Mary Baker Eddy Metaphysical College 1881 to 1898 Class Notes

Day One
Luke 10:38-42. “Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things; but one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken  away from her.”
Matthew 6:31-33. “. . . Take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
Mary sought truth; she sought the reality of being, and so must we. We must not express “the Martha thought,”—“being careful and troubled about many things,” about business, family, housekeeping, amusement, and so on. Our first thought at all times must be our seeking and finding God.
We should seek the “kingdom of God, and his righteousness,” and reality will come to you.
The Pharisees pray to be seen and heard of men, not to find God and the reality of being. They have their reward. They are heard only of men. We must pray to be seen and heard only of God.
SEEKING REALITY — THE KINGDOM
Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health:
S&H 291:13. “Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal, because sin is not there and man is found having no righteousness of his own, but in possession of ‘the mind of the Lord,’ as the Scripture says.”
The Old and New Testaments picture heaven as a city. In Psalms we read, “There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.” (Ps. 46:4) He also says that God is in the midst of her. And, in another Psalm we read, “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God	” (Ps. 48:1) Zion we are told is the dwelling place of God, of which “glorious things are spoken.” And the church is referred to as “. . . The city of the Lord, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa. 60:14)
In Revelation, John describes the Holy City, or New Jerusalem, as coming down from God, out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. He tells us that this city far exceeds the wonders of any earthly city, with streets of gold and walls ornamented with precious stones.
Why was heaven described as a city? This is a symbolic concept. A city represents safety. In ancient history men adopted community life as a means of security against their various enemies. As the community grew, many other advantages also grew which were not available to the isolated dweller who lived apart from the city. In the city there were walls, water supply and organized markets. The general well-being of the community was also provided for. As the city developed, it furnished for its inhabitants not only safety but the greatest material comforts and advantages. Consequently, the kingdom of God came to be viewed as a city, where those who are eternally blessed of the Lord are gathered, where all that is desirable, beautiful, good and true is present.
This mental state, called heaven, is an ideal community for which the human heart longs. It is the achievement of all our hopes. It is the abiding place of all our longings. And the dwelling place of the perfect and eternal.
But heaven is more than just a city. Mrs. Knott once said, “This little bit of earth cannot possibly be large enough for the abode of intelligent thought.” So a planet is not large enough for our abode. Mrs. Knott went on to say, “The opening up of, or communication with, another planet will be no more remarkable than the discovering of America.”
Since that time, many decades ago, men have walked on the moon, and today there is much in the press about going to Venus and Mars. Venus, however, is too hot for life, and Mars is too cold.
What appear to us as suns and planets represent spheres of intelligence, bodies of intelligent thought. They are not bodies of non-intelligent matter. Astronomers today affirm that the universe is made up of stars and planets more in number than the sands of the sea; that they are in motion and their movements are in an orderly path.
An article in the Christian Science Sentinel of December 28, 1912, p. 323, titled “Orbits,” says in essence:
One of the greatest wonders that has ever filled the human mind is the discovery that the celestial bodies move in definite paths. These orbits, as the paths are termed in astronomy, are relatively fixed. In them there is no interference, conflict, or collision. The planets move with a precision that compels the exclamation, “Order is heaven’s first law”! Mrs. Eddy says, “Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature,” and to this she adds, “Suns and planets teach grand lessons.” (S&H 240:1-2; 7 only) It is easy to realize that neither satellites, stars, suns, planets, nor comets move with a power of their own, though they seem to do so. They move in obedience to universal laws which have been discovered, proved, and repeatedly verified.
But when it is said that the celestial bodies move in obedience to these laws, only a single step has been taken toward the much more important realization that the laws did not come into existence of themselves. There must be a basic cause, for nothing just happens. All phenomena are but effects, manifestations, proofs of A CAUSE — whether they are understood or not.
But no matter how evident the effects may be the primal cause has not yet become apparent to the human understanding. Why? Because the celestial universe is still viewed as existing in outer space. The human mind sees only effect, and believes matter is the cause of the celestial universe. The fact is that the prime cause of the celestial universe is entirely mental, because this cause is Mind. In Psalms we read, “The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament sheweth his handiwork	There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.” (Ps.19:1-3) Speech and language denote intelligence — celestial intelligence. The Psalmist says that the understanding 
of the law which governs God’s ideas (that is, intelligence) is more to be desired “than gold, yea, than much fine gold.” (Ps. 19:10)
One of these laws is the fact that the various heavenly bodies move in orbits that are definitely fixed. There are no deflections or conflicts with the positions or the paths of the others. That is, intelligence is always in harmonious motion and action. Each satellite, planet, sun, and star, from the most insignificant to the most stupendous, has its own place, its own path, its own part to perform in the universal work in praise of the creator.
The Sentinel article goes on to say, that if we could look out into space and see the planets of our solar system whirling around our sun, and the stars in thousands of other systems also whirling around their respective suns, we would be still more filled with awe and adoration because of the perfection of their harmonious activity, and we would more reverently say with the Psalmist, “When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?” (Ps. 8:3,4)
The appreciation of the power and perfection of God’s laws is one of the keenest pleasures that humanity can experience. We must grasp the significance of the laws relating to planetary orbits, and realize that our own paths are governed by laws equally powerful. We recognize the fact that each of the celestial bodies has its own place, and its own path, and its own work in harmony with all the other members of a system and of the whole universe. We must also recognize that we ourselves are governed by the divine law with respect to our daily paths, our immediate associates, our contemporaries, and
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mankind in general. Whether we recognize it at present or not, our paths are governed by laws of thought. Not only in such simple matters as mere walking, but in the complex process of life development, do these laws operate with almighty power.
STARS — SPHERES OF INTELLIGENT THOUGHT
Are stars outer space objects? No. They are spheres of intelligent thought. They are within Mind; within consciousness. They are not material objects in so-called outer space.
In the first chapter of Genesis we read:
Gen. 1:14-16. “And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights [spheres of intelligence] in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.”
The Scofield Reference Bible says that “the stars [referred to] in verse 16 are individual believers who are ‘lights.’ (Phil. 2:15,16) See John 1:5” (Scofield, page 4)
So, stars also represent individuals. In the book of Revelation, Jesus says, “I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” (Rev. 22:16) And Jesus also said, to him that overcometh, “I will give him the morning star.” (Rev. 2:28)
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Stars are not objects of inert, non-intelligent, mindless matter, occupying outer space. They are spheres of thought which comprise the kingdom of heaven. Their substance is spiritual, and they move in the realm of Mind, not in outer space, not outside of Mind.
Mrs. Eddy writes, “The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, — he will look out from them upon the universe	” (S&H 125:28-29)
The astronomer and astronaut of the future will not look up to the stars in outer space; but he will look out upon the universe from the stars in the realm of Mind which is within you. These spheres of intelligence are solid, tangible, spiritual bodies. Like Jesus and John in Revelation we will communicate with these various planets throughout eternity. The process by which we do so will be revelation.
Mrs. Eddy states, “We live in an age of Love’s divine adventure to be All-in-all.” (My. 158:9-10) Heaven is a place of Love’s divine adventure. It is not a place of stagnation and monotony. It is in motion and is occupied by spiritual beings endowed with perpetual strength, vigor, and the spirit of adventure. What could be a more glorious adventure than to occupy a star and look out upon the universe, and move from one grand and glorious experience to another?
The Bible opens with two accounts of creation. The first account is a record (reality); the second account is an allegory; it is not real (unreality). In the first chapter the stars are in orbits moving on their courses in their divine adventures. They see the allness of God and His attributes manifested through man and nature, through stars, planets, constellations, suns, moons — these wonderful spheres of intelligent thought. In the second, third, and fourth chapters of Genesis it would appear that man was taken out of his spiritual orbit.
Mrs. Eddy writes:
S&H 565:23. “After the stars sang together and all was primeval harmony, the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea; but this only impelled the idea to rise to the zenith of demonstration, destroying sin, sickness, and death, and to be caught up unto God, — to be found in its divine Principle.”
The stars are singing today in primeval harmony, but to human belief we have to handle the thought that “the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea;” that thought has yielded to the talking, lying serpent of material knowledge and its material senses.
Like Elijah, John, the cousin of Jesus, went into the desert. He did this to carry out his mission of forerunner of Christ Jesus. The desert typified the conditions of the world according to the ancient prophecies which said there would be a great judgment and God would destroy the earth. Prior to this destruction, however, there would come a saviour to help the human race escape the suffering of that time.
John the Baptist gave as the theme of his sermons, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 3:2) “Repent” comes from the Latin words “pent” to think; and “re” change. The process of salvation was one of changing one’s thinking. Six months later, Jesus began his ministry with the same words as those of John. (Matt. 4:17) The subject of his teaching and preaching was “the kingdom.” And he later stated that, this gospel of the kingdom is to be preached throughout the world. (See Matt. 24:14)
The message was spiritual but simple. The human race was to find salvation, that is, escape from the self-destructing world, by a process of changing one’s thinking, not by looking for relocating to another place or another planet. The subject of Jesus’ teaching and preaching was “the kingdom.”
This message of salvation, that is, to change one’s thinking, is the system taught by the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings.
SALVATION
Salvation is a process, a mental process or journey. It is the spiritual process by which each one moves individually from the land of bondage — material outer space — to the land of promise — mind space — that is, the creation of the first chapter of Genesis.
At the present time, mankind seems to be dwelling in the material senses and in the illusions of life in matter.
All that these senses testify to, appear to be external to the body. But these senses do not perceive anything except with mortal mind. All that it beholds is that which is within itself. Nothing it perceives or beholds is exterior. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) Likewise the false, material kingdom of matter is within you; that is, within mortal belief. We must recognize the fact that all is Mind.
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