Subject: Reality
Scriptural SelectionsPsalms 50:1-6 (to 1st .),14,15,23
The mighty God, even the Lord, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof. Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that he may judge his people. Gather my saints together unto me; those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice. And the heavens shall declare his righteousness: for God is judge himself.
Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High: And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.
Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God.
Job 11:7-10,13-18
Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do? deeper than hell; what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. If he cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder him?
If thou prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles. For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear: Because thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away: And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning. And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.
Solo: “Behold the Tabernacle of God”
Lesson Sermon
Golden Text: Ps 141:8 mine (to ;)
mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord: in thee is my trust;
Responsive Readings: Ps 19:1,7,8;111:2-4, 7-10
The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honourable and glorious: and his righteousness endureth for ever. He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the Lord is gracious and full of compassion.
The works of his hands are verity and judgment; all his commandments are sure. They stand fast for ever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto his people: he hath commanded his covenant for ever: holy and reverend is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.
Readings from
The Bible and
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
I
Gen. 1:1, 3, 5, 14, 15
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Isa. 40:13, 14
Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counseller hath taught him? With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?
Ps. 25:4, 5, 15 (to ;)
Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord;
Ps. 143:8, 10
Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.
Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
472:24-26 All
All reality is in God and His creation, harmonious and eternal. That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made.
289:29 Spirit
Spirit and all things spiritual are the real and eternal.
504:3-14, 28-31
Genesis i. 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
All questions as to the divine creation being both spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for though solar beams are not yet included in the record of creation, still there is light. This light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This also shows that there is no place where God's light is not seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are ever-present.
Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter, darkness, and darkness obscures light. Material sense is nothing but a supposition of the absence of Spirit.
505:7-8, 16-17, 20-28
Spiritual understanding, by which human conception, material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament.
Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts consciousness and leads into all truth.
Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind,--Life, Truth, and Love,--and demonstrates the divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science.
This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light.
298:2-4
Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in spiritual understanding.
335:27-28
Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable, immortal, divine, eternal.
II
Job 38:1 the, 4, 6, 7, 18-20, 36
the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.
Whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all. Where is the way where light dwelleth? and as for darkness, where is the place thereof, That thou shouldest take it to the bound thereof, and that thou shouldest know the paths to the house thereof?
Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart?
Job 42:1-3, 5
Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not.
I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
Ps. 119:130, 135, 171
The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.
Make thy face to shine upon thy servant; and teach me thy statutes.
My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.
Ps.33:2-4
Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings. Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise. For the word of the Lord is right; and all his works are done in truth.
207:27-29
The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth.
276:9-15, 19
Man and his Maker are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness is cognizant only of the things of God.
The realization that all inharmony is unreal brings objects and thoughts into human view in their true light, and presents them as beautiful and immortal. Harmony in man is as real and immortal as in music.
When we learn in Science how to be perfect even as our Father in heaven is perfect, thought is turned into new and healthy channels,--towards the contemplation of things immortal and away from materiality to the Principle of the universe, including harmonious man.
214:14
When it is learned that the spiritual sense, and not the material, conveys the impressions of Mind to man, then being will be understood and found to be harmonious.
208:20
Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven,--the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen.
III
Mal. 1:2 (to .)
I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Mal. 3:6 (to ;)
For I am the Lord, I change not;
II Sam. 22:31-33
As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all them that trust in him. For who is God, save the Lord? and who is a rock, save our God? God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.
John 12:44-47
Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
Matt. 7:24-27 whosoever
whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
300:14-17, 28-31
The mutable and imperfect never touch the immutable and perfect. The inharmonious and self-destructive never touch the harmonious and self-existent.
The universe reflects and expresses the divine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in the ray of light which goes out from it.
140:25-27
The Christian Science God is universal, eternal, divine Love, which changeth not and causeth no evil, disease, nor death.
306:25
Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle, --is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal.
353:16-18 Perfection
Perfection underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly real.
269:21
The testimony of the material senses is neither absolute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none. All other systems--systems based wholly or partly on knowledge gained through the material senses--are reeds shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock.
326:12-14
We must forsake the foundation of material systems, however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as our only Saviour.
IV
Matt. 8:14-16
And when Jesus was come into Peter's house, he saw his wife's mother laid, and sick of a fever. And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them. When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
II Tim. 1:7, 9, 10
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:
I Tim. 1:17 (to 1st .)
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever.
487:27
The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.
209:1
Man, being immortal, has a perfect indestructible life. It is the mortal belief which makes the body discordant and diseased in proportion as ignorance, fear, or human will governs mortals.
230:1
If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true, it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs, or without, to destroy a quality or condition of Truth? But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening from this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health, holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the forever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth, which casts out error and heals the sick. This is the salvation which comes through God, the divine Principle, Love, as demonstrated by Jesus.
369:16, 32-5
Jesus never asked if disease were acute or chronic, and he never recommended attention to laws of health, never gave drugs, never prayed to know if God were willing that a man should live. He understood man, whose Life is God, to be immortal, and knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and the other to be made indestructible.
To be every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well as physically. To be immortal, we must forsake the mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of false belief to Truth, and gather the facts of being from the divine Mind.
V
II Pet. 1:2, 3
Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
Acts 20:7-12
And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight. And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together. And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead. And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him. When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed. And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.
Deut. 33:27 (to :)
The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:
428:3 (only)
Life is real, and death is the illusion.
338:1-8
Christian Science, rightly understood, leads to eternal harmony. It brings to light the only living and true God and man as made in His likeness; whereas the opposite belief--that man originates in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and material--terminates in discord and mortality, in the error which must be destroyed by Truth.
306:8-10, 18
If God, who is Life, were parted for a moment from His reflection, man, during that moment there would be no divinity reflected.
But man cannot be separated for an instant from God, if man reflects God. Thus Science proves man's existence to be intact.
397:12-22
When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, "I am hurt!" Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real.
Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be.
470:32
The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.
VI
Ps. 34:3-5, 8
O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
Rev. 1:1, 2
The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.
Rev. 21:1, 3-6 (to 1st .)
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done.
573:3-2
The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see,--that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness.
Accompanying this scientific consciousness was another revelation, even the declaration from heaven, supreme harmony, that God, the divine Principle of harmony, is ever with men, and they are His people. Thus man was no longer regarded as a miserable sinner, but as the blessed child of God. Why? Because St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scriptural authority for concluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men in this present state of existence,--that we can become conscious, here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain. This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science. Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When you read this, remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you." This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility.
479:21-23 In
In the vast forever, in the Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit and its innumerable creations.
Benediction
Job 8:20 (to 2nd ,)Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man,
Hymn 5
Irving C. Tomlinson
A voice from heaven we have heard,
The call to rise from earth;
Put armor on, the sword now gird,
And for the fight go forth.
The foe in ambush claims our prize,
Then heed high heaven's call.
Obey the voice of Truth, arise,
And let not fear enthrall.
The cause requires unswerving might:
With God alone agree.
Then have no other aim than right;
End bondage, O be free.
Depart from sin, awake to love:
Your mission is to heal.
Then all of Truth you must approve,
And only know the real.
Hymn 416
Kate L. Colby – Adapted
Be true and list the voice within,
Be true unto thy high ideal,
Thy perfect self, that knows no sin,
That self that is the only real.
God is the only perfect One:
My perfect self is one with Him;
So man is seen as God's own son,
When Truth dispels the shadows dim.
True to our God whose name is Love,
We shall fulfill our Father's plan;
For true means true to God above,
To self, and to our fellow man.
Hymn 287
Edith Gaddis Brewer
Prayer with our waking thought ascends,
Great God of light, to Thee;
Darkness is banished in the glow
Of Thy reality.
Lo, to our widening vision dawns
The realm of Soul supreme,
Faith-lighted peaks of Spirit stand
Revealed in morning's beam.
Thus in Thy radiance vanishes
Death's drear and gloomy night;
Thus all creation hears anew
Truth's call, Let there be light.
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