1 468: Question. What is substance? Answer. Substance is that which is eternal and inca-

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1 Golden Text Luke 12:15 a... a man s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Responsive Reading Proverbs 23:5 (to ;), 12, 23, 26; 8:5 (to :), 10, 11, 18, 19, Hebrews 11:6 he 5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? for riches certainly make themselves wings; 12 Apply thine heart unto instruction, and thine ears to the words of knowledge. 23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding. 26 My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways. 5 O ye simple, understand wisdom: 10 Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. 11 For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. 18 Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. 19 My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and my revenue than choice silver. 33 Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. 34 Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. 35 For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. 1 Hebrews 11:1, 3 Section 1 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. 2 Hebrews 10:35 35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. Section :16 24 Question. What is substance? Answer. is that which is eternal and inca- 18 pable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Spiritual Hebrews: The substance of things hoped synonyms 21 for, the evidence of things not seen. Spirit, the synonym 2014 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. This copy of a Weekly Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly is licensed for your own personal use and may not be distributed electronically or in print, except as described in the Copyright Terms and Conditions at. Christian Science Quarterly is a trademark owned by The Christian Science Publishing Society. Study references are from the Bible (King James Version) and the Christian Science textbook, with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science.

2 of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a com- 24 pound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit. 3 Proverbs 8:1, 20, 21 (to ;) Section 2 1 Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice? 20 I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: 21 That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; 4 Exodus 13:3 (to :) 3 And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the Lord brought you out from this place: 5 Exodus 16:1 3, (to :) 1 And they took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came unto the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness: 3 And the children of Israel said unto them, Would to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the flesh pots, and when we did eat bread to the full; for ye have brought us forth into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger. 11 And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 12 I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel: speak unto them, saying, At even ye shall eat flesh, and in the morning ye shall be filled with bread; and ye shall know that I am the Lord your God. 13 And it came to pass, that at even the quails came up, and covered the camp: and in the morning the dew lay round about the host. 14 And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground. 15 And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: 6 Psalms 78:19 Can, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? 25 Man did eat angels food: he sent them meat to the full. 7 Psalms 104:24 24 O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches. 8 Psalms 116:1, 2, 7 1 I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. 2 Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. 7 Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 2

3 2 139:4 8 Section 2 From beginning to end, the Scriptures are full of accounts of the triumph of Spirit, Mind, over matter. 6 Moses proved the power of Mind by what men called miracles; so did Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha :5 7 Marvels and reformations In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine 6 Principle of being. The earth, at God s command, brings forth food for man s use : The Scripture declares, The Lord He is God [good]; there is none else beside Him. Even so, harmony is universal, and discord is unreal. Christian Science de- 24 clares that Mind is substance, also that matter neither feels, suffers, nor enjoys :14 17, 20 All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, im- 15 mortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Principle, Love. Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understand- 21 ing, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, that is, all power, all presence, all Science. 24 Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind. 6 7:23 The The di- 24 vine ear is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is always known and by whom it will be supplied :13 16 The divine completeness God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from 15 a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in the infinitude of Truth : Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the substance of an idea is very far from being the supposed substance of non-intelligent matter :9 11 There 9 There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 3

4 9 Exodus 17:1, 3 6 (to 1 st.) Section 3 1 And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink. 3 And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? 4 And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. 5 And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. 10 Genesis 1:2 the spirit 2 the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 11 Nehemiah 9:5 Stand (to :), 6 (to 1 st ;), 8 thou, 9, 20, 21 (to ;) 5 Stand up and bless the Lord your God for ever and ever: 6 Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; 8 thou art righteous: 9 And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea; 20 Thou gavest also thy good spirit to instruct them, and withheldest not thy manna from their mouth, and gavest them water for their thirst. 21 Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; 12 Isaiah 58:11 11 And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not :19 Section 3 Spirit. Divine substance; Mind; divine Principle; all that is good; God; that only which is perfect, ever- 21 lasting, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite :31 In Christian Science, substance is understood to be Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe 1 substance to be matter. They think of matter as something and almost the only thing, and of the things which 3 pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very far removed from daily experience. Christian spiritual Science takes exactly the opposite view The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 4

5 12 278:4 versus supposition Spirit is the only substance and consciousness recognized by divine Science. The material 6 senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is 9 a false supposition, the notion that there is real substancematter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite, all. Spirit can have no opposite :3 7 The 3 The first demand of this Science is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me. This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt 6 have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. Two chief commands :17 20 As God is substance and man is the divine image and 18 likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter. 13 Psalms 16:5, 6, 8, 9, 11 (to :) Section 4 5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot. 6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage. 8 I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved. 9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope. 11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: 14 Matthew 12:1 6, At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungered, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat. 2 But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day. 3 But he said unto them, Have ye not read what David did, when he was an hungered, and they that were with him; 4 How he entered into the house of God, and did eat the shewbread, which was not lawful for him to eat, neither for them which were with him, but only for the priests? 5 Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless? 6 But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple. 8 For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day. 9 And when he was departed thence, he went into their synagogue: 10 And, behold, there was a man which had his hand withered. And they asked him, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath days? that they might accuse him. 11 And he said unto them, What man shall there be among you, that shall have one sheep, and if it fall into a pit on the sabbath day, will he not lay hold on it, and lift it out? 2014 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 5

6 12 How much then is a man better than a sheep? Wherefore it is lawful to do well on the sabbath days. 13 Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other. 15 I Corinthians 6:19 know, 20 therefore 19 know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God s. 16 I Corinthians 3:17 for :7 17 for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. Section 4 Temple. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and intelligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of 9 Love; a material superstructure, where mortals congregate for worship :25 30 Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient material form, man has a sensationless body; and God, 27 the Soul of man and of all existence, being perpetual in His own individuality, harmony, and immortality, imparts and perpetuates these qualities 30 in man, through Mind, not matter. Sensationless body :11 12 God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or 12 Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man :4 5 2 nd Life (to 1 st.) Life is not limited :13 19, 31 Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration, that we may understand how this divine Principle heals 15 the sick, casts out error, and triumphs over death. Jesus presented the ideal of God better Effective triumph than could any man whose origin was less spiritual. By 18 his obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritually than all others the Principle of being. The divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus :13 To the sufferer with the withered hand he said, Stretch forth thine hand, and it was restored 15 whole, like as the other The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 6

7 21 463:24 28 Unhesitating decision 24 Our Master treated error through Mind. He never enjoined obedience to the laws of nature, if by these are meant laws of matter, nor did he use drugs. 27 There is a law of God applicable to healing, and it is a spiritual law instead of material :4 7, Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science 6 acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. Truth an alterative Working out the rules of Science in practice, the author has re- 18 stored health in cases of both acute and chronic disease in their severest forms. Secretions have been changed, the structure has been renewed, shortened limbs have been 21 elongated, ankylosed joints have been made supple, and carious bones have been restored to healthy conditions :8 To divest 9 thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear, this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep 12 away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, whose builder and maker is God. 17 Psalms 27:4 Section 5 4 One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. 18 Psalms 96:1, 4 (to :), 6 1 O sing unto the Lord a new song: sing unto the Lord, all the earth. 4 For the Lord is great, and greatly to be praised: 6 Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. 19 Ecclesiastes 3:11 (to :) 11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: Section :22 29 Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not 24 in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to Spirit. Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught 27 some glimpses of the underlying reality, when they called a certain beautiful lake the smile of the Great Spirit. Reflection of Spirit Man inseparable from Spirit 2014 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 7

8 25 247:10 Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as 12 mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion form the transient standards of mortals. Im- mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its 15 own, the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness 18 which transcend all material sense :15 18, 24 4 Eternal beauty 15 The false evidence of material sense contrasts strikingly with the testimony of Spirit. Material sense lifts its voice with the arrogance of reality and says: 18 I am wholly dishonest, and no man knoweth it. 24 The world is my kingdom. I am enthroned in the gorgeousness of matter. But a touch, an accident, the law of God, 27 may at any moment annihilate my peace, for all my fancied joys are fatal. Like bursting lava, I expand but to my own despair, and shine with the resplendency of 30 consuming fire. Spirit, bearing opposite testimony, saith: I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my 1 likeness. He reflects the infinite understanding, for I am Infinity. The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being, 3 imperishable glory, all are Mine, for I am God. Testimony of Soul :13 As the physical and material, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of 15 Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright and imperishable glories :4 The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; 6 and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere. 20 II Corinthians 3:18 we Section 6 18 we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 21 Psalms 148:1 6 (to :), Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights. 2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts. 3 Praise ye him, sun and moon: praise him, all ye stars of light. 4 Praise him, ye heavens of heavens, and ye waters that be above the heavens. 5 Let them praise the name of the Lord: for he commanded, and they were created. 6 He hath also stablished them for ever and ever: 2014 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 8

9 9 Mountains, and all hills; fruitful trees, and all cedars: 10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl: 11 Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: 12 Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: 13 Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven :28 When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man s spiritual being, we shall behold and under- 30 stand God s creation, all the glories of earth and heaven and man. Section :28 13 The universe reflects and expresses the divine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the 30 spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in the ray of light which goes out from it. God is revealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love, 1 yea, which manifests God s attributes and power, even as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats 3 the color, form, and action of the person in front of the mirror. Few persons comprehend what Christian Science 6 means by the word reflection. To himself, mortal and material man seems to be substance, but his sense of substance involves error and therefore is material, 9 temporal. On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit, 12 which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which constitutes the only real and eternal entity The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 9

Substance. Section 1 The Bible. Golden Text Malachi 3:10. Responsive Reading II Corinthians 8:1 brethren, 2, 7, 9 ye, Luke 6:38

Substance. Section 1 The Bible. Golden Text Malachi 3:10. Responsive Reading II Corinthians 8:1 brethren, 2, 7, 9 ye, Luke 6:38 Golden Text Malachi 3:10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven,