Assimilate more of the divine character!


Notes and References 10/22/00
Assimilate more of the divine character!
In this weeks lesson we read in the third section about “a tendency towards God” and “assimilating more of the divine character”. It is a daily task and can be accomplished in everything we do. Lets review the citations from Science and Health:

(11) 213:11-12
Every step towards goodness is a departure from materiality, and is a tendency towards God, Spirit.

(12) 253:32-6
The divine demand, "Be ye therefore perfect," is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable. Individuals are consistent who, watching and praying, can "run, and not be weary; . . .walk, and not faint," who gain good rapidly and hold their position, or attain slowly and yield not to discouragement.

(13) 254:10-23
When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to continue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of being, is doing much.
During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science
may not be achieved prior to the change called death, for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do not understand. But the human self must be evangelized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual.

(14) 4:12-13,17-22 The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer.

Simply asking that we may love God will never make us love Him; but the longing to be better and holier, expressed in daily watchfulness and in striving to assimilate more of the divine character, will mould and fashion us anew, until we awake in His likeness.


Two weeks ago we looked at a paragraph in the article “Taking Offence”. Here it is:


Nothing short of our own errors should offend us. He who can wilfully attempt to injure another, is an object of pity rather than of resentment; while it is a question in my mind, whether there is enough of a flatterer, a fool, or a liar, to offend a whole-souled woman. Mis 224

We also talked about the four rivers in Gensis, defines in the Glossary and how the first river Pison was the “love of the good and the beautiful” and the second river Gihon was “the rights of woman acknowledged morally, civilly and socially”. This “whole-souled woman” epitomizes grace.

Assimilating more of the divine character in the simplest of terms means expressing grace by reflecting Love. Remember as you read these citations the four ways of expressing Love: being loving, loved, lovely and lovable. This is the truth about you!

"The healing will grow more easy and be more immediate as you realize that God, good, is all, and good is Love. You must gain Love, and lose the false sense called love. You must feel the Love that never faileth,-that perfect sense of divine power that makes healing no longer power but grace." -WKMBE, SECOND SERIES, PAGE 25.

We Knew Mary Baker Eddy contains first hand accounts of Mrs. Eddy’s teachings by her own students in the classroom. Here are some more that pertain to Love. Remember

"I saw the love of God encircling the universe and man, filling all space, and that divine Love so permeate my own consciousness that I loved with Christlike compassion everything I saw. This realization
of divine Love called into expression "the beauty of holiness, the perfection of being" (Science and Health, p 253), which healed, regenerated, and saved all who turned to me for help."
The way Mrs. Eddy said the word "Love" made me feel that she must have loved even the blade of grass under her feet. -WKMBE, FIRST SERIES, PAGE 74, 75


Then she asked us questions. One was, "What is the best way to do instantaneous healing?" Many arose. Some said, "Realize the ever-presence of good;" others, "Deny the claims of evil." There were many answers, but when they had finished, she said, as I remember: "I will tell you the way to do it. It is to love! Just live love-be it-love, love, love Do not know anything but Love. Be all love. There is nothing else. That will do the work. It will heal everything; it will raise the dead. Be nothing but love."
-WKMBE, SECOND SERIES, PAGE 49, 50) _

After she had talked about the great need of love in everything we do, a pupil asked, “Do you mean love of person?” Mrs. Eddy replied in substance, No, I mean love of good. Then she was asked, “How shall we know if our love is personal or impersonal?” Her reply, in substance, was, When your love requires an object to call it forth, you will know it is personal; when it flows out freely to all, you will know it is impersonal. –WKMBE, FIRST SERIES, PAGE 84

In the last citation, notice how personal love requires “an object” (a person place or thing) to call it forth. Are we dressing to please that person, turning on a particular personality to attract someone? Be careful. You could be compromising your lovable character and the integrity of who you really are. And, what is worse, you are undermining your ability to heal.

In the following article, notice how hard hitting Mrs. Eddy is when referring to human affection under abuse:

Mis 249:27-29 np
LOVE

What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love.
By what strange perversity is the best become the most abused,--either as a quality or as an entity? Mortals misrepresent and miscall affection; they make it what it is not, and doubt what it is. The so-called affection pursuing its victim is a butcher fattening the lamb to slay it. What the lower propensities express, should be repressed by the sentiments. No word is more misconstrued; no sentiment less understood. The divine significance of Love is distorted into human qualities, which in their human abandon become jealousy and hate.
Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken down on rare occasions with sugar-tongs and laid on a rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results. Unless these appear, I cast aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power. As a human quality, the glorious significance of affection is more than words: it is the tender, unselfish deed done in secret; the silent, ceaseless prayer; the self-forgetful heart that overflows; the veiled form stealing on an errand of mercy, out of a side door; the little feet tripping along the sidewalk; the gentle hand opening the door that turns toward want and woe, sickness and sorrow, and thus lighting the dark places of earth.

This higher sense of Love, impersonal love which comes from within and flows freely out to all does not mean you give up physical affection in a relationship It simply means that that physical expression of love is the by-product of a much deeper and more meaningful bond that is based on unselfishness. As an assignment, look up how many times Mrs. Eddy uses the words “selfishness” and “sensuality” together.

I am attaching some rather lengthy readings that require your careful study. Please do not dismiss this assignment as unnecessary.


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