August 9, 2017
“FAITH”
Hymns: 225, 350, 12
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THE BIBLE
II KINGS
4:8 And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.
12 And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him.
16 And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.
17 And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.
18¶ And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.
19 And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother.
20 And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.
21 And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.
25 So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite:
26 Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.
27 And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.
28 Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?
30 …As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. And he arose, and followed her.
32 And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed.
33 He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord.
34 And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.
35…and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.
36 And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son.
37 Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.
MATTHEW
9:20 And, behold, a woman, which was diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:
21 For she said within herself, If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole.
22 But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.
HEBREWS (New English translation)
11:1 And what is faith? Faith gives substance (assurance) to our hopes, and makes us certain of realities we do not see.
3 By faith we perceive that the universe was fashioned by the word of God, so that the visible came forth from the invisible.
6 … without faith it is impossible to please him; for anyone who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he rewards those who search for him.
7 By faith Noah, divinely warned about the unseen future, took heed and built an ark to save his household.
8 By faith Abraham obeyed the call to go out to a land destined for himself and his heirs, and left home without knowing where he was to go.
11 By faith even Sara herself received strength to conceive, though she was past the age, because she judged that he who had promised would keep faith;
17 By faith Abraham, when the test came, offered up Isaac:
23 By faith, when Moses was born, his parents hid him for three months, because they saw what a fine child he was; they were not afraid of the king’s edict.
24 By faith Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
27 By faith he left Egypt, and not because he feared the king’s anger; for he was resolute, as one who saw the invisible God.
29 By faith they crossed the Red sea as though it were dry land: whereas the Egyptians, when they attempted the crossing, were drowned.
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled on seven successive days.
39-40 These also, one and all, are commemorated for their faith; and yet they did not enter upon the promised inheritance, because, with us in mind, God had made a better plan, that only in company with us should they reach their perfection.
JAMES (returning to King James translation)
5: 15And the prayer of faith shall save the sick,
MATTHEW
17:20 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.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
By Mary Baker Eddy
S&H 278: 3-5
A New Testament writer plainly describes faith, a quality of mind, as “the substance of things hoped for.”
S&H 297:20
Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual evidence, contradicting the testimony of material sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual understanding, human thought has little relation to the actual or divine.
S&H 12: 1-15
“The prayer of faith shall save the sick,” says the Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere request that God will heal the sick has no power to gain more of the divine presence than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of such prayer for the sick is on the human mind, making it act more powerfully on the body through a blind faith in God. This, however, is one belief casting out another, — a belief in the unknown casting out a belief in sickness. It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through blind belief, nor is it the human understanding of the divine healing Principle as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, — of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.
S&H 23: 16-31
Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging between nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith, advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and establishes the claims of God.
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.
S&H 13: 29-15
The world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, — blind to the reality of man’s existence, — for the world of sensation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.
If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipotence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we would gain, we are not “absent from the body” and “present with the Lord” in the demonstration of Spirit. We cannot “serve two masters.” To be “present with the Lord” is to have, not mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demonstration and understanding of Life as revealed in Christian Science. To be “with the Lord” is to be in obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed by divine Love, — by Spirit, not by matter.
Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, —neither in nor of matter, — and the body will then utter no complaints.
S&H 468: 18-21
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 1:1
For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him. — Christ Jesus.
1:1The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love.
S&H 493: 6-8
All the evidence of physical sense and all the knowledge obtained from physical sense must yield to Science, to the immortal truth of all things.
S&H 16: 1-4
A great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding. The highest prayer is not one of faith merely; it is demonstration.
S&H 260: 13
Science reveals the possibility of achieving all good, and sets mortals at work to discover what God has already done; but distrust of one’s ability to gain the goodness desired and to bring out better and higher results, often hampers the trial of one’s wings and ensures failure at the outset.
S&H 426: 5-9
The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less difficult when she has the high goal always before her thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps in endeavoring to reach it. When the destination is desirable, expectation speeds our progress.
S&H 454: 22
Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept. Patience must “have her perfect work.”
S&H 287: 3-8
The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the understanding of divine Love.
ADDITIONAL READING
“THE FROZEN RIVER”
(a legend read in Mrs. Eddy’s home many times at her request)
Once the river flowed free and easy over its rocky bed, but one night the temperature of the water dropped a dozen degrees or so, and continued dropping all the next day and night, and formed a thin coating of ice under which the river flowed. Accepting the best of it, the river flowed under the ice, but that night the coat thickened, crowding the activities of the river farther down. This went on until at last the river was a frozen mass.
“Oh dear,” said the river as it tried to move and couldn’t, “was it ever possible that I was free and could move, and will that day ever come again?” A south wind passed by and said, “If the sun would shine on you, it would help you.” And the next day the sun did shine on the river, and the river was glad and full of appreciation. “Now I shall be free.”
But after shining hard all day nothing happened, and that evening the river was despondent. But the sun, who had more persistence than the river, came again and shined all day – but nothing happened. And so, this little drama went on day after day, and week after week, and the river became very discouraged, and almost knew it would never flow again, never be free again. But the sun kept on shining, and one day the river felt a little loosening. It couldn’t tell just what, but that night it was solid again, and the river lost hope. But the sun came again the next day and it loosened again, and again at night it froze stiff. “How disgusting,” said the river, “every little bit I gain I immediately lose it.” But the sun kept on shining.
At last the ice broke up into great chunks and floated away so swiftly that the river was all aquiver. How easily it all had departed!
So, with that obstinate case. The first day’s treatment may not melt the ice, nor the second nor the third; and at night (in doubt and anxiety) it may freeze up again. But when faithfully followed, and the sunlight of love is applied untiringly, the change does take place. Judge not from appearance. Neither the first day nor the last melted the river of ice. It took them both, and all the days in between, to overcome the conditions that had been growing and intensifying for months and years.
It took seven times around the walls of Jericho to reduce them to dust, and who shall say which was the most effective trip – the first or the last?
Spiritually, man is already free – and if he can get this established firmly in his mind and hold on to it, regardless of appearances, the demonstration is made.
Miscellaneous Writings 279: 27-29
We, today, in this class-room, are enough to convert the world if we are of one Mind; for then the whole world will feel the influence of this Mind;