“FOOTSTEPS OF HIS FLOCK” is a compilation of the Christian Science Monitors’ Home Forum Page Religious articles put in spiral-bound books. Every year from 1914 to 1921 has been researched, typed, and printed and is now available to the public. THESE ARE THE ORIGINAL HOME FORUM PAGE ARTICLES that were originally published under the authority of Mary Baker Eddy’s 1898 Deed of Trust by the Trustees of the Christian Science Publishing Society—Herbert W. Eustace, David B. Ogden and Lamont Rowlands.
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Confession of Sins
Written for the Christian Science Monitor
Wednesday, December 4, 1918
IN THE first chapter of his first epistle St. John says: “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The confession and the forgiveness of sins are topics which have never been demonstratively explained by religious teachings in general. The reason is plain. The inspired writers of the books in the Bible recorded exact statements of the divine metaphysics of Science. All Bible statements may be classified under one of two heads: First, that God is All, and man is God’s image, and whatever is in unity therewith is a manifestation of health, happiness, harmony and immortality. Second, that whatever is not in unity therewith, is a denial of God’s allness, and a misstatement of Him as divine Principle.
Mary Baker Eddy, Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, makes plain the scientific practice which overcomes sin, on page 497 of Science and Health: “We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as real. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.” That which is a denial of God, or is a misstatement of divine Principle, is undeniably the evil which is unreal. Any part of the detailed statement of the five physical sense is a “belief,” alias a mortal misstatement, which experiences discord and suffering until it is scientifically corrected. It is plain that a misstatement of a fact in numbers continues as a misstatement, accompanied by some visible manifestation of the mistake, until the mistake is destroyed by correcting the misstatement. Sin is destroyed, then, only as it is discerned that it is the illusionary lie of the senses, which misstates Science and which must be rejected as false.
As before mentioned, the inspired writers of the Bible stated everything from the basis of exact Science. Be it noted, however, that the translators of the Bible labored under the false human concept which still widely prevails, namely, the view that “God is Spirit, but man and the universe are material.” Hence the translation does not always portray a statement of exact Science. Instead, it is based on the concept of an anthropomorphic God, and a sinning mortal, misnamed man, alias corporeal personality. Commenting on the work of the translators of Genesis, Mrs. Eddy says, on page 545 of Science and Health, that “The translators of this record of scientific creation entertained a false sense of being.” And she adds, “Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which is so glorious in its spiritual signification.”
In other words, the Bible is a scientific textbook, and the meaning of the recorded statements therein must be stated in the terms and language of divine Science, instead of being stated in the terms of an incorrect theological human concept of God, man, and the universe. All this explains why the Bible, as translated, is such a personalized statement about mortal sinners, a phase which causes students to complain of being unable to understand the Bible. If the statement of the teaching of numbers were personalized as is the translated statement of the Bible, it would tend to make numbers as undemonstrable as has been the teaching of orthodox theology. If a mistake in numbers were dealt with as a fault of a personality instead of as a misstatement of number fact, this would make a correction impossible. Be it observed, however, that the senses say always that it is a person who has made the mistake, but that number practice instantly divorces person from the misstatement, and instant correction follows, and the mistake is no longer manifested either as a misstatement or as a so-called person.
To return to St. John’s teaching, as quoted at the beginning of this article, it is plain that he had an exact scientific discernment regarding the confession and forgiveness of sins. To “say that we have no sin,” is equivalent to saying that the statement and testimony of the physical sense is never presented to us. To say that, as he says, is to deceive ourselves, and besides, it is downright untruth.
John also points out the necessity of confessing our sins, for then the Father, God, “is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” Every practitioner of numbers has to admit that only as he “confesses,” that is, discerns and admits, that a mistake is a mistake, does the law of numbers begin to operate to correct the mistake. So, in the practice of divine Science, what the senses represent as the sinfulness of a sinful mortal must be confessed, discerned, and branded as a denial of God and a misstatement of Him as divine Principle, for only as that is done does divine Science begin to operate to correct the denial, that is, to be “faithful and just to forgive us our sins.”
To shift the scientific analysis from person to denial and misstatement, does not grant immunity to person to sin without punishment, because Science reveals that sense statement and so-called person are one, and that one a denial of God. Hence, what the senses name as person manifests freedom from sin only as sense denial of God is corrected.
All this explains why the ordinary prayer of the professed Christian is not answered. Nothing is thought or said in ordinary prayer that meets with the scientific requirement of a confession of sin, namely, that any statement of the senses about sin, sickness, and discord, is a mistake, alias a denial of God. Scientific prayer, the treatment given by the practitioner of Christian Science, that which corrects the misstatement of divine Principle, is answered because the requirements of a confession of sin are fully met.
Continuity
Written for The Christian Science Monitor
Tuesday, December 6, 1921
ONLY that which is true can be eternally continuous, and all that is true is necessarily continuous. Even in an arithmetical sense it is impossible to conceive of a time or a place when, or where, two times two would not make four. In fact eternity is not a finite measure, it is not a long, long time, it is the continuity of Truth. The present is not a period in a human measurement called time but in the present unfoldment of continuous Truth.
When Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?” one of the reasons surely why Jesus gave no answer was that he knew that Pilate was so immersed in the belief of the reality of finite time and material life, that it was impossible for him, at that moment, to understand the truth. Yet the continuity of Truth is not a difficult problem. All over the world, in Christian Science Sunday schools, little children are awake to its meaning. The continuity of Truth is simply what is spoken of in the New Testament as “the kingdom of heaven.”
In Matthew we read that Jesus was asked by the disciples, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” The narrative continues, “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them. And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” It is obvious therefore that the way into the kingdom must always be simple.
In the first chapter of Genesis it is recorded that “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Science shows this to be a statement of the absolute truth, for all evil is destructive, so no evil is eternal, and therefore evil is not true. Further on in the Bible we are told that mankind fell away from this state of good, and this false sense testimony bears witness to the seeming reliability of the information. It is perfectly logical, however, that if man fell away from good he fell away from the truth, and so fell away from the truth about himself, as well as the truth about everything that God had made. Thus the Bible makes plain that the so-called fallen man, the Adam man, or the man of the sense testimonies has never known Truth, God, and is not the true man, but is an erroneous or false concept of man.
No scientific study ever commences with the study of error, so Christian Scientists do not waste time studying the man of the material senses, nor do they expect to reach Truth through these senses. When the captain of a ship is asked to state his exact position on the chart he studies the sun by means of certain scientific nautical instruments. He notes shadows and angles and makes a mathematical calculation in the light of the exact time at which his observations were made. From these data he can state his exact position on the chart. In the same way the Christian Scientist does not look at the man of the material senses with his physical eyes in order to ascertain the truth. He goes to his textbooks, the Bible, and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy. From these books he determines what is true about man. He knows that this is the truth at the exact moment of his determination. He does not need to wait until it becomes true nor until sense testimony agrees that some seeming evil has disappeared. Whatever is true has always been true, is true now, and will always remain true. In Ecclesiastes we read, “That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.”
Christian Science does not recognize the reality of material life, nor does it enter into this life as a panacea for its ills. It teaches that the so-called material life is untrue, and so, unreal. It shows that what a mortal calls his material or human life never touches man’s real life at all. Mrs. Eddy likens material life to a straight line and real Life to a circle. On page 282 of Science and Health we read, “A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a curve finds no adjustment to a straight line.” Further on in the same paragraph it continues, “Even though they seem to touch, one is still a curve and the other a straight line.” Every human being, therefore, is, as it were, faced with two explanations of life, and these two seem to touch at a point called “the present moment.” The straight line explanation is called human life with a material past, present, and future. The circle explains an ever-present now, the child of God or idea of divine Principle. These two cannot mingle. Which of them is the correct solution of present being?
Let us look at the matter, bit by bit, in the light of the continuous nature of all truth. It may be granted that man has the power of vision. If this power is true it is eternal, therefore it can never depend on a material eye, which is obviously not eternal. Exactly the same reasoning applies to hearing, moving, thinking, and so on. The scientific explanation of being shows that man eternally sees, hears, moves, and thinks, as the reflection of Principle, and that this is true even now, when these qualities seem to depend on organized matter. In Science and Health (p. 210) we read, “Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation.”
The so-called sick can only remain sick so long as they are governed by the belief that the activities of being are, even temporarily, controlled by a continuous material law. When they realize that these activities are their forever birthright as the sons of God, they realize that the so-called material life and law merely seem, in belief, to touch present experience. They realize that Truth alone is continuous, and so are delivered from the belief in continuous evil.
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For fun: urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_pen_pc.htm
Does this exemplify reflection????
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For those new to Christian Science, you MUST have the book “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mary Baker Eddy. This book, and other works by Mary Baker Eddy, can be purchased at the ChristianScienceBookstore.com or your local Christian Science Reading Room.
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Tell me, O thou whom my soul loveth,
where thou feedest,
where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon;
for why should I be as one
that turneth aside by the flocks of
thy companions?
If thou know not,
O thou fairest among women,
go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock,
and feed thy kids beside
the shepherds’ tents.
(Song of Solomon)
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