ALL THAT ISN"T: DARK, COLD, and EVIL Strictly speaking, dark is simply the absence of light. There is the speed of light, but darkness has no speed at all, according to noted astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. In his opinion, the idea of a speed of darkness is no more than a poetic metaphor, but has no place in legitimate scientific discussion [source: StarTalk]. Darkness is only known by its absence of light.
As we know heat is a form of energy and its main source is sun, and it causes the atoms to vibrate. On the other hand, many say that coldness is just the absence of that energy. And in absolute zero ( -460 degrees F) all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction. Cold is only known by its absence of heat.
Likewise, evil is an absence of good, God. Like darkness and cold, its very being is defined by what it is not.
What does this prove? That evil, darkness, sin, disease, are a LACK of goodness, light, purity, and health. They are nothing because they are an absence of something; unreal because they are not real. It gives us a workable way to see the nothingness nature of darkness, evil, sin, and disease and the ultimate dominance and supremacy of Soul, God, Spirit.
“As light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God, is the only truth-giver to man” (Science and Health, p. 72:9–12 As).
“Spirit and matter no more commingle than light and darkness” (Science and Health, p. 281:4–5).
“Do Christian Scientists believe that evil exists? ... answer, Yes and No! Yes, inasmuch as we do know that evil, as a false claim, false entity, and utter falsity, does exist in thought;(that is in human mind) and No, as something that enjoys, suffers, or is real (as in divine Mind)…. We regard evil as a lie, an illusion, therefore as unreal as a mirage that misleads the traveller on his way home” (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 14:6 (only), 7 answer).
IT is OUR CHOICE. But the light is always on. We can choose to see the light, or we can close our eyes. Even so, our human consciousness includes the divine influence of Spirit at all times. “Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speaking to the human consciousness” (Science and Health, p. 332:9–11 Christ). We are either awake to this reality, or not. And yet we are conscious of having to make a choice to argue on the side of happiness and to choose life.
“No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:22–24).
“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live”(Deuteronomy 30:19).
“As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality!” (Science and Health, pp. 480:31–2).
“If you wish to be happy, argue with yourself on the side of happiness; take the side you wish to carry, and be careful not to talk on both sides, or to argue stronger for sorrow than for joy” (Christian Healing, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 10:20–23).
If we find we have made the wrong choices, we find that “...spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth. (Science and Health, p. 95:30–32). God, Truth, corrects, adjusts, and purifies.
What are we choosing and giving our consent to? When the human mind gives its consent - totally surrendering its limited, mortal view and accepting the divine light - harmony reigns, and we wake up to what has already been there: God’s reality of harmony, health, and goodness. Christ Jesus gives the fullest example of giving one’s consent fully over to God. He knew God’s supremacy and the vacuous nothingness of error. Jesus gave his wholehearted consent to God, knowing “the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works” (John 14:10). Moving beyond a sense of shame, ignorance, or resistance ( which is NOT your thought - but are merely impositions disguised as your thought) - you find yourself as God’s own child. Claiming this for your own, you are giving your consent to know that you are loved, you are free to love others. And that’s what that perfect LOVE is all about! Perfect love casts out fear. When we give our consent that God loves us and that we are all the loved of Love - what is there left to fear? If we are embracing that light of Love and see it brightening all, then we experience healing and “….sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation” (Science and Health, p. Xi: 11-14). Why would we not give our consent to this light? What do we have to lose? Only a material sense of things! Jesus demonstrated: “The power of Christian Science and divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to unclasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death” (Science and Health, p. 412:13).
Unclasping the hold of darkness And this is our strong defense - God is LIGHT - the only power, the only way, the only attraction, the only substance, the only intelligence. This light is always on! Darkness cannot enter. Let’s get granular. This is something taught in Primary Class; we’ve been given dominion to overcome darkness as disease, sin, and death aka evil, error, or mortal mind. These suggestions have no leg to stand on, and…
no channel through which to operate,
no origin from which to start, therefore, no past, so no present and no future.
Because there is NO CAUSE, there is no accumulation;
There is no person, place, or thing to which it can enter, thus
no way to be animated, identified, or placed,
no person or personality to take over or work through,
no place to land and no substance to take up space, and
no thing or object ( physical or mental image) that manifests, hosts, or symbolizes evil.
Because evil, error, or mortal mind has no intelligence
it has no will,
no capacity to act, and
no ability to discern, plan or strategize.
It has no substance, therefore it has
no weight, no gravitas,
no ability to pressure or coerce, corner, nor box in - in any direction,
no influence nor attracting force nor intrigue, and
no dulling veil that can cover God’s brilliant design.
Therefore, it cannot, has not, will not, could not exist.
The suggestion that it does exist is a lie, error, and false in every way.
It is nothing.
God is the source of light, and we, as children of light, are inwardly sound and pure; and we reflect and radiate outwardly. As our light radiates outward, no shadow of darkness can ever enter in. The light of Truth is a constant alterative to the human consciousness. It annihilates all darkness. It:
dissolves the hardened prejudice and calcified hatred toward God’s creation and reverses the false expectation of evil’s continuation.
It constantly renovates the human consciousness toward higher, holier consciousness, while it
exposes evil’s powerlessness to shape our identity, our purpose, and progress.
It rightly establishes all of us as God’s own,
and illuminates the full spectrum of color, joy, genius, tenderness, already present in human consciousness.
We reflect the light of God. "Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss" (Science and Health, p. 481:2–4). This light pervades all consciousness (“As in heaven, so on earth”) and results in the human condition reflecting freely God’s movement, grace, abundance, joy, and never-ending creativity. We are free to live and to love -- abundantly, freely, broadly, and deeply. You are bathed in LIGHT. There is no darkness. The light is always on.
PRACTICUM - Man reflects eternal, infinite, immortal light The divine influence is ever present in human consciousness. Ever present in human consciousness. Let’s look at the divine influence as it spreads light in human consciousness in negating a wide variety of mortal mind’s claims.
SLIDE 11 . “Man is more than a material form with a mind inside, which must escape from its environments in order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God….God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in the infinitude of Truth..” (Science and Health, p. 258:9–18)
In this light there is no darkness, let’s drill down on this and see how this helps us unsee FEAR and IGNORANCE:
Fear is the procuring cause of all disease. But fears are solely based on a fabrication of mortal mind. When we refuse to feed it or fear it, it dissolves.
“Evil cannot be made so real as to frighten us and so master us, or to make us love it and so hinder our way to holiness” (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 14)
Ignorance is simply remedied by understanding -becoming enlightened!
Addressing mental darkness
We are going to be addressing evil in the form of common subtle sinful suggestions of mortal mind.
“Evil is neither quality nor quantity: it is not intelligence, a person or a principle, a man or a woman, a place or a thing, and God never made it. The outcome of evil, called sin, is another nonentity that belittles itself until it annihilates its own embodiment: this is the only annihilation”(Message to The Mother Church for 1901, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 12:27–4).
We will be addressing some of these outcomes of evil called sin:: shame, heredity and past history, apathy or sluggishness, discouragement and loss, and the tri-fecta of reluctance, resistance, and resentment.
And immediately after these types of sin, we will show their remedy - “Christian Science lays the ax at the root of sin and destroys it on the very basis of its nothingness. In fact, in the practice of Christian Science “we take possession of sin with such a sense of its nullity as destroys it” (01, p. 13: 10-12; 15, 16).
The LIGHT of ever-present LOVE destroys darkness every time.
SHAME’s REMEDY - identifying with your original innocence and light
The first impression material man had of himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost man's rich inheritance and God's behest, dominion over all the earth? No! (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 532:31–3 (to !))
The real man never lost their rich inheritance and their God-given dominion over the earth.
The subtle forms of shame may come in an embarrassment for feeling you don’t measure up; you didn’t do what you were supposed to; or that things happened to you out of your control and you don’t want anyone to think badly of you because you feel bad enough about yourself.
This comes from subtly accepting that you are mortal and feeling there is no way out, you may feel imprisoned.
Yet this is NOT life, but a lie.
The healing comes! You are not mortal, but spiritual.
Thought shifts from “It was not my fault” to “It never happened”
Evil has no substance. It has no influence. It is a shadow that dissolves in the light of knowing God and man are one.
Here’s how one woman overcame the shame of an abusive past and concludes her article recounting her freedom from shame.
DECEMBER 4, 2017 Sentinel “Freedom from shame—innocence reclaimed” by Helen Lechner
“In truth I was never for a moment separated from my creator, divine Love. When we feel this Love, we can feel no shame nor desire to do anything shameful. As St. Paul says, ‘Neither death, nor life ... nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God’ (Romans 8:38, 39). This insight unshackled my imprisoned thought. I was jubilant! My heart sang with relief—a relief I had not felt since childhood. The truth had set me free…..The spiritual growth and freedom I gained from this experience turned out to be invaluable. It inspired me to work with others who are looking to find freedom from shame and to reclaim the innocence they feel they have lost.”
Heredity and past history’s REMEDY - Eternal Mind and immortal man coexistent - (If it didn’t happen to God, it didn’t happen to you.)
Here the choice of how we see ourselves is made most clear. What origin are we talking about here Do we see ourselves as the “old man” , the mortal narrative? Who is our Father? Our Mother? There is a huge gulf between seeing ourselves as mortal man and as immortal man.
Our spiritual origin means that we are never born, and never die.
“Divine Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as never dying, but as coexistent with his creator. (Science and Health, p. 557:18)
“It is well to know, dear reader, that our material, mortal history is but the record of dreams, not of man's real existence, and the dream has no place in the Science of being. ...Mere historic incidents and personal events are frivolous and of no moment, unless they illustrate the ethics of Truth. ... The human history needs to be revised, and the material record expunged. (Retrospection and Introspection, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 21:13–15, 25–27; 22:1)
Which narrative are you taking part in? The old man narrative depends on the sandcastle type architecture of mortal man, easily swept away by the calm strong currents of true spirituality.
Mortality is finally swallowed up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must disappear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal man.” In short, your human history has record of only the good unfolded. ... Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This unfolding is God's day, and “there shall be no night there.” (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 584:5 Mind)
“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)” (Science and Health, p. 300:9–22).
Slide 12. The old man/mortal narrative vs. the new man/immortal narrative
The temporal and unreal never touch…the eternal and real; The mutable and imperfect never touch …the immutable and perfect. These opposite qualities are the tares and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; …then, Science separates the wheat from the tares, through the realization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting the divine likeness
Apathy, sluggishness, idleness or “I don’t get this!” type of thinking; Its REMEDY - the rays of infinite Truth…bring light instantaneously.
One’s motive for practicing Christian Science has a lot to do with its effects or fruits.
If one’s motive is to get something or to get rid of something and then to manipulate one’s own thought to achieve one’s goal – this rarely lifts thought higher to God
Seeing Christian Science as a way to solve problems and get what you want is like “using” Christian Science to see if it “works” instead of understanding Christian Science as the law of God, good.
Reverse this self-focus to know that unselfed love receives directly the divine power and the divine energies are released!
You are not hypnotized.
This is nothing but animal magnetism - a bland denial of all that is brilliant, sure, and good.
You cannot be hypnotized.
“God is at once the centre and circumference of being” (Science and Health, pp. 203:32–1). Of YOUR being. You are in the infinite realm of God’s protection - before you, under, over, and around you is the atmosphere of Mind where Soul is supreme.
“Mind, God, sends forth the aroma of Spirit, the atmosphere of intelligence” (Science and Health, pp. 191:32–1).
A harder fight needs to be won, here. The full article on “Ways that are vain” (Miscellany, p. 210) tackles this claim thoroughly.
Learning how to listen and quiet the froward heart.
“The best spiritual type of Christly method for uplifting human thought and imparting divine Truth, is stationary power, stillness, and strength; and when this spiritual ideal is made our own, it becomes the model for human action” (Retrospection and Introspection, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 93:13).
Spiritual growth is about being immersed in the light; not about accretion “The advancing stages of Christian Science are gained through growth, not accretion ( a gradual increase of stuff/more ideas/better ideas/more); idleness is the foe of progress. And scientific growth manifests no weakness, no emasculation, no illusive vision, no dreamy absentness, no insubordination to the laws that be, no loss nor lack of what constitutes true manhood.
Growth is governed by intelligence; by the active, all-wise, law-creating, law-disciplining, law-abiding Principle, God. (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 206:11–19)
DISCOURAGEMENT and LOSS’s remedy - Eternal Life - nothing is impossible to God.
Earth’s troubled angry sea of pain and threats of pain, regret and resentment, doubt and self-righteousness may ebb and flow, but Christ’s message of good comes directly into consciousness–lifting thought into new realms of joy, peace and mastery over error.
“CHRIST. The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error (Science and Health, p. 583:10).
We know the truth - and then the Truth makes us free! Truth is working in consciousness. “Thus Truth, searching the heart, neutralizes and destroys error” (Mis.p. 204:4).
This poem lets us know that divine Love continues to meet every human need and that you are never alone.
SLIDE 13 . IN GOOD COMPANY by Sandra Luerssen Hoerner
You are part of a great company of good men who have encountered crises. Is despair your great flood? God will provide an ark. Is fear your den of lions? God will shut their mouths. Is disease a Goliath? It shall utterly fall because of one small smooth stone of Truth. Is impasse your Red Sea? God will open up a way. Is pain a prison? God will break all chains. Is threat of death a tomb? God will provide a resurrection. Each cross will be crowned. God's delivering angels are at work in every age for every man.
Reluctance’s REMEDY - humbly yielding to infinite Truth Reluctance is an unwillingness or hesitancy to participate fully in prayer due to fear that one will be thought foolish; it will ask too much; Those “who think the standard of Christian Science too high for them.” (Science and Health, p. 167:32)
It is a frail attempt of mortal mind to push back on the normal and natural spiritual growth of the infinite idea forever developing itself.
“Some people yield slowly to the touch of Truth. Few yield without a struggle, and many are reluctant to acknowledge that they have yielded; but unless this admission is made, evil will boast itself above good. (Science and Health, p. 450:15–19)
The remedy is compassionate and right-paced: “Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and as the result of spiritual growth.”(Science and Health, p. 485:14–17)
Resistance’s REMEDY – Love never fails; Truth is always the victor
Resistance is a step beyond reluctance; it is stubbornness, a disagreement about how Christian Science works; or a negative reaction to a person or persons leading the healing process; ego and power struggles result.
There is divine authority for believing in the superiority of spiritual power over material resistance.(Science and Health, p. 134:28)
Human resistance to divine Science weakens in proportion as mortals give up error for Truth and the understanding of being supersedes mere belief. (Science and Health, pp. 329:32–2)
Resentment’s REMEDY - Living the Sermon on the Mount
We’re going to spend a little more time with this one. It was mentioned several times in your annual reports sent in! And came to me one morning - actually woke me up - with the thought - handle resentment!
The word "resent" is derived from the Latin prefix re, meaning "again" or "against," and sentire, "to feel." Literally translated, it might be thought of as meaning to feel again, or to continue to feel, some incident that has happened in the past, usually something inharmonious in short, to ruminate. The word is now generally used to denote feelings of opposition, usually of angry opposition, to some person or circumstance which one thinks has been harmed, robbed, or just inconvenienced.
Resentment always manifests some degree of hatred; it gives power and reality to evil; it proclaims at the outset one's inability to cope with a situation. It is essential, therefore, that the Christian Scientist challenge and overcome this archenemy to peace and progress.
A poem by Doris Lubin (July 1978 Journal) includes this concise display of how resentment is to be sent away
"I'm not what she thinks I am. I'm what God knows me to be. I'm nothing more or nothing less than what God knows me to be." That helped. "And she's not what I might think she is. She's what God knows her to be. She's nothing more or nothing less than what God knows her to be." That healed.
Reading our Sermon on the Mount brings a full remedy and freedom from resentment
Turn the other cheek; love your enemies; bless those that curse you, pray in secret, serve God/not mammon or material personality
Judge not, golden rule, discernment of false prophets
Build your house ( consciousness) on a rock of Truth, not human opinions
Loving one another is key to healing resentment as is recognizing no other power as able to destroy.
Ron has this to add: Resentment is a false, material belief that ALLOWS unfairness where one power can dominate another, when, in reality, God is the only power. Two significant events in the life of Jesus, the Master Christian, offer his followers essential information on handling the stumbling block of resentment in accomplishing healing. The first is the humble story of footwashing, and the other is the far more intense and far-reaching example offered by the crucifixion. When approaching his final hours with his disciples, Jesus laid aside his garments, wrapped a towel around himself, put water in a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet. “Thou shalt never wash my feet” (- he says-) PETER OBJECTED, and his Master responds, “What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.” Surely Peter recognized and understood the necessity of the First Commandment’s message of the love of God as essential to the Master’s teaching. What he had yet to learn—the meaning of the Second Commandment—was still to come. Footwashing as Jesus now demonstrated was not a one-way street, or an act of giving only on one person’s part. Its lesson involved receiving as well—an act of grace, if you like. There are two parts to it: THE GIVING AND RECEIVING. The recipient must understand, and accept, her or his part. The deeper meaning of the crucifixion brings the master’s final lesson. The world’s rejection of his life’s work he had already overcome: HE REFUSED to acknowledge the world’s “power” AS THAT held no power over God’s ideal man. His statement in Luke’s account, “Father, forgive them” put aside the possibility of any resentment. His understanding of Love’s completeness meanT that there can be only Love in complete healing. Mrs. Eddy says, "The Christian Scientist cherishes no resentment; he knows that that would harm him more than all the malice of his foes" (Message to The Mother Church for 1902, p. 19).
When we think or say "I resent," we are accepting the belief that something other than God has power, and that it has power over us—that we are at the mercy of circumstances, and that the best we can do is grin and bear it.
Resentment, along with its other micro and macro aggressions like slights, insults, stone-walling, passive-aggressive actions, reluctance, resistance, worry, fear, hatred, discouragement, and the like, is actually nothing more than self-inflicted punishment, self-imposed bondage, self-defined limitation, self-directed mental malpractice.
NOTE on SELF
The cure for these ailments is the power of God, the Christ, Truth, operating within the individual's consciousness, and we are always free to accept the cure through change of thought.
To fabricate a wrong, attribute it to another and then suffer for it, is a foolish mistake. In addition, (Misc pp. 223, 224): "To punish ourselves for others' faults, is superlative folly. The mental arrow shot from another's bow is practically harmless, unless our own thought barbs it. It is our pride that makes another's criticism rankle, our self-will that makes another's deed offensive, our egotism that feels hurt by another's self-assertion."
“ Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth…..The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind” (Science and Health p. 162:4).
We are not impressed when we feel a stirring. “This spiritual chemicalization is the upheaval produced when Truth is neutralizing error and impurities are passing off” (Pul, 5:30–2).
We can assert our freedom. “The enslavement of man is not legitimate.”(Science and Health, p. 228:11) With Christ ever with us, we are emboldened and assured of our growing mastery over “earth’s troubled, angry sea.” And we are free.
A Christian Science Sentinel article RESENTMENT-FREE (April 11, 2013) concludes with this: “It is the most blissful feeling to be resentment-free! I now strive to forgive instantly when necessary, and it’s easier for me to do, now that I’ve been given this great lesson. If anyone reading this is dealing with a situation that seems impossible to overcome or forgive, I urge you: Don’t give up. Don’t stop praying until you understand that nothing ever did or ever could alter your status as God’s beloved child or put an end to the infinite blessings that flow from that relationship. It’s worth the work! —Ellen Austin, Corvallis, Oregon
Healing personal sense All these suggestions - these apparent deficits of good we’ve just been discussing - come from a sense of small “e” ego of personal sense or personality - the counterfeit of spiritual identity.
God is infinite Person, but material personality - that evil and good are made up in an individual and is dependent on that individual, known as personal sense - or a material, limited sense of things -may be clouding things over. Let’s look at it as a coin. The coin of personal sense is a worthless coin. On the one side it argues that a person, place, or circumstance can take away your joy, innocence, supply, and peace. On the other side it sweetly claims that your healing, your joy,supply, and your peace can only come from a person, place, or circumstance.
This coin subtly or blatantly instills the belief that there is something outside of yourself responsible for your misery or necessary for your salvation. It sets the narrative that you are always separate from God and inadequate. Holding tightly to that coin, dependent on personal sense to rail against or worship, you feel worthless.
But wait, the Christ comes in declaring you can toss that coin, and in that loss, find great gain! “Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.” (Isaiah 55:1, 2)
You can toss that worthless coin of personal sense. There is a currency of Love, of spiritual sense that discerns God’s freedom and warm everpresent acceptance of who you are - God’s delightful child. This ongoing gift of Love –like a continual undercurrent of peace and satisfaction– is and always has been yours.
“God hath given it to all mankind. It is His coin, His currency; it has His image and superscription. … Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and He shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it to pass. And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.” ( Miscellany, p. 170:15–17, 20)
FINAL HEALING IDEAS
It has been said way too many times: There has been too much darkness in me and in the world. All of mortal mind’s suggestions is a trap of mortal mind that justifies itself with ruminations of the past, mistakes you thought you made, injustices experienced, and slights that were never addressed. All the hurts, comparisons, and anger come piling in and tripping over themselves.
Where will this all lead? Darkness can only go so far, until it runs out of our belief in it.
The light in you never goes out. Your light, as your spiritual sense, will lead you out of the darkness and back home into the light. It is inevitable. You are the blessed of God.
It doesn't matter how long error has been entertained in consciousness, error is unsustainable. All sin, all disease, all death is merely temporary belief. It can all can be reversed, but Truth cannot be. Truth is always the victor. Love never fails. Life demonstrates life.
Let’s talk about man as “broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.” Where does that put instances of discouragement, middle age/the terrible twos/elderly? When did man start ( born) and end ( die)? When did apathy, resentment, and shame ever get a foothold? What about systemic racism? An insult? Where did an abusive pattern come in? Bad parenting happens?
The spiritual fact is that man is never confined in a time reference.
Mrs. Eddy defines time this way: “TIME. Mortal measurements; limits, in which are summed up all human acts, thoughts, beliefs, opinions, knowledge; matter; error; that which begins before, and continues after, what is termed death, until the mortal disappears and spiritual perfection appears” (Science and Health, p. 595:17).
As a child of Light - there is no material element that can constrain us in anywhere. Our light is always on.
Personal sense/personality can be the more subtle errors to be alert to. “Christian Scientists are not hypnotists, they are not mortal mind-curists, nor faith-curists; they have faith, but they have Science, understanding, and works as well. They are not the addenda, the et ceteras, or new editions of old errors; but they are what they are, namely, students of a demonstrable Science leading the ages. ...... and you cannot demonstrate Christian Science except on its fixed Principle and given rule, according to the Master's teaching and proof. ... he laid the axe at the root of all error, amalgamation, and compounds. He used no material medicine, nor recommended it, and taught his disciples and followers to do likewise; … (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 20:30; 23:14–16 and, 17–20 2nd he (to ;))
“The application of Christian Science is healing and reforming mankind." (Message to The Mother Church for 1901, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 27:12–13)
SLIDE 14 . CLOSING HYMN Forget not who you are, O child of God, / For God demands of you reflection pure; / Your heritage is goodly, and your home, / In Spirit's warm embrace, is safe, secure.
You are the child of Spirit, sinless, pure— / Yours is a perfect beauty, born of Soul— / Complete with health, vitality, and grace. / For is not God, your Father, perfect, whole?
Your understanding, too, comes straight from God. / For in that Mind, magnificent and clear, / You are conceived by Love, a perfect child, / Unhampered by the flesh, or doubt, or fear.
So now look up to God's pure holy light / And greet with fearless joy each coming day. / Of royal birth, you are a King's own child— / And God is yours, and you are God's alway. (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 475:1–4)
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“God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light.” (Science and Health, p. 516:9–13)