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

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Subject — Reality

GOLDEN TEXT: Isaiah 64 : 4

“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.”

RESPONSIVE READING: I Corinthians 2 : 9-16

9.     As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

10.     But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

11.     For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

12.     Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

13.     Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14.     But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15.     But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

16.     For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Lesson Sermon

The Bible

1. Hebrews 11 : 3

3     Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

2. Matthew 12 : 1 (Jesus) (to ;), 22-26, 28

1     Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn;

22     Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

23     And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?

24     But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

25     And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:

26     And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

28     But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

3. Matthew 13 : 1, 2 (to 1st ,), 3-11, 13, 15

1     The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

2     And great multitudes were gathered together unto him,

3     And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

4     And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

5     Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:

6     And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

7     And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:

8     But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

9     Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

10     And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

11     He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

13     Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

15     For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

4. I John 4 : 12, 13

12     No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

13     Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.

5. Revelation 1 : 1

1     The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:

6. Revelation 21 : 1-7, 10, 22-27

1     And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2     And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3     And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4     And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5     And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6     And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7     He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

10     And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

22     And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

23     And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

24     And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

25     And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

26     And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

27     And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

Science and Health

1. 472 : 24 (All)-26

All reality is in God and His creation, harmonious and eternal. That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made.

2. 335 : 27-31

Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable, immortal, divine, eternal. Nothing unspiritual can be real, harmonious, or eternal. Sin, sickness, and mortality are the suppositional antipodes of Spirit, and must be contradictions of reality.

3. 275 : 10-32

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. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one, — and are the Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.

Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understanding, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — that is, all power, all presence, all Science. Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.

Our material human theories are destitute of Science. The true understanding of God is spiritual. It robs the grave of victory. It destroys the false evidence that misleads thought and points to other gods, or other so-called powers, such as matter, disease, sin, and death, superior or contrary to the one Spirit.

Truth, spiritually discerned, is scientifically understood. It casts out error and heals the sick.

4. 505 : 16-28

Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts consciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith: "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind, — Life, Truth, and Love, — and demonstrates the divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science.

This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light.

5. 284 : 21-6

The physical senses can obtain no proof of God. They can neither see Spirit through the eye nor hear it through the ear, nor can they feel, taste, or smell Spirit. Even the more subtile and misnamed material elements are beyond the cognizance of these senses, and are known only by the effects commonly attributed to them.

According to Christian Science, the only real senses of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind. Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation nor report goes from material body to Mind. The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man. Matter is not sentient and cannot be cognizant of good or of evil, of pleasure or of pain. Man's individuality is not material. This Science of being obtains not alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here and now; it is the great fact of being for time and eternity.

6. 272 : 3-12

The spiritual sense of truth must be gained before Truth can be understood. This sense is assimilated only as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek. In the soil of an "honest and good heart" the seed must be sown; else it beareth not much fruit, for the swinish element in human nature uproots it. Jesus said: "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." The spiritual sense of the Scriptures brings out the scientific sense, and is the new tongue referred to in the last chapter of Mark's Gospel.

7. 572 : 19 – 2 (pg. 574)

In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: —

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through what sense came this vision to St. John? Not through the material visual organs for seeing, for optics are inadequate to take in so wonderful a scene. Were this new heaven and new earth terrestrial or celestial, material or spiritual? They could not be the former, for the human sense of space is unable to grasp such a view. The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see, — that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness.

Accompanying this scientific consciousness was another revelation, even the declaration from heaven, supreme harmony, that God, the divine Principle of harmony, is ever with men, and they are His people. Thus man was no longer regarded as a miserable sinner, but as the blessed child of God. Why? Because St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scriptural authority for concluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men in this present state of existence, — that we can become conscious, here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain. This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science. Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When you read this, remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you." This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility.

8. 208 : 20-24

Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, — the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen.

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 2024 Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent

Table of Contents

Sunday, March 31st, 2024 — Subject: Reality

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