August 22, 2018
Hymns: 93, 58, 257
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The Bible & Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures By Mary Baker Eddy
PSALMS
42:5 Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God:
30:3 O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.
11 Thou hast turned for me my mourning into dancing: thou hast put off my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness;
12 To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.
ZEPHANIAH
3:14 Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.
ISAIAH
52:1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city:
2… Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
SH 60:29
Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real enjoyment.
SH 285:32-1
It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what relates most nearly to the happiness of being.
SH 304:16-19
Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled by it and abides with it. Divine Principle is the Life of man. Man’s happiness is not, therefore, at the disposal of physical sense.
PROVERBS
3:5 Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths
13 Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.
15 She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.
16 Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour. Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.
17 She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.
LUKE
15:11-24 A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants. And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.
PSALMS
16:10…thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
SH 322:26-29
The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love.
SH 57:18
Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.
SH 265:23
Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after heavenly good comes even before we discover what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is spiritual.
PSALMS
37:3 Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. 4 Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
5 Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
SH 298:19-20
When the real is attained, which is announced by Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat.
SH 548:9-13
How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds cover the sun’s face! So Christian Science can be seen only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away. Earth has little light or joy for mortals before Life is spiritually learned.
ISAIAH
55:6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
9-12 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
SH 60:24
An ill-attuned ear calls discord harmony, not appreciating concord. So physical sense, not discerning the true happiness of being, places it on a false basis. Science will correct the discord, and teach us life’s sweeter harmonies.
SH 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.
SH 296:31-5
Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving power. It says to mortals, “You are wretched!” and they think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until the belief changes. Mortal belief says, “You are happy!” and mortals are so; and no circumstance can alter the situation, until the belief on this subject changes.
SH 194:17–18, 22–25 (to ,), 30–6 (to 1st .); 195:8
The authentic history of Kaspar Hauser is a useful hint as to the frailty and inadequacy of mortal mind. … Incarcerated in a dungeon, where neither sight nor sound could reach him, at the age of seventeen Kaspar was still a mental infant, crying and chattering with no more intelligence than a babe, … His case proves material sense to be but a belief formed by education alone. The light which affords us joy gave him a belief of intense pain. His eyes were inflamed by the light. After the babbling boy had been taught to speak a few words, he asked to be taken back to his dungeon, and said that he should never be happy elsewhere. Outside of dismal darkness and cold silence he found no peace. … All that gives pleasure to our educated senses gave him pain through those very senses, trained in an opposite direction.
SH 201:14-16
Let us disrobe error. Then, when the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our tatters close about us.
SH 152:23
Every material dependence had failed her in her search for truth; and she can now understand why, and can see the means by which mortals are divinely driven to a spiritual source for health and happiness.
SH 45:14
Man walks in the direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure is, there will his heart be also. If our hopes and affections are spiritual, they come from above, not from beneath, and they bear as of old the fruits of the Spirit.
SH 390:4-9
We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, simply because, to the mortal senses, there is seeming discord. It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony.
SH 304:9-12 (to ;), 18-19
This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; … Man’s happiness is not, therefore, at the disposal of physical sense.
JOHN
16:22…your joy no man taketh from you.
SH 261:2
Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality. 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 236:21-32
Children are more tractable than adults, and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will make them happy and good. Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth.
SH 171:31
The fundamental error lies in the supposition that man is a material outgrowth and that the cognizance of good or evil, which he has through the bodily senses, constitutes his happiness or misery.
SH 587:25
HEAVEN. Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul.
SH 337:7-10
For true happiness, man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with Christ.
SH 291:13
Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal, because sin is not there and man is found having no righteousness of his own, but in possession of “the mind of the Lord,” as the Scripture says.
SH 242:9
There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality–to have no other consciousness of life–than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses.
I JOHN
1:5 …God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
JOHN
14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
15: These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
PHILIPPIANS
4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
6 ….in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
SH 262:17-26
Job said: “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee.” Mortals will echo Job’s thought, when the supposed pain and pleasure of matter cease to predominate. They will then drop the false estimate of life and happiness, of joy and sorrow, and attain the bliss of loving unselfishly, working patiently, and conquering all that is unlike God. Starting from a higher standpoint, one rises spontaneously, even as light emits light without effort; for “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
SH 390:9
Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.
SUPPLEMENTAL READING
“God’s gift of happiness”
By Nathan A. Talbot
The Christian Science Sentinel, February 1993
…If happiness is left undefended as a spiritual reality and is assumed to be merely a material experience, not only is it subject to fluctuation but people’s view of happiness could take strange twists and turns that would undermine any normal tendency to feel happy. Would it seem just a little surprising, for instance, to suggest that happiness is actually a type of mental illness? In a recent article published by the Journal of Medical Ethics, a senior university lecturer on clinical psychology puts forward the view that this is exactly what happiness is. Toward the end of his article he summarizes his thesis this way: “I have argued that happiness meets all reasonable criteria for a psychiatric disorder. It is statistically abnormal, consists of a discrete cluster of symptoms, there is at least some evidence that it reflects the abnormal functioning of the central nervous system, and it is associated with various cognitive abnormalities—in particular, a lack of contact with reality.
Acceptance of these arguments leads to the obvious conclusion that happiness should be included in future taxonomies of mental illness, probably as a form of affective disorder.” Such a view certainly alerts us to protect our happiness prayerfully, to see its source as spiritual and untouchable by mortal opinions. If society’s concept of happiness continues to be rooted in materialism, the belief that it could be some sort of illness may find a growing audience… Resisting the view of happiness as a psychiatric disorder is not an argument for a naive or Pollyanna attitude. It is to indicate that realism in human life can be seen to include a powerful, impelling, and uplifting divine force called happiness. This is a force that enables us to break through mortal limitation, which a more ordinary or spiritually unenlightened state of thought is unable to cope with. But most of all, it is a force within consciousness—many would call it the presence of the Christ—revealing the joyous fact that God’s creation is truly spiritual and perfect. Such an inner voice assures us that we can progressively awake to and demonstrate this fact.