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Show (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 148.) Trust God. Be not deceived. Be at Peace Daniel got out of the lions' den by understanding the control which divine Love held over all, not by fighting with the lions. The prophet Isaiah speaks these words: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee on God: because he trusteth in thee I in God" (Isa. 26:3). Be at peace. All is well. All will be well. But do your part faithfully, daily, with the universal prayer of spiritual understanding Know it. Remember the "dawn wind," and have no fear! Our beloved Leader once said, "No evidence before the material senses can close my eyes to the scientific proof that God, good, is supreme" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 277). 4.i,e man said, "1 nave been in this country a long time, and no one has ever called me that before." How hungry men are for even a small expression of love and brotherhood! Effectual Prayer Prayer to God is the most vital force in the world today, because it is the very presence and power of God expressing itself. Never underestimate the power of the prayer of spiritual understanding to meet any human need. The key to effectual prayer is to follow the inspired instructions of Christ Jesus, our Way-shower. In the Bible he tells us with directness and simplicity one way to pray. He says, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). Prayer in Christian Science is very simple. It is not difficult to find spiritual truths about God. The Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings are full of them. For instance, Harmonious, "mnnut:, hluvl . As he applied universal prayer to the error that came to his attention, he found a great peace, joy, and satisfaction in this living love for God and man. He had found a way to love his brother practically and to pray for him impersonally and effectually. This satisfied him, something that his accumulation of material i iches had never done. S".on requests for help in Christian Science came to him, some from places fai removed from his own locality Universal prayer reaches over all the world. What a wonderful thing it would be if every one of us, instead of accepting false pictures pic-tures of international strife and discord, were silently to repudiate as untrue every erroneous mental picture that presents itself, whether it comes through the daily papers or the radio, and to realize the spiritual facts about God and man. This is praying the universal prayer of spiritual understanding. It is not enough to listen to the in Chris truth, we are all s as ot one creator and parent, our heavenly Father-Mother, Father-Mother, God. His likeness is forever for-ever the same spiritual, perfect, and Godlike. That is the man Christian Science presents. That is the man you really are. During this hour let us seek for an increasing awareness of God's infinite presence, power, wisdom, and lii-e right here with us now. Let u., I 2i i ime more conscious that man s l'-e child of God, and therefore there-fore U): like and spiritual. Let us reject rs counterfeit the mortal sens:- i,l n n, which is carnal, materiel. ma-teriel. s?'.'sh, and untrue. In ur.lc; to tell you hew Christian Chris-tian Sci- nee is aiding world brotherhood and pea je let me turn to "Science and Health with Key to the Scrip: ures" by Mary Baker Eddy. This book and the King Jamos translation of the Bible are the two textbooks used by student'; of Christian Science. Christian Scientists constantly study these two books siiinmg with me." Those words have become indelibly fixed in my thought. Man is God's child, Love's spiritual spir-itual idea, governed and controlled by divine Love and depending nn'y upon divine Mind, not on man. Therefore, you must love your neighbor as yourself and your neighbor may be in Russia, China, or anywhere else in the world. Your spiritually true concept of him is your brother. He truly is your brother, whether his name is Jones, Rubiloff, or anything else. Take him to your heart with great compassion. Let us remember that the only real race is made up of the sons of God; the only real nation na-tion is the kingdom of God on earth, here, now. We are all brothers. It is not necessarily what men seem humanly to be that we are to love, but what they really are as God's likeness. Proportionately Proportion-ately as we recognize and love man in his true selfhood, we discern more evidence of it. (II Cor.i0:4,"5T. Conclusion The one each of us needs to b concerned about primarily in this activity is himself. Remember that statement, "beginning with me." Don't wonder too much about what anyone else is doing. Just think of what you can do "with God." Put God's love, wisdom, and power into active expression through preyer. Live it in every contact today, and every day, letting let-ting God work through you. Never belittle what God can do through you. Mrs. Eddy once said, "Man is God's image and likeness; whatever what-ever is possible to God, is possible to man as Cod's reflection" (Miscellaneous (Mis-cellaneous Writings, p. 183). Have faith that God's Word can do any needful thing through you. His Word is the spiritual truth you know and apply. Have such confidence con-fidence in your utilization of His Word It is prayer that makes Christian Science a practical religion. Brotherhood and peace are realities reali-ties to us now. Let us live them in our hearts and lives, through love. Let us steadfastly walk and talk with our Father-Mother God, divine Love. In conclusion ponder how comforting com-forting and reassuring these words from our Hymnal (No. 139) can be to you tonight: "I walk with Love along the way, And O, it is a holy day; No more I suffer cruel fear, I feel God's presence with me here; The joy that none can take away Is mine; I walk with Love today. "Come, walk with Love along the way, Let childlike trust be yours today; Uplift your thought, with courage go, Give of your heart's rich overflow, And peace shall crown your Joy-filled Joy-filled day. Come, walk with Love along the way." Pray with Expectancy Today demands action on the part of every one of us, spiritual action, prayer, active partnership with God. Christians need to do more than they have ever done before. It has been said that Christians Chris-tians are often the greatest enemies of the Christian church, because they are feeble examples of their cause. Let there be none such among us. Recent increasing recognition of the power of universal prayer and its more active use today opens up a bright prospect for preventing war and bringing permanent brotherhood and peace among men and nations. We need more of the same unwavering un-wavering confidence and expectancy expect-ancy as was exhibited by a young lad on a sand-lot baseball team. A passer-by, seeing the two teams playing, asked, "What's the score?" The lad confidently answered, "We're behind, twenty-eight to nothing." "Well," said the passerby, passer-by, "you don't sound very discouraged dis-couraged with a score like that." "Discouraged!" replied the boy; "we're not discouraged. We haven't come to bat yet!" Let us face the world situation today with the same unquestioned assurance that we Christians haven't come to bat yet. Never mind what the score so far appears to be. With God we shall win the permanent peace and prove that, as Jesus said, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Remember, "beginning "be-ginning with me." Love God with your whole heart and your brother as yourself. Make it a twenty-four-hour-a-day love, and you can have the fulfillment of the promise both Isaiah and Paul give us in the Scriptures, "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him" (I Cor. 2:9). Enemies to Be Dealt With The real battle line." are clearly drawn today. They are never between be-tween men or nations, but between the spiritual and Godlike on the one hand, and the carnal and un-godlike un-godlike on the other. There are no when you acknowledge that God is limitless, spiritual presence or consciousness which is right here with us now, then ponder that truth and seek to comprehend and understand it. You will gain a conviction that it is the truth. You can acknowledge it with divine conviction and authority. Should you be tempted to believe that something contrary to God, such as a contagion of disease, is present, it will then become natural to repudiate re-pudiate the mental picture claimed by material sense. Mentally and verbally repudiate and reject it as false and valueless, just as you would reject a counterfeit bill. Then peacefully rest in that spiritual spirit-ual consciousness. You have known the truth You have p-ayed Knowing Know-ing the truth does its part in fulfilling ful-filling Jesus' statement, "and the truth shall make you free." You do not know the truth in order to make it true It is true already. You know the truth in order to harmonize your thinking with the spiritual reality; this brings its evidence into your experience. ex-perience. Consciousness and evidence evi-dence are one You need only to rouse yourself mentally from the mortal or material mate-rial sense of things to become conscious of the wonderful spiritual spirit-ual facts that exist right here and now. God has endowed man with dominion over whatever is mortal, material, or unlike God. Man is included in God. All that God created is good, permanently and unchangingly. To realize and know such spiritual truths is to pray. Never believe that you are far from God, nor think that you are merely close to Him. You are actually ac-tually inseparable from God Never think of yourself except as a full expression of God, evidencing true being. Science and Health reveals the law underlying Jesus' teaching and healing method. It contains a seventeen-page chapter entitled "Prayer." devoted to understanding understand-ing and applying prayer. Christian Scientists continually study this chapter with the purpose of making mak-ing prayer more practical. truth, to read it or to say it; you must know it, and often persist in knowing it, until the mesmeric evidence of the material sense is dissolved through spiritual consciousness con-sciousness and conviction. This is simple and practical prayer in Christian Science, and it protects as well as heals. Your heavenly Father-Mother God says to you, if you are troubled, "Fear ihou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; dis-mayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness" righteous-ness" (Isa. 41:10). The War Isn't Over A Christian Science chaplain, upon returning" t- this country after VJ-Day, said to me "The war isn't over. The only wai there ever wasis with material sense, with the beliefs of the carnal mind, and we need to continue fighting lhat more alertly and vigorously " He was right. The job of each one of us is to fight that war by transforming trans-forming his own thinking, rejecting the carnal and material sense pictures, pic-tures, and learning to think more spiritually each day. Christian Sci; nee leaches us that God. Mind, is All-in-all (see Science Sci-ence and Health 468 9) Therefore, consciousness is fundamental to existence, and everything is mental men-tal No matter what comes to your consciousness, or what it appears to be, it comes either as a spiritual truth, an idea of God. or it comes as a suggestion or belief of the carnal mind. If it is goo.i or Godlike, God-like, take it in, believe it and utilize it. If it is unGodhke, see it as. a suggestion which is untrue, one which you must repudiate, regardless of appearances, just as you would reject a conntei feit bill as valueless. You put the spiritual truth in its place and hold to that. That is praying. Love this job of knowing the truth and make youi sense of dependence upon God, c Truth, so great that you cannot be deceived and made fearful or disheartened, dis-heartened, regardless of what the material sense testimony presents. Let us see the situatior as Paul What Is God? Let us find there what Christian Science teaches about God. An understanding un-derstanding of God's nature and allness is the key to brotherhood and peace. Mrs. Eddy explains the nature of God in these words: "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite in-finite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love" (Science and Health, p. 465). On another page she adds (p. 340): "Divine Love is infinite. Therefore all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests mani-fests His love. . . . One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes con-stitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, rLove thy neighbor as thyself;' . . . and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed " The fundamental teaching of Christian Science is that God is All-in-all. The Bible speaks of God as divine Spirit, or, we might say, infinite spiritual consciousness. This spiritual consciousness is the permanent realm of the real to Christian Scientists, and it is right here, now. Christian Science teaches that since God, Spirit, is all there really is, matter and material things, while apparent to the physical senses, are actually unreal. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy wrote (p. 129), "We must look deep into realism instead of accepting only the outward sense of things." In the same book she also wrote (p. 41). "Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being." Wane of Materialism The advanced thinkers of the world are beginning to discern this fact. Belief in the reality of mattei and material things is gradually dissolving belnre spiritual understanding. under-standing. Among many encouraging encourag-ing signs of this is a statement by the Dean of Yale University's Sheffield Shef-field Scientific School. He writes: "Let us face the fact that what the world must have is a fuller cultivation culti-vation of those qualities which are best termed spiritual . . for on their strength depends our own Mary Baker Eddy The beloved revelator of Christian Chris-tian Science to this age, Mary Baker Eddy, has given us the Science of the Master's teaching about God, man, and prayer in such form that it can be understood under-stood and applied practically. Through her consecration to God, Mrs. Eddy was enabled to lift and enlarge and enlighten the lives she touched. It is a joy to realize that today her inspired writings are reaching out through the whole world and are lifting, enlarging, and enlightening the lives they touch. How arresting is this message from her "Miscellaneous "Miscellane-ous Writings" (p. 279), spoken to a class of students: "We, to-day, in this class-room, are enough to convert con-vert the world if we are of one Mind; for then the whole world will feel the influence of this Mind." Let us here tonight resolve to consecrate ourselves wholly to the service of this one Mind, which is God; to pray daily for the world and for all men with unwavering spiritual conviction that the influence in-fluence ,of this truth which we effectually realize in prayer will be felt universally; to know that all ungodlike beliefs that would oppress op-press and separate men do dissolve under the impulse of this prayer of spiritual understanding; to expect now the eternal reign of God's infinite in-finite government of universal, divine Love; and to see at hand the brotherhood of man evidenced among all nations. Let us make this work of praying for the fulfillment ful-fillment of world brotherhood our individual task right here now and let each one of us add, "beginning "begin-ning with me." Through her unselfed love and her wholehearted desire that all men might grasp and benefit by the Science of Christ Jesus' teaching teach-ing which she brouf.ht to the world. Mrs Eddy labored many years to establish the Church of Christ, Scientist She was its first pastor She taught many others the Science of Mind -healing, and herself performed many remark- |