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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!
Additionally: “Jesus knew that disease is abnormal and curable, and he demonstrated the verity of his knowledge. Concerning the sick woman he said that Satan had bound her. This surely does not mean that God or Truth or matter had bound her” (Ibid, p. 350).
Thank you for this post! Along these lines, Mrs. Eddy wrote on the subject of waiting on God, to “J.L.” in the “Blue Book” (p. 116), the following:
“When you are in perplexity or doubt about some important question that must be decided, keep your mind still; cease thinking and wait, that the still, small voice may speak. No words may come to you; nevertheless you will have asked your question. Wait – when the moment arrives, the decision you will have.”
Along the same line of RESTING more in God, Mrs. Eddy instructs us: “Study to be quiet. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength” (“The Blue Book,” p. 95).
Thank you for this post! When I read “I saw the love of God encircling the universe and man, filling all space, and that divine Love so permeated my own consciousness that I loved with Christ-like compassion everything I saw” I was reminded of what the mother of the child said in her testimony about when Mrs. Eddy healed her little girl of the boil on her head (The Healer – The Healing Work of Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 120-121):
“I wish I could make the world know what I saw when Mrs. Eddy looked on those children….I saw for the first time the real Mother-Love….It is impossible to put into words what the uncovering of my own lack of the real Mother-Love meant to me. As I…walked toward the line of trees in the front yard, there was a bird sitting on the limb of a tree, and I saw the same Love, poured out on that bird that I had seen flow from Mrs. Eddy to my children. I looked down at the grass and the flowers and there was the same Love resting on them. It is difficult for me to put into words what I saw. This Love was everywhere, like the light, but it was divine, not mere human affection. I looked at the people milling around on the lawn and I saw it poured out on them….It was not only everywhere present, like the light, but it was an intelligent presence that spoke to me, and I found myself weeping as I walked back and forth under the trees and saying out loud, ‘Why did I never know you before? Why have I not known you always?’…When we got back to the hotel, there was no boil on my child’s head.”
Just as last week’s subject of “atonement” is noted by Mrs. Eddy as “a hard problem in theology,” she comments on page 1 of Unity of Good about this subject: “Perhaps no doctrine of Christian Science rouses so much natural doubt and questioning as this, that God knows no such thing as sin.” (lines 1-3). Shortly thereafter she states, “Let us then reason together on this important subject, whose statement in Christian Science may justly be characterized as wonderful” (ibid, p. 1: 8-10). The first 7 pages of Unity of Good contain Mrs. Eddy’s answer to this question: “Does God know or behold sin, sickness, and death?”
When viewing the Bible as the story of man’s progressive understanding of God over thousands of years, the seeming contradictions on this point become more clear, in my view. One online source makes this assessment: “The Old Testament shows the wrath of God against sin (with glimpses of His grace); the New Testament shows the grace of God toward sinners (with glimpses of His wrath)” (GotQuestions.org Podcast). In her book, Getting Better Acquainted with Your Bible, Bernice Shotwell describes the Bible as “an expanding revelation” (p. 12). Similarly, Alice Orgain states in her analysis of picture #7 in Christ and Christmas, that the Bible is the “revelation of the ascending consciousness of individual man. . . ”. So, advancing from the law and the prophets of the Old Testatment/Covenant, to the life of Christ Jesus and his teachings in the New Testament/Covenant, to Mary Baker Eddy and Christian Science/divine Science, this progression in understanding over many generations has gradually lead mankind to “. . . the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world” (S & H, p. 150).
As found in the December 2020 issue of Plainfield’s magazine, “Love is the Liberator,” and its picture-by-picture analyses by Judge Hanna and Irving Tomlinson, of our Leader’s poem, Christ and Christmas, it is explained that Jesus’ mission was “completed,” while Mrs. Eddy’s mission was “just beginning” (see picture #9, page 10). And, we know from Miscellaneous Writings that the ultimate mission of Christian Science is just what this Forum post addresses – “It is not alone the mission of Christian Science to heal the sick, but to destroy sin in mortal thought. This work well done will elevate and purify the race” (p. 4: 29-2 np).
So, as a result of Mrs. Eddy’s discovery of Christian Science, the full and final revelation of Truth, with her completing the explanation of God’s true nature, by bringing forth the womanhood of God – having encompassed Jesus’ teaching of the manhood of God (Jer. 31:22 – “A woman shall encompass a man”) – mankind’s progressive understanding and elevation of consciousness towards the realization of God as infinite Love, to whom sin is unknown, continues to be propelled ever forward until the glorious revelation that there is no sin, disease, or death, will be fully realized. “To infinite, ever-present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death” (S & H, p. 567:7-8). Just as is brought out so clearly in this week’s Lesson that – through progress, growth, and gradual spiritual understanding, mortal man will “ripen” to the realization that “There is no death” (Lesson citation #10) – so will we all, individually and collectively, be elevated and purified to the realization that there is no sin. As Mrs. Eddy points out – how wonderful is that?!?!?
Thanks for broaching such a thought-provoking subject, which ties into this week’s Lesson so seamlessly, and which prompted some enlightening research! There is so much to study and contemplate on this all-important matter! (A few other relevant citations: S & H, p. 472:27-29; Miscellaneous Writings, p. 367:28-31; Habakkuk 1:13; Unity of Good, p. 3:24-25 & p. 7:22-24).
Thank you for sharing your insightful and encouraging comments in this post! Thank God, Christ Jesus, and Mrs. Eddy for the endless promises that provide us with our daily bread/sustenance each and every day!
THANK YOU SO MUCH for this post! I had the MOST DELIGHTFUL Christmas, starting with the WONDERFUL Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, and then on Christmas Day I read this post, followed up by reading Parthens’ 2014 article that you mentioned. I was so moved in reading about Handel’s experience, and since I already had one of my CDs of “The Messiah” in my CD player, I immediately turned it up and listened with so much joy, while I continued my deeper study of Mrs. Eddy’s poem, Christ and Christmas. During this holy time, I received a “Merry Christmas” text from a former client, who has studied Christian Science in the past, and I shared the information with her in my reply. She was thrilled to learn this fascinating fact. Otherwise, I also shared the Peter V. Ross article entitled, “Remedy for Lawlessness” with 2 other Christian Scientists, and one forwarded it on to 10 others. When she asked the source of the article, I shared the PF website with her, and also emailed her both of Peter V. Ross’s books that I got off the PF website (Lectures on CS, pages 215-216 – has the similar article entitled “Cure for Lawlessness”) and she expressed much gratitude for receiving them. WOW! The PERFECT Christmas Eve and Day! Thanks again for this post and Parthens’ article!!