Man's God Given Right to Happiness [ , DKeeler]

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1 1 of 8 4/11/20 :0 PM Man's God Given Right to Happiness [4-11-, DKeeler] Wed Svc [Hymns 2, 5, ] Wednesday, April 11, 20 SECTION I 1 Prov 2: Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he Prov 1:20 He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. Prov 14: He that despiseth his neighbour sinneth: but he that hath mercy on the poor, happy is he. John 1:17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them. Ps 1:5-11 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Isa 55: 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 Gal 5:22-2 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. 8 8 I Kings 10:8 Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Job 5:17

2 2 of 8 4/11/20 :0 PM Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty: Ps 14:5-10 Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God: Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever: 7 8 Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners: The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous: The Lord preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down. 10 The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the Lord. 11 Prov :1-10, 1-1 My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments; 2 For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee. Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man. 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. Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine. Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold. She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her 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. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. SCIENCE AND HEALTH 1 SH 57: Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it. 2 SH 58:7

3 of 8 4/11/20 :0 PM Unselfish ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and permanence :1 5 5:1 SH 55:1- My weary hope tries to realize that happy day, when man shall recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as himself, when he shall realize God's omnipotence and the healing power of the divine Love in what it has done and is doing for mankind. SH 0:2, Science inevitably lifts one's being higher in the scale of harmony and happiness. 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. Spiritual concord 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. The good in human affections must have ascendency over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happiness will never be won. The attainment of this celestial condition would improve our progeny, diminish crime, and give higher aims to ambition. Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway of our God may be prepared in Science. SH 5:1-2 Experience should be the school of virtue, and human happiness should proceed from man's highest nature. SH 22: Many theories relative to God and man neither make man harmonious nor God lovable. The beliefs we commonly entertain about happiness and life afford no scatheless and permanent evidence of either. Security for the claims of harmonious and eternal being is found only in divine Science. Ascendency of good Denials of divine power 7 SH :2

4 4 of 8 4/11/20 :0 PM 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 22:17 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 The true sense 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 285:2 It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what relates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to understand the infinite. We must not seek the immutable and immortal through the finite, mutable, and mortal, and so depend upon belief instead of demonstration, for this is fatal to a knowledge of Science. The understanding of Truth gives full faith in Truth, and spiritual understanding is better than all burnt offerings. SH 171:1 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 5:24 Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material conception of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sorrow, what do mortals attain? They give up their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached. SH 20:-1 (to.), 1 True attainment If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of man's being are not in the least understood before what is termed death Death no advantage overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher spiritually in the scale of existence on account of that single experience, but will remain as material as before the transition, still seeking happiness through a material, instead of through a spiritual sense of life, and from

5 5 of 8 4/11/20 :0 PM selfish and inferior motives. That Life or Mind is finite and physical or is manifested through brain and nerves, is false. Hence Truth comes to destroy this error and its effects, sickness, sin, and death. If the change called death destroyed the belief in sin, sickness, and death, happiness would be won at the moment of dissolution, and be forever permanent; but this is not so. Perfection is gained only by perfection. They who are unrighteous shall be unrighteous still, until in divine Science Christ, Truth, removes all ignorance and sin. Future purification : SH 27:27-5 Through human consciousness, convince the mortal of his mistake in seeking material means for gaining happiness. Reason is the most active human faculty. Let that inform the sentiments and awaken the man's dormant sense of moral obligation, and by degrees he will learn the nothingness of the pleasures of human sense and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which silences the material or corporeal. Then he not only will be saved, but is saved. Mortals suppose that they can live without goodness, when God is good and the only real Life. SH 7:7-1 For true happiness, man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with Christ. According to divine Science, man is in a degree as perfect as the Mind that forms him. The truth of being makes man harmonious and immortal, while error is mortal and discordant. XXVI. Christian Science demonstrates that none but the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel teaches. In proportion to his purity is man perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life's spiritual ideal. SH 405:5-11 Christian Science commands man to master the propensities, to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success. SH 407:10-20 If man is not victorious over the passions, they crush Purity the path to perfection Mental conspirators

6 of 8 4/11/20 :0 PM 15 out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the weakness of mortal mind, strength from the immortal and omnipotent Mind, and lifting humanity above itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and good-will to man. Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Christian Science, and he will get the better of that desire, and ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness, and existence SH : If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striving to enter in. He constantly turns away from material sense, and looks towards the imperishable things of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the start, and gain a little each day in the right direction, till at last he finishes his course with joy. SH 04:-1 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; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death. The perfect man governed by God, his perfect Principle is sinless and eternal. 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. SH 0:2 Harmony natural Science inevitably lifts one's being higher in the scale of harmony and happiness. HYMNS 1 Hymn 2:0-4 Hymn 2 Thomas Cogswell Upham Adapted DOMINICA Herbert S. Oakeley Happy the man who knows His Master to obey;

7 7 of 8 4/11/20 :0 PM 2 Whose life of love and labor flows, Where God points out the way. Rising to every task, Soon as the word is given, He doth not wait nor question ask When orders come from heaven. God's will he makes his own, And nothing can him stay; His feet are shod for God alone, And God alone obey. Give us, O God, this mind, Which waits but Thy command, And doth its highest pleasure find In Thy great work to stand. Hymn 5:0- Hymn 5 Michael Bruce CAITHNESS Scottish Psalter, 15 O happy is the man who hears Instruction's warning voice; And who celestial wisdom makes His early, only choice. For she has treasures greater far Than east or west unfold; And her rewards more precious are Than all their stores of gold. According as her labors rise, So her rewards increase; Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And all her paths are peace. Hymn :0-4 Hymn William P. McKenzie PEACE Arr. from W. A. Mozart Happy the man whose heart can rest, Assured God's goodness ne'er will cease; Each day, complete, with joy is blessed, God keepeth him in perfect peace.

8 8 of 8 4/11/20 :0 PM God keepeth him, and God is one, One Life, forevermore the same, One Truth unchanged while ages run; Eternal Love His holiest name. Dwelling in Love that cannot change, From anxious fear man finds release; No more his homeless longings range, God keepeth him in perfect peace. In perfect peace, with tumult stilled, Enhavened where no storms arise, There man can work what God hath willed; The joy of perfect work his prize. Printed from CONCORD: A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE STUDY RESOURCE, published by The Christian Science Board of Directors in Boston, MA, USA. This content may be under copyright and may not be further reproduced or distributed, unless permitted under the Concord User License Agreement.