Stagnation Or Progression?

Too many people think,
What other people do or don't
Can make one's progress stall,
Legitimate projects sink.

This need not be the case,
If we employ what Jesus knew --
Which Science divine reiterates.
This does stagnation erase.

It's what we claim, really know,
Of potent truths divine,
That operates in our behalf
And makes activities go.

Advice Worth Taking

"Seek the Lord, and his strength",

The writer of Psalms admonishes.

His strength -- our strength,

Yours and mine,

Through divine reflection.

And when we do,

The result astonishes;

An amazing amount of work

Is more easily done;

Good things accomplished

In the right direction.

And those things not worth

Wasting our energy on?

They simply fall away.

And we say to ourselves,

Why wasn't I doing this before?

Christly Knowledge That Heals

        There are many ways a Christian Scientist who is confronted with a troubling physical condition might pray.  But such prayer would certainly encompasses these spiritual facts:

-- God is the only creator, and what He creates is good.

--Man is God's perfect child, the image and likeness of Spirit, and has never changed from this original, spiritual state of being.

--Nothing can interfere with man's harmony and wholeness as the image of divine Love, God.

--Disease can't be real because God never made it.  It is unknown to perfect, all knowing, divine Mind.

--As God's image, man can know and experience only what Mind knows; unchanging perfection.


        Christian Science teaches that such knowledge expresses "the mind of Christ," spoken of in the New Testament.  With such Christly knowledge empowering us, the evidence of a particular physical challenge is seen to be false, and it disappears.  Yet, actually, nothing real--that is, nothing God made--has been changed or healed.  Rather, the light of divine reality has replaced the darkness of the belief that evil or disease is powerful and real.  The power of God and His Christ, welcomed and acknowledged, through prayer, has destroyed belief in that which previously seemed to be real but never truly was.  Then comes the wonderful recognition that we are whole and complete (because man always has been), and the body conforms to that recognition.  This is Christian Science healing.

        Now, pain and suffering may, of course, seem very real and formidable at times.  A particular trouble may require our wholehearted, persistent prayer.  But the most wonderful sense of freedom and well-being comes when we turn away from fears about the body and gain some perception of spiritual truth, when we spiritualize and purify thought. And this does bring healing.

        Our state of thought is critical to good health.  These words of Christ Jesus point to the significance of what we entertain in thought:  "Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man...those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart."  It is highly important to replace fearful, sickly thoughts with spiritual truths.  These uplift, transform, purify, and keep us whole.  They keep out thinking in line with the Christly standard Jesus established, and this empowers us to exercise our God-given right to be free of physical suffering.

        Disease has a mental basis; it's a false belief in a power apart from God, not a God-bestowed reality.  Therefore, freedom from it, in the truest sense, is found through spiritual means, not physical. The answer for physical ills lies in a recognition of spiritual facts about ourselves as the image of perfect Mind.  This spiritually mental activity is potent.  It lessens and eliminates the misconceptions and fears of the human mind that underlie disease.  And this leads to an improvement of the body's condition.  Again, man already, actually, is the immortal, spiritual manifestation of God.  Christian Science treatment, by regenerating and spiritualizing thought, simply causes this reality to be seen and experienced in healing.

        In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, with the marginal heading, "Disease powerless",Mary Baker Eddy writes:  "Disease is not an intelligence to dispute the empire of Mind or to dethrone Mind and take the government into it own hands.  Sickness is not a God-given nor a self-constituted material power, which copes astutely with Mind and finally conquers it.  God never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to chill  harmony with a long and cold night of discord." (p, 378)

        These words have proved true in thousands of Christian Science healings over the years.  The healing Christ, manifesting God's omnipotent power, is able to both reveal and remove whatever fears and false beliefs need to be dealt with in any case.

Said the Serpent to Eve

                                                        John Robert Howell




 Serpent.  Yo toots!  I saw you taking a gander at the fruit on this handsome tree.  Words can't describe how good and sweet the fruit is.  You need to taste it for yourself.

 Eve.  He said we weren't even supposed to touch it, but it's sure yummy to look at.  I'll give you that.

 Serpent.  Why would He put it there if you weren't meant to nosh on it?  He may have gotten bored and wanted to test your reaction to my complimentary schmoozing and chipper talking up.

Eve.  Yes, and maybe there is good and then there is GOOD, and just maybe that fruit is only a tempting knockoff sort of good, something to appeal to "channels of sense, intellect, and aspirations."
[Dummelow via time warp.]

Serpent.  Sweetie, the fruit on this tree has more delights than a swiss army knife.  Talk about good!  You can whip up a fruit salad from this tree that would be the envy of a platoon of North Korean generals.  Irresistible, I'm sure you're going to find.

Eve.  Well, I can't deny I get a goose-bumpy tingle when I look at that tree, and every coruscating fruit has, I see, a little seal of approval from someone (in microscopic print.)  Still, He said don't think about touching it.

Serpent. Pshaw!  Quit being such a dweeb.  With an attitude like that you'll never get invited to a wingding or tapped for your own Reality show.  Maybe the Lord God only said, "Hands off" until He could open a Wal-Mart and you and that palooka over there could rustle up some duds to cover up the petty annoyance of guilt and shame.

Eve.  Guilt?  Shame?

Serpent.  Bon appetit!

All Power

                   "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions,
                                          and over all the power of the enemy;
                                                   and nothing shall by any means hurt you."




                            "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."

                                                          Christ Jesus





                            "We must look where we would walk,
                                                  and we must act as possessing
                                                               all power from Him
                                                                         in whom we have our being.


                                                    Mary Baker Eddy




                                All power.  May we use this power that is ours, and help

                                                 a world so in need of it.