Subject: Reality

Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly, September 20, 1903

Golden Text: Psalm 33: 11
The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

Responsive Reading: Psalm 89: 1, 5-9, 11-18
1. I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.

5. And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.

6. For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?

7. God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.

8. O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?

9. Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.

11. The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.

12. The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.

13. Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.

14. Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.

15. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.

16. In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

17. For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.

18. For the Lord is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.

The Lesson

(I)

Psalm 93: 1-4 The Lord reigneth, he is clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.

Psalm 24: 1,2,7,10 The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.

331: 11, 20 The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence except the divine Mind and His ideas. The Scriptures also declare that God is Spirit. Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything in God's universe expresses Him. He is all-inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all is Spirit and spiritual.

109: 4 Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen to be supported by sensible evidence, until its divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen, no other conclusion can be reached.

275: 20 Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understanding, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, - that is, all power, all presence, all Science. Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.

471: 17 Man is, and forever has been, God's reflection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirituality of the universe is the only fact of creation. "Let God be true, but every [material] man a liar."

(II)

John 5: 19, 20, 22, 23 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.

Revelation 1: 18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

305: 13 The verity that God's image is not a creator, though he reflects the creation of Mind, God, constitutes the underlying reality of reflection. "Then answered Jesus and said unto them: Verily, verily I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

316: 3-7 The real man being linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to recognize the divine sonship.

317: 16 The individuality of man is no less tangible because it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and enables him to conquer sin, disease, and death. Our Lord and Master presented himself to his disciples after his resurrection from the grave, as the self-same Jesus whom they had loved before the tragedy on Calvary.

300: 9 So far as the scientific statement as to man is understood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true reflection of God - the real man, or the new man (as St. Paul has it).

190: 14 Human birth, growth, maturity, and decay are as the grass springing from the soil with beautiful green blades, afterwards to wither and return to its native nothingness. This mortal seeming is temporal; it never merges into immortal being, but finally disappears, and immortal man, spiritual and eternal, is found to be the real man.

296: 10 Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.

(III)

Job 38: 1,4,7,16,22,28,33-35 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth? Hast thou entered into the treasures of the snow? or hast thou seen the treasures of the hail, Hath the rain a father? or who hath begotten the drops of dew? Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? canst thou set the dominion thereof in the earth? Canst thou lift up thy voice to the clouds, that abundance of waters may cover thee? Canst thou send lightnings, that they may go, and say unto thee, Here we are?

Job 29: 13, 25 The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow's heart to sing for joy. I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one that comforteth the mourners.

Amos 9: 6 It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven, and hath founded his troop in the earth; he that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name.

337: 22-26 The visible universe and material man are the poor counterfeits of the invisible universe and spiritual man. Eternal things (verities) are God's thoughts as they exist in the spiritual realm of the real.

124: 14-31 The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be understood; but when explained on the basis of physical sense and represented as subject to growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, and must continue to be, an enigma. Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support the equipoise of that thought-force, which launched the earth in its orbit and said to the proud wave, "Thus far and no farther." Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and classification.

306: 21-25 The myriad forms of mortal thought, made manifest as matter, are not more distinct nor real to the material senses than are the Soul-created forms to spiritual sense, which cognizes Life as permanent.

(IV)

Psalm 96: 10 Say among the heathen that the Lord reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.

Psalm 103: 19 The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

Jeremiah 31: 33, 35 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. Thus saith the Lord, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The Lord of hosts is his name:

Matthew 5: 17-19 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

James 2: 8 If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:

73: 10, 11 God controls man, and God is the only Spirit. Any other control or attraction of so-called spirit is a mortal belief, which ought to be known by its fruit, - the repetition of evil.

207: 27-31 The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth. Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord, which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real.

151: 26-5 All that really exists is the divine Mind and its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found harmonious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and follow the leadings of truth. That mortal mind claims to govern every organ of the mortal body, we have overwhelming proof. But this so-called mind is a myth, and must by its own consent yield to Truth. It would wield the sceptre of a monarch, but it is powerless. The immortal divine Mind takes away all its supposed sovereignty, and saves mortal mind from itself.

418: 20-22 Truth is affirmative, and confers harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this simple rule of Truth, which governs all reality.

209: 5-8 Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas, the life and light of all its own vast creation; and man is tributary to divine Mind.

470: 32 The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.

(V)

Genesis 1: 2,3 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

John 16: 13-15 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you.

Ephesians 2: 10, 13, 18 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.

46: 5 In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends by the words, which made their hearts burn within them, and by the breaking of bread. The divine Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and healing the sick.

572: 19-25 In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: - And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new heaven and a new earth.

573: 3-17, 28 The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see, - that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness. Accompanying this scientific consciousness was another revelation, even the declaration from heaven, supreme harmony, that God, the divine Principle of harmony, is ever with men, and they are His people. This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science. Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When you read this, remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you." This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility.

(VI)

Psalm 73: 11-14, 16,17, 28 And they say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High? Behold, these are the ungodly, who prosper in the world; they increase in riches. Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been plagued, and chastened every morning. When I thought to know this, it was too painful for me; Until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their end. But it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.

John 11: 41-44 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. 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. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 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.

Jeremiah 9: 24 But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord.

505: 21-28 Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind, - Life, Truth, and Love, - and demonstrates the divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science. This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light.

371: 14 Darkness induces fear.

205: 32 When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, we can have no other Mind but His, - no other Love, wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no consciousness of the existence of matter or error.

510: 2 How much more should we seek to apprehend the spiritual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual.

509: 17, 24 The light of spiritual understanding gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indicate the immensity of space. The periods of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness - yea, the divine nature - appear in man and the universe never to disappear.

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