0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

21	                       EDITOR'S EXTRACTS FROM SERMON 

  	    TEXT: Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of
  	God. — MATT. xxii. 29. 

24	    The Christian Science Journal reported as follows: —  
  	    The announcement that the Rev. Mary B. G. Eddy
  	would speak before the Scientist denomination on the
27	afternoon of October 26, drew a large audience. Haw-
  	thorne Hall was densely packed, and many had to go
  	away unable to obtain seats. The distinguished speaker
30	began by saying: —  
 
                                                                                                  page 169   
  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Extracts from Sermon 

 1	    Within Bible pages she had found all the divine Science
  	she preaches; noticing, all along the way of her researches
 3	therein, that whenever her thoughts had wandered into
  	the bypaths of ancient philosophies or pagan literatures,
  	her spiritual insight had been darkened thereby, till
 6	she was God-driven back to the inspired pages. Early
  	training, through the misinterpretation of the Word,
  	had been the underlying cause of the long years of in-
 9	validism she endured before Truth dawned upon her
  	understanding, through right interpretation. With the
  	understanding of Scripture-meanings, had come physical
12	rejuvenation. The uplifting of spirit was the upbuild-
  	ing of the body. 
  	    She affirmed that the Scriptures cannot properly... be
15	interpreted in a literal way. The truths they teach must
  	be spiritually discerned, before their message can be
  	borne fully to our minds and hearts. That there is a
18	dual meaning to every Biblical passage, the most eminent
  	divines of the world have concluded; and to get at the
  	highest, or metaphysical, it is necessary rightly to read
21	what the inspired writers left for our spiritual instruction. 
  	The literal rendering of the Scriptures makes them noth-
  	ing valuable, but often is the foundation of unbelief and
24	hopelessness. The metaphysical rendering is health and
  	peace and hope for all. The literal or material reading is
  	the reading of the carnal mind, which is enmity toward
27	God, Spirit. 
  	    Taking several Bible passages, Mrs. Eddy showed how
  	beautiful and inspiring are the thoughts when rightly
30	understood. "Let the dead bury their dead; follow
  	thou me," was one of the passages explained metaphysi-
  	cally. In their fullest meaning, those words are salvation
 
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  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Extracts from Sermon 

 1	from the belief of death, the last enemy to be overthrown;
  	for by following Christ truly, resurrection and life im-
 3	mortal are brought to us. If we follow him, to us there
  	can be no dead. Those who know not this, may still
  	believe in death and weep over the graves of their beloved;
 6	but with him is Life eternal, which never changes to
  	death. The eating of bread and drinking of wine at the
  	Lord's supper, merely symbolize the spiritual refresh-
 9	ment of God's children having rightly read His Word,
  	whose entrance into their understanding is healthful life. 
  	This is the reality behind the symbol. 
12	    So, also, she spoke of the hades, or hell of Scripture,
  	saying, that we make our own heavens and our own hells,
  	by right and wise, or wrong and foolish, conceptions of
15	God and our fellow-men. Jesus interpreted all spirit-
  	ually: "I have bread to eat that ye know not of," he
  	said. The bread he ate, which was refreshment of divine
18	strength, we also may all partake of. 
  	    The material record of the Bible, she said, is no more
  	important to our well-being than the history of Europe
21	and America; but the spiritual application bears upon
  	our eternal life. The method of Jesus was purely meta-
  	physical; and no other method is Christian Science. In
24	the passage recording Jesus' proceedings with the blind
  	man (Mark viii.) he is said to have spat upon the dust. 
  	Spitting was the Hebrew method of expressing the utmost
27	contempt. So Jesus is recorded as having expressed
  	contempt for the belief of material eyes as having any
  	power to see. Having eyes, ye see not; and ears, ye hear
30	not, he had just told them. The putting on of hands
  	mentioned, she explained as the putting forth of power. 
  	"Hand," in Bible usage, often means spiritual power. 
 
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  Miscellaneous Writings --- Sermons. Extracts from Sermon 

 1	"His hand is not shortened that it cannot save," can
  	never be wrested from its true meaning to signify human
 3	hands. Jesus' first effort to realize Truth was not wholly
  	successful; but he rose to the occasion with the second
  	attempt, and the blind saw clearly. To suppose that
 6	Jesus did actually anoint the blind man's eyes with his
  	spittle, is as absurd as to think, according to the report
  	of some, that Christian Scientists sit in back-to-back
 9	seances with their patients, for the divine power to filter
  	from vertebrae to vertebrae. When one comes to the age
  	with spiritual translations of God's messages, expressed
12	in literal or physical terms, our right action is not to con-
  	demn and deny, but to "try the spirits" and see what
  	manner they are of. This does not mean communing
15	with spirits supposed to have departed from the earth,
  	but the seeking out of the basis upon which are accom-
  	plished the works by which the new teacher would prove
18	his right to be heard. By these signs are the true disciples
  	of the Master known: the sick are healed; to the poor
  	the gospel is preached. 
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