Bible Study from January 28th, 2023

---

Article: “A New Year”, from Christian Science Journal, January 1927, by Ella W. Hoag

---

Regarding “Faithful Christians”:

They are happy in their employment; heaven is a state of service, though not of suffering; it is a state of rest, but not of sloth; it is a praising, delightful rest. …

As all the redeemed owe their happiness wholly to sovereign mercy; so the work and worship of God their Saviour is their element; his presence and favour complete their happiness….

— from Matthew Henry Concise Bible Commentary, Rev. 7: 13-17, by Matthew Henry

---

Suffering for Righteousness’ Sake

It is surprising to meet student practitioners of long standing who believe that they are suffering for “righteousness’ sake.” Such an attitude of thought is an open door for all kinds of suggestions, and the one who believes that he is attacked because he is a Christian Scientist, needs to handle malpractice not as something directed toward him, but he needs to handle his own mesmeric belief of malpractice.

The significant thing about this particular claim, that one suffers because he is a Christian Scientist, is that the Christian Scientist who is suffering, fails to see that he should handle his own mesmeric belief in malpractice. His own mesmeric belief is rarely ever discernible to the Christian Scientist who imagines that he is subject to malpractice.

It is not humanly reasonable to suppose that, here and there, are certain Christian Scientists being selected by malpractice to be the victims for its ministrations. Let us, more and more, take our thought from malpractice as an entity doing something, and understand it as false mesmeric belief in individual consciousness, or understand it as resistance of mortal mind to the truth of Being in individual consciousness.

— from Addresses by Martha Wilcox, page 215-216

---

In the sixth chapter of Revelation we have a remarkable picture of the mental condition which is rightly named a martyr, as it depicts those slain for their testimony to the word of God. It is, however, well to note that their “souls” (sense) were “under the altar,” not upon it or above it. In other words, they represented a belief that evil has power to make the good suffer and that the processes of divine justice were unduly delayed, a belief which Christian Science not only repudiates but proves untrue. The opening of the fifth seal in presenting this condition leads up to the higher state of consciousness typified by white robes. Even the noblest Christian martyrs needed the purification thus prefigured, for each and all who would enter the kingdom of God must yield up every vestige of belief in a power opposed to God: and this is where the crucial test comes.

… To be a martyr today should mean to be a witness to Truth, so protected by the understanding of the supremacy of Truth that all the shafts of envy, hate, and ignorance will fall powerless at his feet. Do not the Master’s words come down to us through the corridors of time: “Why are ye so fearful?” “Not an hair of your head shall perish”? What if all that makes up the material panorama be rolled up as a scroll and the mountains of mortal belief be “moved out of their places,” in church and state! The witnesses for Truth will be purified, protected, and strengthened, made ready to enter the realm of Spirit, where “the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

“MARTYRS”(excerpt) from Christian Science Sentinel,October 26, 1912, by Annie M. Knott

---

Chapter VIII,
The “Supernal Grace” of God’s Little One

What a contrast there exists between the turbulent warfare of men, whose selfish agitation is wickedly personal, and the peaceful working of the leaven of Christian Science planted by the prayerful, purposeful, peace-loving woman of Principle! I am grateful to have witnessed the pioneer spirit with which our beloved Leader fought “the good fight of faith.” It was a restful warfare – a warfare that was as victorious in the beginning as it proved to be in the end, a warfare so replete with LOVE as to leave no battered, vanquished enemy in its wake!

— from Reminiscences of Mary Baker Eddy, by Joseph G. Mann, C.S.D

---

In the sixth chapter of Revelation we read that “the stars of heaven fell unto the earth,” and since Mrs. Eddy states that the opening of the sixth seal refers to the present age, students of her writings read these verses with an added interest. The child gazing up at the sky and watching the flash of a falling star probably thinks that one of the stars has fallen from the blue vault of the heavens into the unknown depths below the earth, and he would be surprised when assured that there were just as many stars to be seen in the sky as before, in fact that the so–called “falling star” is not a star at all. We know the wonderful care shown by Mrs. Eddy in her choice of words. She frequently uses the word star as an illustration of those gifted with a clear understanding of Truth. In “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 360) she refers to Jesus and Paul as “stars of the first magnitude,” and in her poem “Christ and Christmas” this word is again used as a synonym for the appearing of Truth. Thus it is interesting to note that a study of astronomy reveals the fact that, even on the human plane, stars do not fall.

… Thus whatever the appearance of falling stars may be, tempting the observer to fear that the light of the sky may be dimmed, astronomy teaches us that the number of the stars is unchanged and their brightness undiminished. May not this illustration be a guide to us in these days of apparent stress and tumult, that in spite of earthquake and darkness the light from the heavens is in reality as bright as before to those who have the faith to look upward. Thus as the words of St. John’s prophetic vision are renewedly fulfilled, it is those whose perception is unclouded by the appearance of turmoil who will be found like the disciples of old in the “upper chamber,” ready to discern and to welcome the ever present Christ.

“Falling Stars”(excerpt), from Christian Science Sentinel,July 26, 1919, by Rachel Parsons