“Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, peace, and purity, which are the landmarks of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause, — wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.” (S&H 323:6-12)
Wholesome – tending to promote health; sound, favorable to morals, religion, or prosperity; useful, conduce to happiness, virtue, peace.
Chastisement – correction by punishment or purification; a reduction to order or obedience (Both definitions from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)
One of the hardest things for me to learn ever, was to accept correction. The human mind is unruly and never likes to be corrected. But I’ve finally learned in Christian Science here in Plainfield Church, that when the correction comes from practitioner — or anyone motivated by Love — and is accepted, it brings about a boundless spiritualization of thought, a conception (birth) unconfined. As I see this God-directed correction more as purification, rather than punishment, it becomes the “new birth” to me, helping to purify my thought, teaching me obedience to God, Truth, and bringing order, health, happiness and peace into my life. In Mrs. Eddy’s article posted on our website homepage, “The New Birth,” she writes that the new birth “begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope, and spiritual love.” I thank God for all wholesome chastisements of Love that help bring me closer to God. What a great blessing to learn this!
Thank you, lesson-writer, for this beautiful lesson on Truth.