1. Date of Lesson

2. Subject, Golden Text, and Responsive Reading

3. Lesson Sermon — The Bible

4. Lesson Sermon — Science and Health

5. The Daily Duties

6. About the preparation of this lesson

Listen to the reading of this Lesson

Watch on YouTube

Watch on Vimeo

PlainfieldCS.com

Subject — Substance

GOLDEN TEXT: Luke 15 : 31

“Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.”

RESPONSIVE READING: Matthew 25 : 34   •   Luke 12 : 31, 32   •   Matthew 6 : 9-13

34.     Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

31.     Seek ye the kingdom of God;

32.     For it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

9.     After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

10.     Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

11.     Give us this day our daily bread.

12.     And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

13.     And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

Lesson Sermon

The Bible

1. Isaiah 64 : 4, 8

4     For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

8     But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

2. Psalm 139 : 14-16 (to 1st ,), 23, 24

14     I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

15     My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

16     Thine eyes did see my substance,

23     Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

24     And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

3. Luke 4 : 14

14     And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

4. Luke 5 : 12, 13

12     And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

13     And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

5. Luke 15 : 1, 11-13, 17-22, 24 (to 1st .)

1     Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.

11     And he said, A certain man had two sons:

12     And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

13     And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

17     And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18     I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

19     And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

20     And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

21     And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

22     But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

24     For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.

6. I John 5 : 3 (to ,), 14, 19, 20

3     For this is the love of God,

14     And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

19     And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.

20     And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

7. John 6 : 16, 17 (to 1st .), 19, 20, 24, 26-29, 33, 34

16     And when even was now come, his disciples went down unto the sea,

17     And entered into a ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum.

19     So when they had rowed about five and twenty or thirty furlongs, they see Jesus walking on the sea, and drawing nigh unto the ship: and they were afraid.

20     But he saith unto them, It is I; be not afraid.

24     When the people therefore saw that Jesus was not there, neither his disciples, they also took shipping, and came to Capernaum, seeking for Jesus.

26     Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

27     Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

28     Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

29     Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

33     For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.

34     Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.

8. Jeremiah 31 : 3, 11, 12, 25, 33 (After), 34 (to 2nd :)

3     The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

11     For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

12     Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

25     For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.

33     After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

34     And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD:

Science and Health

1. 330 : 11 (God)-18

God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man. Eye hath neither seen God nor His image and likeness. Neither God nor the perfect man can be discerned by the material senses. The individuality of Spirit, or the infinite, is unknown, and thus a knowledge of it is left either to human conjecture or to the revelation of divine Science.

2. 43 : 28-4

The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelligence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such beliefs.

Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must seal the victory over error and death, before the thorns can be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow, "Well done, good and faithful servant," and the supremacy of Spirit be demonstrated.

3. 241 : 31-5

It is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle," than for sinful beliefs to enter the kingdom of heaven, eternal harmony. Through repentance, spiritual baptism, and regeneration, mortals put off their material beliefs and false individuality. It is only a question of time when "they shall all know Me [God], from the least of them unto the greatest."

4. 242 : 9-14

There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality — to have no other consciousness of life — than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses.

5. 16 : 20-23 (to heals), 27, 29, 31

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 ....

Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,

Adorable One.

Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.

6. 17 : 2-3, 5, 7, 10-11, 14-15

Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on earth, — God is omnipotent, supreme.

Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections;

And Love is reflected in love;

And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

7. 13 : 20-32

If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and fears which attend such a belief, and so we cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infinite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible. Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle, Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely physical, and are ignorant of man as God's image or reflection and of man's eternal incorporeal existence. The world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, — blind to the reality of man's existence, — for the world of sensation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.

8. 243 : 25-29

Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no sense of hatred. Life has no partnership with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God.

9. 468 : 18-19 (to ,)

Truth, Life, and Love are substance,

10. 301 : 6-20

To himself, mortal and material man seems to be substance, but his sense of substance involves error and therefore is material, temporal.

On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit, which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which constitutes the only real and eternal entity. This reflection seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual man's substantiality transcends mortal vision and is revealed only through divine Science.

As God is substance and man is the divine image and likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter.

11. 369 : 5-13

In proportion as matter loses to human sense all entity as man, in that proportion does man become its master. He enters into a diviner sense of the facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus as demonstrated in healing the sick, raising the dead, and walking over the wave. All these deeds manifested Jesus' control over the belief that matter is substance, that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any form of existence.

12. 275 : 10-12

To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is.

13. 414 : 26-29 (to ,)

Keep in mind the verity of being, — that man is the image and likeness of God, in whom all being is painless and permanent. Remember that man's perfection is real and unimpeachable,

14. 259 : 4 (for)-5

...for he represents infinite Mind, the sum of all substance.

15. 264 : 28-31

When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God's creation, — all the glories of earth and heaven and man.

16. 295 : 12 (infinite)-15

...infinite Spirit being all, mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and forever intact, will appear.

The Daily Duties

by Mary Baker Eddy

Daily Prayer

It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to pray each day: "Thy kingdom come;" let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!

Church Manual, Article VIII, Sect. 4

A Rule for Motives and Acts

Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness. The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously.

Church Manual, Article VIII, Sect. 1

Alertness to Duty

It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged, — and justified or condemned.

Church Manual, Article VIII, Sect. 6

Take Notice

To Christian Scientists: — See Science and Health, page 442, line 30, and give daily attention thereto.

from Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 237

“Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake.”

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 422

This Bible Lesson was prepared by Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent. It is composed of Scriptural Quotations from the King James Bible and Correlative Passages from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 1910 Edition, by Mary Baker Eddy.

Copyright 2023 Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent

Table of Contents

Sunday, September 10th, 2023 — Subject: Substance

Date of Lesson

Subject, Golden Text, and Responsive Reading

Lesson Sermon — The Bible

Lesson Sermon — Science and Health

The Daily Duties

About the preparation of this lesson