Wednesday, June 29, 2016
Hymns 236, 141, 178
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THE BIBLE:
all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.
For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations.
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation. For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt have praise of the same: … Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. … Let us walk honestly, as in the day;
¶ In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee. And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude. Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people? And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment; Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.
I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us.That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord: and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee. For the kingdom is the Lord’s: and he is the governor among the nations.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH:
Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God’s govern
No pain in matter
ment.
Our statute is spiritual, our Government is divine. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
Sometimes the human mind uses one error to medicine another. Driven to choose between two difficulties,
Error not curative
the human mind takes the lesser to relieve the greater. … Controlled by this belief, you continue in the old routine. You lean on the inert and unintelligent, never discerning how this deprives you of the available superiority of divine Mind.
As in Jesus’ time, so to-day, tyranny and pride need to be whipped out of the temple, and humility and divine Sci
Temple cleansed
ence to be welcomed in. The strong cords of scientific demonstration, as twisted and wielded by Jesus, are still needed to purge the temples of their vain traffic in worldly worship and to make them meet dwelling-places for the Most High.
God has endowed man with inalien-
Proper self-government
able rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.
When man is governed by God, the ever-present Mind who understands all things, man knows that with God all things are possible.
The great difficulty lies in ignorance of what God is. … Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.
Modes of matter form neither a moral nor a spiritual system. The discord which calls for material methods is the result of the exercise of faith in material modes, — faith in matter instead of in Spirit.
Did Jesus understand the economy of man less than Graham or Cutter? Christian ideas certainly present
Physiology unscientific
what human theories exclude — the Principle of man’s harmony.
Material methods are temporary, and are not adapted to elevate mankind.
The governor is not subjected to the governed. In Science man is governed by God, divine Principle, as numbers are controlled and proved by His laws. Intelligence does not originate in numbers, but is manifested through them.
In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to consider whether it is the human mind or the divine Mind which is influencing one. What the prophets of Jehovah did, the worshippers of Baal failed to do; yet artifice and delusion claimed that they could equal the work of wisdom.
Attempts to conciliate society and so gain dominion over mankind, arise from worldly weakness.
Society is a foolish juror, listening only to one side of the case. Justice often comes too late to secure a verdict.
Society and intolerance
People with mental work before them have no time for gossip about false law or testimony.
Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations, which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we
Right views of humanity
get clearer views of Principle. Break up cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views of humanity.
The wicked man is not the ruler of his upright neighbor. Let it be understood that success in error is defeat in Truth.
To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and
Standpoint revealed
obey as God. If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show what we are winning.
Mortal mind is the acknowledged seat of human motives. If action proceeds from the divine Mind, action is harmonious. If it comes from erring mortal mind, it is discordant and ends in sin, sickness, death. Those two opposite sources never mingle in fount or stream. The perfect Mind sends forth perfection, for God is Mind. Imperfect mortal mind sends forth its own resemblances, of which the wise man said, “All is vanity.”
Erring power is a material belief, a blind miscalled force, the offspring of will and not of wisdom, of the mortal mind
Human power a blind force
and not of the immortal. It is the headlong cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest’s breath. It is lightning and hurricane, all that is selfish, wicked, dishonest, and impure.
Moral and spiritual might belong to Spirit, who holds the “wind in His fists;” and this teaching accords with
The one real power
Science and harmony. In Science, you can have no power opposed to God, and the physical senses must give up their false testimony. Your influence for good depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable. Evil is not power.
The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing
Scientific foreseeing
evil and mistaking fact for fiction, — predicting the future from a groundwork of corporeality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit. It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know the past, the present, and the future.
Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee and foretell events which concern the universal welfare, to be divinely inspired, — yea, to reach the range of fetterless Mind.
To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle
Divine synonyms
of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one, — and are the Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.
Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understanding, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is
The divine completeness
God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — that is, all power, all presence, all Science. Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.
It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established. Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.
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. Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, must be their queen of life.
Science reveals only one Mind, and this one shining by its own light and governing the universe, including man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light, intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, “whose seed is in itself.” Thus God’s ideas “multiply and replenish the earth.”
Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the mental molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all
Ever-appearing creation
expresses Science and art throughout His creation, and the immortality of man and the universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas material. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind is All and reproduces all — as Mind is the multiplier, and Mind’s infinite idea, man and the universe, is the product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought, a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it. Mind is the Soul of all. Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which governs all.
When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man’s spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God’s creation, — all the glories of earth and heaven and man.
The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings, and its government is divine Science. Man is the offspring, not of the lowest, but of the highest qualities of
Godward gravitation
Mind. Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward, their affections and aims grow spiritual, — they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite, — in order that sin and mortality may be put off.
This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man’s absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace.
Working and praying with true motives, your Father will open the way.