Day 268: Literal vs. Inspired

536:30-538:22

In this section, Mary Baker Eddy makes several points about this second story that I want to remember.

1. Knowledge of evil was never the essence of divinity or manhood.
2. The purpose of the second story is to depict the falsity of error and the effects of error.
3. Inspired writers interpret the Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets it literally.
4. Literally taken, the story is contradictory in places.
5. Literally taken, God’s love is changeable.
6. Literally taken, Man is not allowed to reform.

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 146: How do we know God?

284:4-286:8

How do we know God? I don't mean how can we prove God's existence to someone else -- but how do we, or I, how do I know God is there? In today's reading, Mary Baker Eddy asks that question and then answers how we do not know God.

This is what I understood from the reading:

• We do not know God through the physical senses.
• We don't know God through blind belief (covered elsewhere but added to this list as relevant). 
• We don't tell/communicate with God/Mind via material body. 
• We don't wait till we are dead to know God. We know him now. 

We know God through a higher sense, from divine Principle, God. We know God through demonstration.