Tell the Truth

Archive for May, 2008

I went through Chapter 8 of Science and Health (Footsteps of Truth) and summarized the material according to the side margin headings. It was a wonderful experience and next I’m going to do the same to Christian Science Practice.

The side margin headings in Science and Health give the main idea for the section, and are a wonderful guide for our reading. When you read looking for the main ideas that support the margin heading you know you are getting the point that Mrs. Eddy was trying to make.

If you’d like to see what I came up with you can download load the pdf file here: footstepsoftruth.pdf (111 KB).

I’ve rever paid much attention to the side margin headings in Science and Health until recently. What I discovered was that these headings are indications by Mrs. Eddy about what the purpose and meaning of the passage is.

How do I know if I am reading Science and Health with understanding? How do I know if I am getting what Mrs. Eddy intended me to get out of my reading? How do I know if I’m getting the point of the passage? By checking my understanding and emphasis against the side margin heading.

361:21-22
21     I have revised SCIENCE AND HEALTH only to give a
   clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning.

These marginal headings were not published in the first edition of Science and Health, but were added later as Mrs. Eddy suggests, in order “to give a clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning.”

What is the side marginal heading for this passage? “Choose ye to-day.” Let us choose today to increase our understanding of the textbook by paying attention to these tiny helpers.

Christian Science teaches that just because we see something with our eyes doesn’t make it real. As the saying goes, seeing is believing; but unfortunately, believing doesn’t make it real—sometimes to a tragic end.

Our government believed that Iraq had WMD, and several thousand American lives, and several hundred thousand Iraqi lives later, we now know this wasn’t true. We have all made mistakes based on “obvious” facts that turned out not to be true at all.

Scripture warns us not to make judgments based on appearances. Jesus said,

Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” John 7:24 (ESV)

But to stand against appearances, especially when they are frightening, takes courage. Mrs. Eddy has said, “Moral courage is requisite.” When the appearance is one of the three evils: sin, disease and death, it does take courage to stand in the Truth unafraid.

How do we really know what is real and what isn’t? or as Pilate asked, “What is truth?” In Christian Science we look to the teachings and example of Jesus, and we look to our textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

Jesus didn’t judge by appearances. He was constantly ignoring or breaking material law to reveal man in God’s image as upright and God-like. He rose above the appearance of sin, and lifted man above it. He saw a perfectly whole hand in place of a withered one; he saw strength in crippled legs, he saw purity in a leporus body, he saw life in the decomposing dead one of his friend, Lazarus.

Knowing this is not enough, however; that’s why Mrs. Eddy’s work is so important to us. We do not have the record of how Jesus performed his healing; we know he taught his disciples to heal, but the record of the stories and talks Jesus gave, although inspiring, is all too brief.

Christian Science, however, comes to our aid and leads us to the understanding we need to continue the work of Christ Jesus. In her work, Retrospection and Introspection, Mrs. Eddy narrates her discovery this way:

Ret 24:6-9 np (to .)
6 The discovery came
to pass in this way. During twenty years prior to my
discovery I had been trying to trace all physical effects to
9 a mental cause; and in the latter part of 1866 I gained
the scientific certainty that all causation was Mind, and
every effect a mental phenomenon.
12 My immediate recovery from the effects of an injury
caused by an accident, an injury that neither medicine nor
surgery could reach, was the falling apple that led me to
15 the discovery how to be well myself, and how to make
others so.
Even to the homoeopathic physician who attended me,
18 and rejoiced in my recovery, I could not then explain the
modus of my relief. I could only assure him that the divine
Spirit had wrought the miracle — a miracle which later
21 I found to be in perfect scientific accord with divine law.
I then withdrew from society about three years, — to
ponder my mission, to search the Scriptures, to find the
24 Science of Mind that should take the things of God and
1 show them to the creature, and reveal the great curative
Principle, — Deity.
3 The Bible was my textbook. It answered my questions
as to how I was healed; but the Scriptures had to me a
new meaning, a new tongue. Their spiritual significa-
6 tion appeared; and I apprehended for the first time, in
their spiritual meaning, Jesus’ teaching and demonstra-
tion, and the Principle and rule of spiritual Science and
9 metaphysical healing, — in a word, Christian Science.

To stand in the presence of sin, disease or death requires more than a hopeful frame of mind. It requires an understanding of Love that knows the Truth that brings freedom. It requires something beyond belief, and Christian Science brings that deeper understanding to us.

The demonstration of Jesus showed us clearly what was not real, and the teaching of Christian Science gives us the understanding to heal as he did.

45:16
Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts!
Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of hu-
18 man hope and faith, and through the reve- The stone
lation and demonstration of life in God, hath rolled away
elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual
21 idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.

The last chapter in Science and Health is called Fruitage and is a record of many early healings through Christian Science. Here is one brief record:

658:3
3 The thought of blindness was very distressing to me,
but I tried to bear it with Christian resignation, since
I thought that God had seen fit to afflict me; but since
6 I have learned that He is a loving Father, who gives
only good, I regret that I ever charged Him with my
affliction. I had no treatment, but I read Science and
9 Health, and my eyes were healed and glasses laid aside.
I can never find words to express my thanks to our dear
Leader, through whose teachings my sight has been re-
12 gained. I can truthfully say that “whereas I was blind,
now I see” — through an understanding of Truth I
have found my sight perfect as God gave it. — Miss
15 B. S., Wilmington, N. C.

Every Wednesday night at Christian Science churches around the world, testimony meetings are held where stories such as these testifying to the healing power of God are given. No monetary offering is taken; instead, our offering is our thanksgiving to the healing work of the Christ and His Science that continues among us.

I love the way Christian Science is helpful in our daily living.

This past weekend we had a lovely visit to our local zoo. While walking around I was reminded of the troubles of a family member and as I thought about it, and worried over it, I began to get depressed.

The thought came to me that Mind is never depressed, never worried and I am the reflection of God, therefore I cannot be depressed or worried either. Immediately my worries lifted and I was free to enjoy the afternoon.

I had the occasion to visit another church in my area this Sunday and after the service attend their annual meeting. They are in a financial crunch and there was much discussion about their desperate situation.

As I listened, I was reminded of Mrs. Eddy saying that we were not to be in sympathy with error—in other words, we’re not to say, “poor you!” Sometimes when we say that to people we are doing so to express our love and concern for them. Unfortunately, at the same time we are saying your problem is real; you are in a bad situation; you are vulnerable to evil.

As I listened to the discussion, I mentally turned each error statement I heard around to a realization of the Truth about the church and each one there. Later in the meeting I was asked to stand up and give a Christian Science treatment for the church which I gladly did.

One night recently I awoke at 2:45 in the morning and had trouble getting back to sleep. As I lay in bed, I was reminded of a song I recently wrote. The chorus goes like this:

I can rest in my Father’s arms
Safe, protected from every harm
I can rest in my Mother’s lap
Wrapped in the arms of love
I can trust in my Father’s care
He’s right here and He’s always there
Mother Love knows my every need
She’s always taking care of me
And I can rest in the arms of Love

I thought about getting up, but instead the idea came to me, I am wrapped in the arms of love and need not fear insomnia or feeling tired in the morning. So instead of being disturbed, I lay in bed without any fear, resting in the feeling of Love until it was time for me to get up. It was sweet time in the presence of that loving thought and I was quite unconcerned whether I went back to sleep or not.

Christian Science is such a help in all of our daily needs.

Nothing is more confusing to people when they are first exposed Christian Science than Mrs. Eddy’s teaching that there is no matter. Having identified matter as what they see all around them, they are confounded by a teaching that seems to contradict the obvious and irrefutable.

To understand the nothingness of matter, we have to first put aside the stuff that is visible to our eyes and look at the idea of what matter seems to be.

Matter claims to be a substance, a reality separate from God. Among other things, this has led to the view of a secular world and a separate spiritual one in the heavens. The kingdom of God is seen as separate and apart from the world we live in. The world we live in is filled with evil, sin, sickness and death. People are conceived by sperm and egg, have life and sensation in their material bodies, mature and die. Everything about life seems to be in a material medium.

Christian Science begins with the idea that there is no reality apart from the one God created in the first chapter of Genesis–the one that is fashioned from Spirit, and peopled with men and women created in His image and likeness.

Christian Science is a pure metaphysical teaching. By this I mean that it is solely concerned with Spirit, Mind and nothing material. The word metaphysical means above matter, immaterial, incorporeal.

It views the world as the objectification of thought. It sees all of our experience, circumstances, and conditions as the results of our thinking. All thought is objectified, but only right thought, thought that is in alignment with God, good is real. The manifestations of error thought–thought that differs from divine Principle, is not harmonious because it is not based on reality, much like a house would be if constructed by someone who thought 2 and 2 were 5, or 7 times 8 is 54 (It isn’t is it?).

What error thinking produces is a mirage, an illusion. When we’re thinking error thoughts, we keep butting our heads up against reality, and causing problems for ourselves. Though the results can be seen with our eyes, they are not real, because not true.

So to the bodily senses, both Truth and error seem equally real. Our worldly mind judges according to appearances and is therefore incapable of discerning what is really the Truth and what is not. Unfortunately, the mortal mind—the mind filled with wrong thinking, is blind to the effects of its error, and continually creates trouble for itself. This trouble comes out as sin, disease and death.

Mrs. Eddy was able to discern this and teaches it in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. To me, this is why Christian Science was a revelation. The startling truth of Christian Science came from no man, and was not a logical extension of other metaphysical ideas. It is so radically different, and so spiritually pure, Mrs. Eddy’s teaching can be nothing but a revelation from infinite Mind.

Since all of our troubles arise out of our wrong thinking, understanding the Truth is what resolves our difficulties. That is why a Christian Science practitioner can heal. The practitioner knows the Truth from years of study, prayer and experience and can view a problematic situation with a clarity of thought that corrects the error in thinking that produced it.

The teaching of no matter is so central to the Christian Science message that every Sunday service ends with a reading of the scientific statement of being from Science and Health:

468:8-15
   Question. — What is the scientific statement of being?
 9 Answer. — There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor sub-
   stance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite
   manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal
12 Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and
   eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is
   God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore
15 man is not material; he is spiritual.

69:6-8
6 Mortals can never understand God’s creation while believ-
ing that man is a creator. God’s children already created
will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being.

Scripture tells us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. He is the “reflection” of God—the term Mrs. Eddy uses in Science and Health. Man is reflection, but if not the reflection of God, the reflection of what? The environment, his parents, his upbringing, his culture, etc. These are all temporary, constantly fluctuating influences. Mrs. Eddy is telling us here that man will never understand himself until he understands that his nature is not constantly changing, but reflects his true heritage, the beautiful, the good and the pure.

Since we are God’s reflection, we cannot really know what we are until we see God clearly.

1 John 3:2
2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

258:13
God expresses in man the infinite idea forever develop-
ing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from
15 a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in
the infinitude of Truth. We know no more of man as
the true divine image and likeness, than we know of
18 God.

 

The image we see of man as a sinner, sick and dying is not God’s man, but an imposter, a counterfeit of the real man in God’s image.

295:11
mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals,
12 created in God’s own image; but infinite Spirit being all,
mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact
and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and
15 forever intact, will appear.

A loving Father would never create a mortal man!

332:4 Father
Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which in-
dicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation.
6 As the apostle expressed it in words which he
quoted with approbation from a classic poet:
“For we are also His offspring.”

Matt 7:9-11 what
9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

What a strange view we have of a loving God which sees him as creating man a sinner, subject to disease and death. How often do we hear, and perhaps accept for ourselves, that God sent that disaster, disease, handicap for a reason? Are these the “good things” that the Father would give to his children? Would you give a chronic or acute condition to your loved ones in the name of love? As Mrs. Eddy asks,

216:4-5
What has touched Life, God, to such
strange issues?

Has God abandoned a sinner, then? No!

60:6
6 . The beautiful in character is also the
good, welding indissolubly the links of affec-
tion. A mother’s affection cannot be weaned from her
9 child, because the mother-love includes purity and con-
stancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal
affection lives on under whatever difficulties.

Hab 1:13 (to
13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:

We are children of light, not of darkness. We are the image of a beautiful, good and pure God, not the image of a sinful mortal, and this Truth uplifts us and reveals our true character as God’s image.

1 Thess 5:5
5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

492:7-12
Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already
proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree,
9 will uplift the physical and moral standard
of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify
and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy
12 all error, and bring immortality to light.

Several years ago when I was just beginning to look into Christian Science, I called a practitioner to pray for a deteriorating disk in my neck. I was quickly healed of the problem. One of the things that she told me was that it had never happened in divine Mind, and was not the Truth of my being. At the time that made no sense to me at all. I knew what I was experiencing and felt every twinge in my body.

I was thinking about this yesterday about how to understand her statement to me. I thought of a hypnotist on a stage who has hypnotized someone from the audience to make them think they were a chicken. The person would strut across the stage, cackling or crowing, scratching and pecking for seed.

They were experiencing what they thought it would be like if they were a chicken, and it certainly would seem real to them. But what could they actually never experience? They could never, ever actually be a chicken.

So it was with me. I experienced all the symptoms of a deteriorating disk in my neck, but I could never, ever actually be in a physical body that was deteriorating.

“Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique.”

“Question. What is man? Answer. Man is not matter. He is not made up of brain, blood, bones and other material elements. The scriptures inform us that we are made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness.”

When I received my healing, it was as though it had never happened. Today I am free of the problem without a single reminder of what was so debilitating to me.

It really had never happened and was never the Truth of my being.

Thank you, God!

The Kappeler Institute publicaion, The Seven Synonymous Terms for God Meet the World’s Need for a New System of Reference (opens in a new window), by Joel Jessen is a wonderfully clear (and short) exposition comparing the material vs. spiritual frame of reference.

The material view is framed with the terms: mind, matter, body, material theories, death, mortal consciousness and imperfection.

The spiritual view is given as the seven synonyms that Mrs. Eddy gives for God: Mind, Spirit, Soul, Prinicple, Life, Truth, Love.

He concludes with the following comparison of the two:

The following outline briefly illustrates the method of reasoning with the seven synonymous terms for God, and shows how Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, and Love—the basic constituents of the divine system of reference—expose the falsity of mind, matter, body, material theories, death, mortal consciousness, and imperfection—the basic constituents of the human system of reference.

1. Mind – basis (vs. mind). “Mind,” as a symbol, conveys the sense that infinite Mind, God is the basis of spiritual reality. Mind is the only creator, producer, and cause that creates the universe of ideas, therefore Mind alone is the creative power that forms the image of the spiritual universe, inclusive of man. Mind’s will is mandatory and law (There is only one Mind, the infinite Mind. Infinite Mind is infinitely individualized, yet still remains the one infinite Mind. There are not many “separate” minds).

2. Spirit – substance (vs. matter). “Spirit,” as a symbol, conveys the sense that idea is the only real substance (Substance is idea, a Mind formation, matter is a false concept).

3. Soul – identity (vs. body). “Soul,” as a symbol, conveys the sense that Mind-idea (Mind–Spirit) constitutes true unchangeable identity (All faculties of the true senses are faculties of Mind, not of body).

4. Principle – government (vs. material theories). “Principle,” as a symbol, conveys the sense that true spiritual identity is governed by the law, order, rule, system, method, form and plan which are inherent in Principle, Mind (True identity is not governed by material theories about mind-matter-body).

5. Life – existence (vs. death). “Life,” as a symbol, conveys the sense that true spiritual identity experiences eternal life (not death), multiplication, abundance (not lack), spontaneity (not material causality), instantaneousness (not human time process).

6. Truth – divine consciousness (vs. mortal consciousness). “Truth,” as a symbol, conveys the sense that true spiritual identity experiences divine consciousness (not mortal consciousness), health or wholeness (not sickness), truth (not error).

7. Love – perfection (vs. imperfection). “Love,” as a symbol, conveys the sense that true spiritual identity experiences perfection (not imperfection), plan (not purposelessness), fulfillment (not frustration).

This is a wonderful read, and it and other introductory materials are available for purchase or free download at http://kappelerinstitute.org/introduction.html.

It seems a really useful tool for translating thought from the mortal mind to divine Mind. If something is disturbing me, I now have a useful framework for seeing where I’m at mentally at the time (mind, matter, body, material law, death, mortal consciousness or imperfection) and where I need to be focusing instead (the seven synonyms).

Of course, I knew the synonyms, but what I didn’t have was a clear understanding of the human picture and how the two relate.

I’ve been on a roll lately—I’ve been writing four or five new songs a week, and they’ve been good ones, too. Many of them are wonderful treatments. At 2am this morning when my sinuses woke me, I wrote this one.

It’s really fun. The verses are made up as you go. Just put in whatever bodily ailment you happen to have at the moment. This morning I put in sinus headache and trouble sleeping.

It was also fun to add verses for every health challenge I’ve ever had. I’ll post a sound file when I can get a recording. For now, just make up your own melody!

The Verses go like this:

God never gave me ______________  (a sinus headache, a cold, a sore finger, a burned hand, etc.)
God never gave me anything but Love!
God never gave me ______________  (trouble sleeping, a stiff neck, arthritis, a broken leg, etc.)
God never gave me anything but Love!

And here’s the chorus:

God never gave me anything but Love!
Love is all that God’s made of.
Only good comes from above.
God never gave me anything but Love!
God never gave me anything but Love!