WEDNESDAY EVENING READINGS APRIL 18, 2012 “THE BIBLICAL USE OF SYMBOLS – CONCLUSION”
FROM THE BIBLE:
PSALMS
36:7 How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! 9 For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. 119:105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. 74:16 The day is thine, the night also is thine: thou hast prepared the light and the sun.
JOHN
1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 8:12 ¶Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.
MATTHEW
13:31 ¶Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: 32 Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof.
33 ¶Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. 13:10 … the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
MARK
16:17 … these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; 18 They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.
LUKE
10:1 After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. 17 ¶And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.
18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. 19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
JOHN
14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. 15 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
17 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 18 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 19 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
REVELATION
3:7 These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth; 8 I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it:
12:1 And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars: 5 And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne. 10 And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ:
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I CORINTHIANS
2:12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
II CORINTHIANS
3:4 And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; 6 Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
SCIENCE & HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES BY MARY BAKER EDDY
S&H 320:24-25
The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual.
S&H 547:23-25 Our Our aim must be to have them understood spiritually, for only by this understanding can truth be gained.
S&H 113:3
The letter of Science plentifully reaches humanity to-day, but its spirit comes only in small degrees. The vital part, the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. Without this, the letter is but the dead body of Science,–pulseless, cold, inanimate.
S&H 461:11
Only by the illumination of the spiritual sense, can the light of understanding be thrown upon this Science, because Science reverses the evidence before the material senses and furnishes the eternal interpretation of God and man.
S&H 117:6
God is Spirit; therefore the language of Spirit must be, and is, spiritual. Christian Science attaches no physical nature and significance to the Supreme Being or His manifestation; mortals alone do this. God’s essential language is spoken of in the last chapter of Mark’s Gospel as the new tongue, the spiritual meaning of which is attained through “signs following.”
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S&H 117:24-27
Evidence drawn from the five physical senses relates solely to human reason; and because of opacity to the true light, human reason dimly reflects and feebly transmits Jesus’ works and words.
S&H 117:15-16
Our Master taught spirituality by similitudes and parables.
S&H 117:29-12
Jesus bade his disciples beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees, which he defined as human doctrines. His parable of the “leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened,” impels the inference that the spiritual leaven signifies the Science of Christ and its spiritual interpretation, — an inference far above the merely ecclesiastical and formal applications of the illustration.
Did not this parable point a moral with a prophecy, foretelling the second appearing in the flesh of the Christ, Truth, hidden in sacred secrecy from the visible world? Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It must destroy the entire mass of error, and so be eternally glorified in man’s spiritual freedom.
S&H 579:1-7
GLOSSARY In Christian Science we learn that the substitution of the spiritual for the material definition of a Scriptural word often elucidates the meaning of the inspired writer. On this account this chapter is added. It contains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms, giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original meaning.
S&H 586:1 (to 3rd ;)
EVENING. Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of mortal mind; obscured views;
S&H 592:21
NIGHT. Darkness; doubt; fear.
S&H 591:23
MORNING. Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and progress.
S&H 584:1
DAY. The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love.
S&H 595:1
SUN. The symbol of Soul governing man,–of Truth, Life, and Love.
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S&H 310:12
The sun is not affected by the revolution of the earth. So Science reveals Soul as God, untouched by sin and death,–as the central Life and intelligence around which circle harmoniously all things in the systems of Mind.
S&H 240:14
Mind is perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere. The rotations and revolutions of the universe of Mind go on eternally.
S&H 282:1-11
The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight line. The circle represents the infinite without beginning or end; the straight line represents the finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in a self-made and temporary material existence.
S&H 71:1
Nothing is real and eternal,–nothing is Spirit,–but God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.
S&H 560:6
Revelation xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.
S&H 561:21-26
The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence of God and man as the divine Principle and divine idea. The Revelator symbolizes Spirit by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance of spiritual Truth, and matter is put under her feet.
S&H 343:14
Jesus strips all disguise from error, when his teachings are fully understood. By parable and argument he explains the impossibility of good producing evil; and he also scientifically demonstrates this great fact, proving by what are wrongly called miracles, that sin, sickness, and death are beliefs — illusive errors — which he could and did destroy.
S&H 110:25
Jesus demonstrated the power of Christian Science to heal mortal minds and bodies. But this power was lost sight of, and must again be spiritually discerned, taught, and demonstrated according to Christ’s command, with “signs following.” Its Science must be apprehended by as many as believe on Christ and spiritually understand Truth.
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PUBLICATIONS QUOTATION
MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS By Mary Baker Eddy MIS 25:16; HEA 7:6-10
“Science, understood, translates matter into Mind, rejects all other theories of causation, restores the spiritual and original meaning of the Scriptures, and explains the teachings and life of our Lord. It is religion’s ‘new tongue,’ with ‘signs following,’ spoken of by St. Mark.
“’The new tongue’ is the spiritual meaning as opposed to the material. It is the language of Soul instead of the senses; it translates matter into its original language, which is Mind, and gives the spiritual instead of the material signification.”
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