It was only recently that I
realised that there is a meaning of unity which is not “a gathering of
various things or thoughts together to create a harmonious whole.” Let’s take a look at what Merriam-Webster has to say (http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/unity):
1b (1): a definite
amount taken as one or for which 1 is made to stand in calculation <in a
table of natural sines the radius of the circle is regarded as unity>
(2): identity element
2b:
continuity without deviation or change (as in purpose or action)
3b: a
combination or ordering of parts in a literary or artistic production that
constitutes a whole or promotes an undivided total effect; also:
the resulting singleness of effect or symmetry and consistency of style and
character
4: a
totality of related parts : an entity that is a complex or systematic
whole
ALSO: the state of being in
full agreement
GOOD
The old Noah Webster Dictionary 1828 has about 3 full columns on good!
And I thought I would find it to be an uncomplicated word!
[Ed: This got me curious so here are some of the definitions for our readers: fit, useful, profitable, convenient, convenient for any purpose, spiritual advantage or improvement, elegant, polite, virtuous, complete, kind, benevolent, cheerful. (What a good word!)]
GOING HIGHER
I love the ‘reason together’
style put forward on page 1 of our book. Mrs. Eddy’s style of class
teaching was by Question and Answer,
so here she is teaching us by that method in a form that we can learn from year
by year as we progress in our understanding of the Christ Science she has
revealed to us.
I find that I am a long way from
the “finale in Science” where the “sinner loses his sense of sin,
and gains a higher sense of God, in whom there is no sin” (page 2). This,
of course, is “Adam” reasoning on my part, i.e. reasoning through my mortal
history. I can look forward to this book’s truths teaching me anew the
Christ reasoning that I am “perfect, even as (my) Father which is in heaven is
perfect.”
I must say that, as I read last
week’s Lesson-Sermon on Adam and Fallen Man along with the writing of this
blog post, it was very enlightening and instructive regarding sin. The Lesson speaks of the “warfare between the
idea of divine power, which Jesus presented, and mythological material
intelligence called energy and opposed to Spirit” (Science & Health
with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p.534:14). The Marginal Heading here
is Spirit and flesh.
Now, about warfare: I lived
through World War II, and my three brothers fought in that conflict – one was
killed; one was a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese; and the other served in what
was then called Palestine. It seems to me that everyone has a sense of
urgency during such a war, a knowing that we must ‘fight the good fight’; an
understanding that good must and will prevail. But do we find a lack of
urgency regarding the spiritual war which we must fight against the
beliefs of the flesh? There is no room for complacency, putting off till
tomorrow what can be done today.
I am reminded that many of our
young men enlisted in the forces in search of adventure, and we have that idea
in Christian Science. “We live in an age
of Love’s divine adventure to be All-in-all,” Mrs Eddy tells us in The First Church of Christ, Scientist and Miscellany
(p. 158:9-10).
Paul was the complete missionary
for Christ. In II Cor. 6, he gives us a run-down on what it takes to be
such a missionary. He seems to enumerate
all the trials and triumphs he encountered, and which, if we are ‘fighting the
good fight’, we are also likely to encounter.
II
Corinthians Chapter 6
1 We then, as workers together with
him, beseech you also
that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.
2 For he saith, I have heard thee in a time
accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is
the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)
3 Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry
be not blamed:
4 But in all things approving ourselves as
the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in
distresses,
5 In stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in
labours, in watchings, in fastings;
6 By pureness, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by
kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned,
7 By the word of truth, by the power of God, by the
armour of righteousness on the right hand and on the left,
8 By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good
report: as deceivers, and yet true;
9 As unknown, and yet well known; as dying,
and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not killed;
10 As sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, yet
making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things.
Joyce Voysey
