Class Notebook
Home Page | Bible Lesson Notes | Class Notebook | Archives
Back To Class Note Book Index

Submitted By: Mike Mooslin
Subject: 03 CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BY THE NUMBERS
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BY THE NUMBERS

"ONE MIND, ONE GOD AND FATHER, ONE LIFE, TRUTH AND LOVE"
S&H 467:9
It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established. Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.

THE ONE BRIEF PRAYER OUR MASTER GAVE US
S&H 16:7-11
Our Master taught his disciples one brief prayer, which we name after him the Lord's Prayer. Our Master said, "After this manner therefore pray ye," and then he gave that prayer which covers all human needs.

S&H 16:20-15
Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick.
Here let me give what I understand to be the spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer:

Our Father which art in heaven,
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Adorable One.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know,--as in heaven, so on earth,--God is
omnipotent, supreme.
Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth
us from sin, disease, and death.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, forever.
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over
all, and All.

ONE "DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE"
S&H 304:9
This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death. The perfect man--governed by God, his perfect Principle--is sinless and eternal.

"TWO CARDINAL POINTS OF MIND HEALING"
S&H 52:19-23
The "man of sorrows" best understood the nothingness of material life and intelligence and the mighty actuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or Christian Science, which armed him with Love.

THE TWO PARTS TO THE REVELATION
S&H 123:19-29
The revelation consists of two parts:
1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind-healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by the Master.
2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so-called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order and continuity of being.

TWO DEMANDS OF THIS SCIENCE OF SOUL
S&H 467:1-8
^Question^.--What are the demands of the Science of Soul?
^Answer^.--The first demand of this Science is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This ^me^ is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
"TWO ESSENTIAL POINTS OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE"
S&H 349:10
Two essential points of Christian Science are, that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the author of sickness.

THREE IN ONE GOD
S&H 515:16-20
The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe. The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor does it imply three persons in one. It relates to the oneness, the tri-unity of Life, Truth, and Love.

TRIUNE PERSON CALLED GOD
S&H 331:26-1
VII. Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person called God,--that is, the triply divine Principle, Love. They represent a trinity in unity, three in one,--the same in essence, though multiform in office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spiritual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter. These three express in divine Science the threefold, essential nature of the infinite.

THREE MODES OF MORTAL THOUGHT
S&H 118:13
In their spiritual significance, Science, Theology, and Medicine are means of divine thought, which include spiritual laws emanating from the invisible and infinite power and grace. The parable may import that these spiritual laws, perverted by a perverse material sense of law, are metaphysically presented as three measures of meal,--that is, three modes of mortal thought. In all mortal forms of thought, dust is dignified as the natural status of men and things, and modes of material motion are honored with the name of laws. This continues until the leaven of Spirit changes the whole of mortal thought, as yeast changes the chemical properties of meal.

THREE GREAT VERITIES OF SPIRIT
S&H 109:32
The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience,--Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science,--contradict forever the belief that matter can be actual. These eternal verities reveal primeval existence as the radiant reality of God's creation, in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wisdom good.

THREE STAGES OF MORTAL GROWTH (SEE NINE BEATITUDES BELOW)

THREE REASONS A STUDENT OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE REQUIRES SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
S&H 456:25-30
A Christian Scientist requires my work SCIENCE AND HEALTH for his textbook, and so do all his students and patients. Why?

First: Because it is the voice of Truth to this age, and contains the full statement of Christian Science, or the Science of healing through Mind.

S&H 456:30-4
Second: Because it was the first book known, containing a thorough statement of Christian Science. Hence it gave the first rules for demonstrating this Science, and registered the revealed Truth uncontaminated by human hypotheses. Other works, which have borrowed from this book without giving it credit, have adulterated the Science.

S&H 457:4
Third^: Because this book has done more for teacher and student, for healer and patient, than has been accomplished by other books.

FOUR FUNDAMENTAL PROPOSITIONS OF DIVINE METAPHYSICS
S&H 113:9-25
The fundamental propositions of divine metaphysics are summarized in the four following, to me, self-evident propositions. Even if reversed, these propositions will be found to agree in statement and proof, showing mathematically their exact relation to Truth. De Quincey says mathematics has not a foot to stand upon which is not purely metaphysical.
1. God is All-in-all.
2. God is good. Good is Mind.
3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter.
4. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, disease.--Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipotent God, Life.
Which of the denials in proposition four is true? Both are not, cannot be, true. According to the Scripture, I find that God is true, "but every [mortal] man a liar."

FOUR SIDES OF THE SPIRITUAL CITY(see hand out on "just four you")
S&H 575:7,24
This sacred city, described in the Apocalypse (xxi. 16) as one that "lieth foursquare" and cometh "down from God, out of heaven," represents the light and glory of divine Science. The builder and maker of this New Jerusalem is God, as we read in the book of Hebrews; and it is "a city which hath foundations." The description is metaphoric. Spiritual teaching must always be by symbols. Did not Jesus illustrate the truths he taught by the mustard-seed and the prodigal? Taken in its allegorical sense, the description of the city as foursquare has a profound meaning. The four sides of our city are the Word, Christ, Christianity, and divine Science; "and the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there." This city is wholly spiritual, as its four sides indicate.

It is indeed a city of the Spirit, fair, royal, and square. Northward, its gates open to the North Star, the Word, the polar magnet of Revelation; eastward, to the star seen by the Wisemen of the Orient, who followed it to the manger of Jesus; southward, to the genial tropics, with the Southern Cross in the skies, --the Cross of Calvary, which binds human society into solemn union; westward, to the grand realization of the Golden Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of Harmony.

FOUR CARDINAL POINTS OF THE CITY OF OUR GOD(see hand out "just four you")
S&H 577:12-19
This spiritual, holy habitation has no boundary nor limit, but its four cardinal points are: first, the Word of Life, Truth, and Love; second, the Christ, the spiritual idea of God; third, Christianity, which is the outcome of the divine Principle of the Christ-idea in Christian history; fourth, Christian Science, which to-day and forever interprets this great example and the great Exemplar.

FOUR RIVERS DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY(see hand out "just four you")
Gen 2:10,11 (to :),13 (to :),14 (to :),14 2nd And the
And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison:
And the name of the second river is Gihon:
And the name of the third river is Hiddekel:
And the fourth river is Euphrates.

S&H 593:1
PISON (river). The love of the good and beautiful, and their immortality.
S&H 588:5
HIDDEKEL (river). Divine Science understood and acknowledged.
S&H 587:3
GIHON (river). The rights of woman acknowledged morally, civilly, and socially.
S&H 585:16-19
EUPHRATES (river). Divine Science encompassing the universe and man; the true idea of God; a type of the glory which is to come; metaphysics taking the place of physics; the reign of righteousness.

FIRST FOUR RULES OF HAVING ONE GOD
Pan 9:8
Is there a religion under the sun that hath demonstrated one God and the four first rules pertaining thereto, namely, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me;" "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;" "Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." (John xi. 26.)

First Rule:
Pan 9:10 Thou (to 2nd ")
Thou shalt have no other gods before me;" "
Second Rule:
Pan 9:10-11 Love (to ")
Love thy neighbor as thyself;" "
Third Rule:
Pan 9:11-12 Be (to ")
Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect;" "
Fourth Rule:
Pan 9:12-13 Whosoever (to .)
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

FIVE CHIEF STONES IN THE TEMPLE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE
S&H 288:20
The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are to be found in the following postulates: that Life is God, good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no material life, and no death.

First Chief Stone: "that Life is God, good, and not
evil;"
Second Chief Stone: "that Soul is sinless, not to be
found in the body;"
Third Chief Stone: "that Spirit is not, and cannot
be, materialized;"
Fourth Chief Stone: "that Life is not subject to
death;"
Fifth Chief Stone: "that the spiritual real man has
no birth, no material life, and no death;"

SIX TENETS
S&H 496:31-27
The following is a brief exposition of the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian Science:--
1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness.
3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.
4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.
6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

SIX PROMISES IN THE SIXTH TENET
First Promise: To "watch." (Remember the comma after watch. Also read "Watching
versus Watching Out" - My 232:9-27np)
Second Promise: To "pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus."
Third Promise: To "do unto others as we would have them do unto us." (Matt 7: 12)
Fourth Promise: To "be merciful." (Man 54: 7)
Fifth Promise: To "be just." (Mis 112: 8, Mis 32:27)
Sixth Promise: To "be pure." (S & H 337:14)

SOME TENET HISTORY
On September 23, 1892, the twelve students Mrs. Eddy had chosen to establish the Mother Church met quietly in Boston and elected as First Members twenty other students. All were approved by Mrs. Eddy. In addition… the minutes of this historic meeting contain the Tenets of the Church:

Tenets to be subscribed to by those uniting with "The First Church of Christ, Scientist” in Boston, were read… The Tenets were adopted, and ordered to be written in the book containing the records of this Church.

(Here is the way they originally looked):
1. As adherents of Truth, we take the Scriptures for our guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one Supreme God.
We acknowledge His Son, the Holy Ghost, and man in His image and likeness. We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin, in the destruction of sin, and His present and future punishment of "whatsoever worketh an abomination or maketh a lie.” And the atonement of Christ, as the efficacy of Truth and love. And the way of Salvation as demonstrated by Jesus casting out evils, healing the sick and raising the dead -resurrecting a dead faith to seize the great possibilities and living energies of Divine Life.
3. We solemnly promise to strive, watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus. To love the brethren, and, up to our highest capacity to be meek, merciful, and just, and live peaceably with all men.

Beasley, Norman, Mary Baker Eddy, pgs. 177-178

The Church Tenets made their appearance in “Recapitulation” (81st Edition of Science and Health, 1894). The Tenets date from the formation of the Church of Christ, Scientist in 1879.


SIX STEPS OF WHAT SPIRITUAL SENSE, CONTRADICTING MATERIAL SENSE INVOLVES:

First Step Involves: Intuition
Second Step Involves: Hope
Third Step Involves: Faith
Fourth Step Involves: Understanding
Fifth Step Involves: Fruition
Six Step Involves: Reality

S&H 298:13-15
Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality.

SEVEN SYNONYMS
S&H 115:13
GOD: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind.

S&H 275:12-14
Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one,--and are the Scriptural names for God.

S&H 587:5
GOD. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.

NINE BEATITUDES
(CORRESPONDING TO THE THREE STAGES OF MENTAL GROWTH IN "THE WAY" (MIS 355)-FIRST THREE BEATITUDES CORRESPOND TO SELF KNOWLEDGE, SECOND THREE TO HUMILITY AND LAST THREE TO LOVE. THESE NINE INDICATORS OF GROWTH IN CHRISTIAN CHARACTER ALSO CORRESPOND TO THE 9 STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF THE PRODIGAL SON PARABLE-SEE LUKE 15.) Matt 5:2-12
Mis 355:1-12
THE WAY
The present stage of progress in Christian Science presents two opposite aspects,--a full-orbed promise, and a gaunt want. The need, however, is not of the letter, but the spirit.
Less teaching and good healing is to-day the acme of "well done;" a healing that is not guesswork,--chronic recovery ebbing and flowing,--but instantaneous cure. This absolute demonstration of Science must be revived. To consummate this ^desideratum^, mortal mind must pass through three stages of growth.
First, self-knowledge.

Mis 356:22-24
The second stage of mental development is humility. This virtue triumphs over the flesh; it is the genius of Christian Science.

Mis 357:19-21
The third stage of mental growth is manifested in ^love^, the greatest of all stages and states of being; love that is irrespective of self, rank, or following.

TEN COMMANDMENTS
Mis 303:16
If ever I wear out from serving students, it shall be in the effort to help them to obey the Ten Commandments and imbibe the spirit of Christ's Beatitudes.

Ex 20:3-17 before
before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. #Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.

TWELVE STARS IN THE CROWN OF REJOICING
S&H 560:6
^Revelation^ xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.

S&H 562:11
The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals,--separated by belief from man's divine origin and the true idea,--will through much tribulation yield to the activities of the divine Principle of man in the harmony of Science. These are the stars in the crown of rejoicing. They are the lamps in the spiritual heavens of the age, which show the workings of the spiritual idea by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting the light which shines "unto the perfect day" as the night of materialism wanes.


FOURTEEN "MUSTS" TO ENTER INTO THE HEART OF PRAYER
S&H 14:31
"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly."

S&H 15:9-6
To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.
In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God's allness. We must resolve to take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We must "pray without ceasing." Such prayer is answered, in so far as we put our desires into practice. The Master's injunction is, that we pray in secret and let our lives attest our sincerity.
Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God. Self-forgetfulness, purity, and affection are constant prayers. Practice not profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthiness is the foundation of enlightened faith. Without a fitness for holiness, we cannot receive holiness.
A great sacrifice of material things must precede this advanced spiritual understanding. The highest prayer is not one of faith merely; it is demonstration. Such prayer heals sickness, and must destroy sin and death. It distinguishes between Truth that is sinless and the falsity of sinful sense.

TWENTY-ONE DAILY DUTIES (SEE "DAILY DUTIES" HAND OUT)

TWENTY-FOUR QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS IN RECAPITULATION (S&H 465-496)

THIRTY TWO PLATFORM POINTS (AN EXERCISE: READ THE 32 MARGINAL HEADINGS)
S&H 330:8
When the following platform is understood and the letter and the spirit bear witness, the infallibility of divine metaphysics will be demonstrated.

FIFTY PARABALES OF JESUS



Home Page | Bible Lesson Notes | Class Notebook | Archives
The information in this web site is unofficial and is for the sole use of our Sunday School class. Please do not reproduce or distribute any of the contents. Since the materials here have not been edited or reviewed by the Church they are not suitable for widespread use. You will find, for that reason the emphasis in the Archives and the Q & A sections are on references from Mrs. Eddy's published writings. You are encouraged to use this site for confidential discussion and inquiry. You will find links to the Church periodicals, and The Mother Church Home page which contains official answers to many questions and authorized Christian Science literature.