Tell the Truth

Archive for March, 2006

It is a strange thing how some Christian Scientists expect to succeed when they declare the Truth one minute and voice error the next. Every now and then you hear someone complain that error does not at once yield to his declaration of Truth. The fact is that while the declaration of Truth is a step in the right direction, it is not always sufficient to overcome evil. One’s thoughts, words, and deeds, must be in harmony with his declarations. The mere declaration of the letter is not enough. The recital of correct arguments without spiritual perception, is not Christian Science treatment.

To affirm the Truth mentally is only the beginning of one’s work. We must also affirm the Truth practically, letting our lives bear witness to the good. If evil is nothing in theory, it should be nothing in practice. It should be treated as nothing in both cases. From Normal Class Notes of 1937 by Bicknell Young.

Error, evil–sin, sickness and death, arise from the inharmony of man’s belief that there is intelligence, life and sensation in matter–in a material body; and that this life is separate from the one Life, God.

Mrs. Eddy asks, “When will the error of believing that there is life in matter, and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of God, be unmasked? When will it be understood that matter has neither intelligence, life, nor sensation, and that the opposite belief is the prolific source of all suffering?” Science and Health, p. 205:7-13.

Believing that Life is in matter and that this life can be good or evil has resulted in the human belief and experience that man is subject to sin, disease and death. “A sick body is evolved from sick thoughts.” S&H 260:20-21.

Christian Science teaches that all illness and sin are the result of this false belief, and has demonstrated that this is so through healing the sick, reforming the sinner and raising the dead. “The question, What is Truth, is answered by demonstration,–by healing both disease and sin; and this demonstration shows that Christian healing confers the most health and makes the best men.” S&H, p. viii:12-15.

Last summer, I began to have a tingling going down my arm, numb fingers, and a tingling, feeling of electricity in my neck whenever I turned my head. The doctor sent me to a physical therapist who told me that I had a deteriorating disk in my neck. He said I would always have it, but through certain exercises I could strengthen my muscles and that would help relieve the pain. They would also slow down the deterioration. That was a diagnosis I didn’t want to hear, and as I’ve learned, one that I didn’t need to accept.

I called a practitioner from the Plainfield Christian Church, Independent and she began praying with me. Several weeks later the problem was gone–the disk had been healed.

I am so grateful for the healing! I appreciate doing the things now that I wasn’t able to do then–the little things that I used to take for granted: I can sleep on my side again; I can read while lying on my stomach; I can turn my head in the car to see traffic without experiencing pain. Simple things.

To Pilate’s question in the Bible, “What is Truth?” Mrs. Eddy answers, “Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration,” and proclaims “Truth casts out error now as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago.” S&H, p. 25:13, 495:2-3. What is Truth? If you have eyes to see, and ears to hear, you will surely recognize it when you see it demonstrated in your own life.

The Bible declares: “All things were made by Him [the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” This is the eternal verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness, and death were understood as nothingness, they would disappear. as vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality!

From Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 480:26-2.

When I’m feeling discouraged, it is because I’ve been holding on to discouraging thoughts, but Mind is calm, serene, secure and supreme–never discouraged. Discouragement arises from a belief in limitation, and looking at my discouraged thoughts in the light of Truth is the remedy.

Some of the ideas that I’ve found myself dwelling on are:

Truth doesn’t work for me. Now that’s a big lie! Truth is all there is, and is the only thing available to me. Of course it works for me. That’s like saying that the principle of mathematics just doesn’t work for me. Ludicrous.!

Another one is that I’m too stupid, sinful, dense… to apply it properly. Again, impossible! As Mary Baker Eddy says, “All is infinite Mind and it’s infinite expression.” I am the expression of an infinite Mind–a mind that is neither stupid, sinful or dense. I express Mind, and Mind is intelligence.

A more subtle thought is that there must be some error thought that I’m holding on to and I can’t find out what it is, so I can’t be healed. Again Truth is the remedy. I express infinite intelligence, of course I can know what I need to correct in my thinking! Whatever I need to know, I shall know. Nothing can hide from infinite Mind.

Truth is harmonious. When you forsake error and embrace Truth in your consciousness, you enter into that harmony which is the nature of Truth. The natural effect of this is healing

Surely one of the most heavenly hymns is this one. Do yourself a favor and spend the day with it. Let the storm of life go right ahead without me… Heavenly!

In heavenly Love abiding, No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding, For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me, My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me, And can I be dismayed?

Wherever He may guide me, No want shall turn me back;
My Shepherd is beside me, And nothing can I lack.
His wisdom ever waketh, His sight is never dim;
He knows the way He taketh, And I will walk with Him.

Green pastures are before me, Which yet I have not seen;
Bright skies will soon be o’er me, Where darkest clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure, My path in life is free;
My Father has my treasure, And He will walk with me.

This is Hymn #148 from the Christian Science Hymnal.

This Watch Point from the 500 Watch Points by Gilbert Carpenter is a gem. These “Watch Points” were teachings that Mary Baker Eddy gave to her students. “Animal magnetism” is a word that Mrs. Eddy used for evil, or error thought…

496—WATCH that you realize that you are a terror to error, that your consciousness of God is so effective and powerful, and you are the custodian of such vast power, that the moment you apply it, it does things, it dissipates error and leaves the infinite good filling all space. The time must come when we recognize ourselves as aggressors, rather than merely defenders of the faith. There is a temptation to feel that there exists a great lie claiming to be power, and that we must forever protect ourselves against it. Like the knights of old we must ride forth with shield and sword to defend ourselves against error, so that we may destroy it. Yet this conception does not fit Mrs. Eddy’s statement that she used to do her work with the realization that God is All. The answer is that this phase of our experience is a necessary but passing one. We must recognize ourselves as terrors to error, until we can rise to the realization that there is no error, since God is All.

Some students fail because they regard animal magnetism as a lion; and themselves as but a rabbit. We are the lion equipped with God’s power. The lie retreats when we face it with divine courage.

Mrs. Eddy once said, “Animal magnetism is powerless—but you must declare against it as though it had all power.”

One of the great Christian Science teachers and practitioners was Bicknell Young. In his Normal Class Notes from 1937, he says, “The only mind in Christian Science is the divine Mind; consequently that Mind revealing itself through right ideas, is the Mind of man.”

Since God is the only Mind, revealing Itself through right ideas, and that Mind is ours: our minds are filled with right ideas. There are no wrong ideas, no limiting ideas, no distorted or cruel ideas, no self-destructive, confused or depressed ideas; there are only God’s perfect, divine ideas unfolding within the mind of man. Everything we need to know, we shall know. Whatever motivation we need to get moving, we shall have. Toward whatever direction we need to go, we shall be unerring led.

In the next paragraph, Mr. Young, describes man as a divine idea of God having within itself everything needed to unfold the purpose God has for us. Just as a flower seed contains within itself everything it needs to define and realize it’s nature, so, too, do we.

Mary Baker Eddy says that God is the “all-acting”–the only action, and the only actor. And the Scientific statement of man states that, “All is infinite Mind and it’s infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” There is no isolated, separated, mortal man–there is only man in God’s image and likeness, having no quality that is not derived from God, good.

To the extent we know this, we shall see it become manifest in our experience.

I’ve watched my son as he’s confronted his current situation–separated from his wife, unemployed, and losing their apartment at the end of the month with no prospects in sight.

Mrs. Singleterry, my Christian Science practitioner, was a great encouragement to me this morning. Here is some of what she told me, and the ideas that I’m going to work with today.

A divine idea carries within itself the power to accomplish the divine purpose; and the responsibility of its unfoldment belongs to divine Principle, which cares for each detail of its progressive being. All the qualities of God, good, are expressed in man, His reflection; and no one quality or function is missing or inac­tive. There is a vast wealth of ideas hidden to material sense, but ceaselessly flowing from God and available to all. Mind expresses itself in continuous activity, in harmony, joy, and infinite unfoldment, in eternal self-renewal, in inexhaustible self-refreshment. From Normal Class Notes of 1937, by Bicknell Young.

My son is a divine idea of God and has within him all that he needs. Just as a seed has within itself the divine blueprint for what it is destined to be, so does he. God will guide him and motivate him to do what is needed to unfold his good. He is God’s image, and God’s image can never be inverted (turned upside down), nor subverted (corrupted; taken away from the Truth). It is always upright and Godlike. God eternally governs him–his desires and his actions.

The great truth in the Science of being, that the real man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible; for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy. Page 200:16-19

The Truth of being is in his heart, because he is the child of God, and God is his Life. Nothing can keep his good from him, for God is expressing through him. God has a place for him, and he is always in that place.

Error would like nothing more than to set us back on our spiritual path. One way it would do so is to keep us as a “seeker” our whole life–staying sincere and humble, but never finding what we are looking for.

Another way is to use negative personal habits to make us ineffective.

One problem I’ve had has been my drinking, not that I’m a drunk, but it isn’t a positive thing and I feel I shouldn’t do it and yet I continue. So the next morning I feel guilty about being disobedient and then spend my day working to get back to where I was spiritually the day before. Error just loves to get us on the gerbil wheel and getting us to go around and around and getting nowhere.

Error loves us to be eloquent about our spirituality and then let people say, “He talks the talk, but he doesn’t walk the walk.” Ouch.

Error loves to hear us say to ourselves that we are committed to our spiritual walk, but then spend too many evenings at the computer or plopped down in front of the “boob tube” instead of at study or prayer or service. Error loves for us to fool ourselves about what we are really doing.

Repentence means turning around and walking in the opposite direction–just walking away from what is bad for us, and that’s something I need to do in more than one area of my life.

Here’s another gem from Martha Wilcox’s address on Overcoming by Obedience. The book is available through our church’s website at plainfieldhealighthoughts.com. The quotations are from Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science textbook: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. This is a reminder of how important it is to stay watchful to any error thought that would seek to take root and grow in our thinking.

One not awake to the truth of being may let in such [negative] suggestions and brood over them until they are made manifest in his experience. Mrs. Eddy warns against this when she writes, “The wrong thought should be arrested before it has a chance to manifest itself.” (S&H 452:5)

Christian Science proves that quick rejection of disturbing, morbid thoughts, fearful, apathetic, selfish thoughts, prevents their taking effect in one’s experience; and by keeping their thoughts fixed on God, Truth, Christian Scientists are able to experience divine preservation, peace, harmony, happiness, useful activity, and to assist in bringing continual satisfaction to their loved ones and friends. Health, harmony, happiness, useful activity, success are within the reach of all who will begin to use their useful capacities in constructive spiritual thinking and activity. These things are within the reach of all who overcome the misconceptions of man, by obedience to the truth of being.