved through the understanding of the Scriptures gained from the study of Christian Science. Christian Scientists need to stand firm, not only for their own peace and strength, but also for the sake of a world sorely needing their steadfast, unmovable realization that God governs; that His spiritual creation alone is real; that all which opposes this divine reality, however powerful and aggressive it may seem to be, is but a mistaken belief, an illusion, which must at length disappear before the revelation of Truth.

“Human hate has no legitimate mandate and no kingdom,” writes Mary Baker Eddy in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” In spite of error’s arrogant assertions and claim to power, we can be steadfast and unmovable in our conviction and declaration that it “has no legitimate mandate and no kingdom,” because, as our Leader adds in the same passage, “Love is enthroned.” We can hold firmly to the fact that evil has no reality, because Love alone is real and true, and that because evil is a lie it will be found out and replaced by truth.

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you,” Jesus promised, and that promise has never been withdrawn. In the Christian Science textbook, Mrs. Eddy speaks of the “conflicting forces” struggling in the material world, and gives us this heartening assurance: “On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace.” It is for us to choose the side of “Science and peace”; to help ourselves and our brethren everywhere by standing firm for Truth, knowing that our “labour is not in vain in the Lord.”