God the Preserver of Man

Transcription

1 Section 1 Golden Text Luke 12:32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Responsive Reading Psalms 121:8; 46:1 5, 10, 11 II Timothy 4:18 (to 1 st.) 8 The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore. 1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. 2 Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; 3 Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. 4 There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. 5 God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. 10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. 11 The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. 18 And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. 1 Matthew 3:2 Repent 2 Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. 2 I Peter 5:6, 7 6 Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: 7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. 3 Psalms 91:1, 2, 11 1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. 11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. 4 Psalms 36:6 O Lord 6 O Lord, thou preservest man and beast. 5 Revelation 4:11 11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created 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 1 45:16 (only) 2 590:1 Section 1 Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! 1 Kingdom of Heaven. The reign of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent 3 Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme :5 7 God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms 6 and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men :27 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 :8 Deepreaching interrogations Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, 9 and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These angels of His presence, which have the holiest Seraphic symbols charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of 12 Mind, and consequently reproduce their own characteristics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their natures are allied to God s nature; and 15 spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding :10 Refuge and strength Step by step will those who trust Him find that God is our refuge 12 and strength, a very present help in trouble. 6 Joshua 1:9 Be Section 2 9 Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest. 7 Daniel 3:4 6 an, 8, 9, 12 14, nd if, 21, 24, 25, 26 Then Shadrach, 27 4 an herald cried aloud, To you it is commanded, O people, nations, and languages, 5 That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, ye fall down and worship the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: 6 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace. 8 Wherefore at that time certain Chaldeans came near, and accused the Jews. 9 They spake and said to the king Nebuchadnezzar, O king, live for ever. 12 There are certain Jews whom thou hast set over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed nego; these men, O king, have not regarded thee: they serve not thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. 13 Then Nebuchadnezzar in his 2015 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 2

3 rage and fury commanded to bring Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed nego. Then they brought these men before the king. 14 Nebuchadnezzar spake and said unto them, Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed nego, do not ye serve my gods, nor worship the golden image which I have set up? 15 if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands? 16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed nego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. 17 If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. 18 But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. 21 Then these men were bound in their coats, their hosen, and their hats, and their other garments, and were cast into the midst of the burning fiery furnace. 24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king. 25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God. 26 Then Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed nego, came forth of the midst of the fire. 27 And the princes, governors, and captains, and the king s counsellors, being gathered together, saw these men, upon whose bodies the fire had no power, nor was an hair of their head singed, neither were their coats changed, nor the smell of fire had passed on them. 7 vii:1 2 Section 2 1 To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings. 8 12:31 1 In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail them- 1 selves of God as a very present help in trouble :5 Holy inspiration 6 has created states of mind which have been able to nullify the action of the flames, as in the Bible case of the three young Hebrew captives, cast into the Babylonian furnace; 9 while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneous combustion :25 The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they annihilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy 27 pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and fall into dust :16 (only, to 2 nd.) Son. The Son of God, the Messiah or Christ The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 3

4 12 333:19 26 The divine Principle and idea Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spirit- 21 ual idea, the reflection of God, has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets 24 caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of Love :1 7 1 The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, 3 assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and Opposing testimony death; but the great facts of Life, rightly understood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false 6 witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, the actual reign of harmony on earth. 8 Matthew 4:23 Jesus Section 3 23 Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. 9 John 10:23 25, (to 2 nd ;), 39, 40, And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon s porch. 24 Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. 25 Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father s name, they bear witness of me. 30 I and my Father are one. 31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; 39 Therefore they sought again to take him: but he escaped out of their hand, 40 And went away again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized; and there he abode. 42 And many believed on him there. 10 Psalms 145:20 (to :) 14 94:1 20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him: Section 3 1 Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man in the image and likeness of Himself, of Spirit, not of 3 matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and Love. The nature of man, thus understood, Scientific man 2015 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 4

5 includes all that is implied by the terms image and 6 likeness as used in Scripture. The truly Christian and scientific statement of personality and of the relation of man to God, with the demonstration which accompa- 9 nied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: Crucify him, crucify him... by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God :3 7 3 That saying of our Master, I and my Father are one, separated him from the scholastic theology of the rabbis. His better understanding of God was a rebuke 6 to them. He knew of but one Mind and laid no claim to any other :27 Hebrew theology 27 The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent Christian history 30 Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering :3 7 3 The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal 6 selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship. Jesus as mediator :9 10 (to 2 nd.) 9 Human hate has no legitimate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned. Section 4 11 John 11:1, 4, 5, 17 when, 19 22, 25, 34 Where, Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 4 When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. 5 Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. 17 when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. 19 And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary, to comfort them concerning their brother. 20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house. 21 Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. 22 But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. 25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: 34 Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. 41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, 2015 The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 5

6 Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. 43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go. Section :28 19 If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false 30 sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever 1 intact in his perfect state, and to govern man s entire action? Jesus said: Destroy this temple [body], and 3 in three days I [Mind] will raise it up; and he did this for tired humanity s reassurance. Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great 6 a work as the Messiah s was done for himself or for God, who needed no help from Jesus example to Inexhaustible preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals divine Love 9 did need this help, and Jesus pointed the way for them. Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon- 12 strated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good. 15 The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love. Jesus demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring 18 human sense to flee from its own convictions and seek safety in divine Science :15 15 Outside of this Science all is mutable; but immortal man, in accord with the divine Principle of his being, God, neither sins, suffers, nor dies. The days 18 of our pilgrimage will multiply instead of diminish, when God s kingdom comes on earth; for the true way leads to Life instead of to death, and earthly 21 experience discloses the finity of error and the infinite capacities of Truth, in which God gives man dominion over all the earth. Reason and Science Harmonious life-work :28 32 When speaking of God s children, not the children of men, Jesus said, The kingdom of God is within you; 30 that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God s image is The kingdom within unfallen and eternal. 12 Numbers 6:24 26 Section 5 24 The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: 25 The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: 26 The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 6

7 13 Psalms 9:1 (to ;), 4 (to ;) 1 I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart; 4 For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; 14 Romans 8:16, 17 (to 2 nd ;) :4 16 The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: 17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; Section 5 Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates 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 :21 Man Father- Mother 21 Man is the family name for all ideas, the sons and daughters of God. All that God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good- 24 ness and power :18 19, Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 24 Citizens of the world, accept the glorious liberty of the children of God, and be free! This is your divine right. Standard of liberty :14 17 God has built a higher platform of human rights, and 15 He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not made through code or creed, but in demonstration of on earth peace, good-will toward men :20 Let us learn 21 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 24 forever unseen. 15 Psalms 97:1 (to 2 nd ;) Section 6 1 The Lord reigneth; let the earth rejoice; 16 Romans 13:1 1 Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 7

8 17 Isaiah 40: He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. 18 Psalms 37:28 the (to :) 28 the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever: 19 Jude 1:24, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, 25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. Section :10 15 Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science interprets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great 12 miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of 15 heaven in man :6 10 True estimate of God s messenger 6 Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy. Let us re- 9 joice that we are subject to the divine powers that be. Such is the true Science of being :23 24, The divine Mind that made man 24 maintains His own image and likeness. All that really exists is the divine Mind and 27 its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found harmonious and eternal. Renewed selfhood 27 70: The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal :13 15 God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from 15 a boundless basis The Christian Science Publishing Society. All rights reserved. 8