Day 184: The Magdalen Example

362-364:31

do [we] show [our] regard for Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their broken hearts, expressed by meekness and human affection?

2010

Day 183: Advancement

359:18-361:32

Spiritual ideas unfold as we advance. A human perception of divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order to be Science and subject to demonstration.

2010

Day 168: Faith by Demonstration

328:4-330:7

In Science we can use only what we understand. We must prove our faith by demonstration.

2010

Day 226: Sin

447:12-449:6

This reading was about sin. MBE always said it was easier to heal sickness than sin. A distinction she makes in this reading is the difference between declaring the Truth versus knowing the Truth:

A sinner is afraid to case the first stone. He may say, as a subterfuge, that evil is unreal, but to know it, he must demonstrate his statement.

So there is the catch. A sick person is ignorant of the cause of sickness and the pain of the body is all the reason to reach for knowledge of the truth. The same isn’t true for what can sometimes seem like delicious sin. The motive to change isn’t immediate physical pain. The motive must be an interest in a long-term change in thought and deed:

Evil which obtains in the bodily senses, but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if evil is uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured. 

Christian Science rises above the evidence of the corporeal senses; but if you have not risen above sin yourself, do not congratulate yourself upon your blindness to evil or upon the good you know and do not.

Day 190: A Simple Demonstration

375:6-376:32

I’ve been listening for angel messages. I heard this quote this morning in Church:

We must begin, however, with the more simple demonstrations of control, and the sooner we begin the better. (429:4)

The idea of a simple demonstration as a place to begin caught me. The simple demonstration I know I need to make is my own negative mental arguments inside my head. They are worse than pointless.

It is simple because no one else is involved and my body is not an obstacle to the demonstration. And when Mary Baker Eddy mentioned hourly and daily, this mental argument is what comes to mind. So I was pleasantly surprise when what I marked in the reading continued this line of thought:

No person is benefited by yielding his mentality to any mental despotism or malpractice. All unscientific mental practice is erroneous and powerless, and should be understood and so rendered fruitless.

And then how this idea applies physically:

The diseases deemed dangerous sometimes come from the most hidden, undefined, and insidious beliefs.

Then a simple idea:

…there is more life and immortality in one good motive and act…

Then instruction on the solution:

Therefore the efficient remedy is to destroy the patient’s false belief by both silently and audibly arguing the true facts in regard to harmonious being, – representing man as healthy instead of diseased, and showing that is it impossible for matter to suffer, to feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick.