Welcome to the PlainfieldCS Bulletin Board. You will need to log in before you can post here. Click here to log in if you already have an account. If you do not have an account, please contact jeremy@plainfieldcs.com. Thank you!


The Great Price

The Bulletin Board is for gratitude for Christian Science and the Church, as well as timely excerpts from the Bible, the works of Mrs. Eddy, and the early workers that help and encourage. We are very grateful for all posts that conform to these guidelines, but will edit or remove anything that the Practitioners feel is not in complete accord with pure Christian Science or in any way disrespectful of it.

We also ask that you keep your postings as concise as possible. If you quote the Bible, please use The King James Version, as this is what Mrs. Eddy used. Thank you!


Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • Author
    Posts
  • #6822
    parthens
    Participant

    “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matt. 26:38).

    Following Christ in the way of Christian Science costs something: complete surrender of self.

    See Luke 14:25-33: “Count the cost.”

    The Sermon of the Mount makes known the very costly process of giving up of self’s most valued and defended possessions, likening it to giving up my right eye or right hand, banishing anything that keeps me from watchfully maintaining my alignment with God at all times (Matt. 5:29-30, SH 14:8-9).

    This complete giving up of self is the “great price” that must be paid in full — which alone purchases the “pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:46).

    “Never absent from [my] post, never off guard”
    (MW, p. 116).

    The key to obedient, successful watching is maintaining First Love for God in concentrated, consecrated commitment to doing His will, every moment of my life. It was lack of First Love that put the disciples to sleep throughout that one fateful hour when Jesus needed them most.

    “Kindle the watch-fires of unselfed love, and they throw a light upon the uncomplaining agony in the life of our Lord; they open the enigmatical seals of the angel, standing in the sun, a glorified spiritual idea of the ever-present God — in whom there is no darkness, but all is light, and man’s immortal being.” (’02 16:15-20)

    #6829
    Rae
    Participant

    Your post on watching is very helpful. Watching for any sense of personal self demands vigilance and it is easy to become mesmerized that it’s me doing the task at hand rather than the great I AM that I AM.

    Recently I read an address by Clarence Steves who came into Christian Science through a healing following World War I. Severely wounded, he served in the Navy during the war and spent a number of years in a Veteran’s Hospital. A hospital nurse offered him Science & Health and he devoured it. The passage that awoke him and brought healing was page 228:3-6 “…that nothing inharmonious can center being, for Life is God.” He went on to become a practitioner and teacher. Absence of personal sense enabled him to see the Truth so clearly.

    He said, “Some students are afraid of what others are thinking about them; false concepts of ourselves in the past, etc. If I have accepted identity as spiritual and “before Abraham was, I AM,” it is of no concern what the human seems to think or not think, because it is not knowing what I AM. If one has accepted the butterfly and left the cocoon, what does it care about anything that happens to the cocoon, or what others are saying about it; and what harm can they do that which knows itself to be the functioning presence of the Almighty One? Fly above the cocoon stage, keep both wings up, and fly unto the mountain. Never be concerned about the caterpillar. We have left the sepulchre and can cry out, ‘Rabboni.’”

    “It is important, if someone is gossiping about the caterpillar, condemning it, judging it, that we keep absolutely disconnected from it, because it is not our concept of ourselves; and so all the malpractice, ignorant or malicious, is harmless when we refuse to identify ourselves with the caterpillar concept. Let us take the wings of the morning and dwell in the universality of our being.” (p. 68, Selected Addresses of Clarence Steves)

    What a powerful illustration to use to watch my thinking. Am I aligning with the butterfly or the caterpillar?

Viewing 2 posts - 1 through 2 (of 2 total)
  • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.


Love is the liberator.