Ongoing Income

We don’t have to know everything all at once.  Phew.  That’s good.  We can just be glad to learn a little (or a lot) new each day and to put what we know into practice, to use it to improve our lives and the lives of others.

 

Some books provide us with ongoing income.  Mary Baker Eddy’s collection called Miscellaneous Writings is one of those books.  The Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures provide other examples.  Some of the classics can be read over and over again and give ongoing instruction and inspiration.  You might add Shakespeare and poetry.  They yield more and more treasure as the years go by.

 

It’s difficult to choose one’s favourite treasure.  Like the message of a children’s book our daughter just purchased for her nephew, maybe there’s no need to choose a favourite, because each is worthy and special in its own way.  However, we have been asked to nominate our favourite article and sermon from our book Miscellaneous Writings.

 

Among the many articles here, I find that I have been so helped by the wise counsel of Love Your Enemies (p. 8).  And with this week’s Bible Lesson on Love, maybe it’s appropriate to quote from p. 11: “We must love our enemies in all the manifestations wherein and whereby we love our friends; must even try not to expose their faults...”  I also love Taking Offense (p. 223), especially “To punish ourselves for others’ faults, is superlative folly.”  And Improve Your Time (p. 230): “Success in life depends upon persistent effort...A great amount of time is consumed in talking nothing, doing nothing, and indecision as to what one should do.”  But maybe tonight, as I flip through the pages of this amazing book, I could settle on Angels (p. 306): “When angels visit us, we do not hear the rustle of wings, nor feel the feathery touch of the breast of a dove; but we know their presence by the love they create in our hearts.  Oh, may you feel this touch...”  Finally, this passage from Fidelity (p. 339-343) is a stand out: “There is no excellence without labor; and the time to work, is now.”

 

As we know, sermons in Christian Science churches today are offered as selected citations from the Bible and Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures.  But in the early days, both Mrs. Eddy and her students provided their own remarks for their sermons.  Chapter VI presents us with examples of several very helpful sermons by Eddy:

1.     A Christmas Sermon (delivered in Chickering Hall, Boston, Mass., on the Sunday before Christmas, 1888) – pp. 161-168

2.     Editor’s Extracts from Sermon with the text from Matt xxii. 29 “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God” (see Joyce Voysey’s post of 27^th Jan) – pp. 168–171

3.     Extract from a Sermon Delivered in Boston, January 18, 1885 with the text from Matt xiii. 33 “The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.” pp. 171-176

4.     Sunday Services on July Fourth – Extempore Remarks – pp. 176-177

5.     Easter Services – pp. 177-180

6.     Bible Lessons

a.     John i. 12,13 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” – pp. 180-185.

b.     I Cor xv. 45 “And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” – pp. 185-190.

c.      Luke xi. 14 “And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb.  And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake” – pp. 190-192.

d.     John xiv. 12 “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” – pp. 192-196.

e.     Acts xvi. 31 “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” pp. 196-199.

f.       2 Cor. xii. 10 “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake” pp. 199-202.

 

And how about this: “Christians of to-day should be able to say, with the sweet sincerity of the apostle, ‘I take pleasure in infirmities’ – I enjoy the touch of weakness pain, and all suffering of the flesh, because it compels me to seek the remedy for it, and to find happiness apart from the personal senses. ...Paul...took pleasure in ‘necessities,’ for they tested and developed latent power.” (p. 201) That goes nicely with this passage: "A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man," writes Mary Baker Eddy (Science and Health, p. 128).

 

Latent: present but not visible, apparent, or actualized; existing as potential

 

What an inflow of good we can expect as knowledge of the Science of being develops our latent abilities and possibilities!

 

Julie Swannell