APPLY GEM EXAMPLES of GOD AS A PERFECT PRESERVATION POWER FOR YOU & ALL! USE BIBLE ILLUSTRATIONS** as SPRINGBOARDS for YOUR OWN MODERN-DAY PROOFS!
Let God Expressed Meekly/Mightily in you sparkle brightly with insights from Cobbey Crisler & others as found in The Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson on
“God the Preserver of Man”
for Sunday, December 12, 2021
(Cobbey’s text is shared with the blessing of Janet Crisler janetcrisler7@gmail.com)
by Warren Huff, CedarS Executive Director Emeritus, warren@cedarscamps.org
ALLOW HIS ANGELS TO HAVE CHARGE OVER YOU – ESPECIALLY IN THE MIDST TITANIC CHALLENGES!
(from Ps. 91:2-11, Responsive Reading)
In his testimony in an October 1912 Christian Science Journal, Titanic survivor Lt. Charles H. Lightoller, explains how he prayed with the 91st Psalm (as the Responsive Reading in this week’s CS Bible Lesson. He especially loved the thought that “He shall give his angels charge over thee” and how angel thoughts and thought-forces led him to save many others as well as himself miraculously.
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1997/12/99-49/the-night-the-titanic-sank
Reprinted in part below in case you have not yet signed up for JSH Online with you should do here:
“I want to emphasize strongly this point, that as soon as I collected my thoughts after taking to the water, I remember saying to myself, “Now, I’ll see how much I have learned from Christian Science.” A doubt never entered my mind as to the possibility of my surviving; in other words, of the ability of the divine power to save me. I think I can conscientiously say that with this thought all fear left me, and I commenced again to realize the truth of being.
It was at this moment that I was drawn into the water, still realizing the truth, and while I was below the surface these words from the [ninety-first] Psalm came to me so distinctly that I seemed to realize their full import: “He shall give his angels charge over thee.” Immediately, I think, I was thrown away from the blower, and came up to find a piece of wood in my hand which seemed to be attached to the top of the funnel by a wire. I remained still, while the water rushed past me carrying the people with it away from me.
A second time I went down, still holding fast to the truth, and again came to the surface. My piece of wood was gone, but alongside me was the flat-bottomed collapsible boat which I had thrown down on the other side of the ship. This I laid hold of, but made no attempt to board it.
I want it to be understood that during this time in the water the fact came calmly and clearly that there was a divine power which could be utilized in a practical manner, and also it seemed perfectly natural to rely on this power with the spiritual understanding which is so often spoken of in the Bible, and which is explained in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mrs. Eddy.
Now, with the sinking of a great ship like the Titanic, there was also the fear of suction to overcome, and at this time the forward funnel fell, throwing the boat, myself, and other survivors about twenty feet clear of the ship, so that of suction we felt nothing. About thirty of us floated the remainder of the night on the upturned boat, and I could not overcome the intense cold experienced, yet when a man handed me a bottle of something that smelt somewhat like essence of peppermint, the thought of material means was nothing short of repulsive, and needless to say, it was not taken.
At daybreak we found two life-boats floating nearby, into which we were taken. I was the last member of the Titanic to board the Carpathia, and after interviewing her captain, discarded my wet clothes in favor of a bunk, in which I remained for about half an hour, and was not in bunk or bed again till we arrived in New York. Reaction or effects from the immersion—which I was confidently assured would take place—there were none; and though surprise has been expressed by very many, it only goes to prove that “with God all things are possible.”
Lieut. C. H. Lightoller, R.N.R.
Reprinted from the October 1912 issue of The Christian Science Journal.”
HOPE IN GOD (WHO ALONE CAN QUENCH THIRSTY SOULS) TO FIND
A SURE CURE FOR DEPRESSION (& put an END to CONTINUAL FEARS & TEARS)!
[Warren on Psalm 42:2 (and verse 8, Golden Text) and Cobbey Crisler on Ps. 42:11, in (& after) citation B3]
[W: Psalm 42:2 starts with the psalmist acknowledging a thirst, lack, or seeming ‘hole in his soul.’ “… my soul panteth for thee O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God…” This is manifested in “tears… day and night…” and in questioning the existence of God— “Where is thy God?” (Verses 3 and 10)
That seeming void is filled with divine cure-alls for every time of the day and night—God’s commanded “lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song… and my prayer unto the God of my life.” (Ps. 42:8/citation B3) These cure-alls are panacea that end every pandemic – even one of depression and hopelessness.]
[Cobbey: “Psalm 42, Verse 11 is a refrain in this psalm and the next. [Ps. 43.5] It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves, “Why art thou cast down?” Depression, if not an economic fact, seems to be a mental one at present. “Why art thou cast down? Examine the reasons. “Why art thou disquieted within me?” That’s getting mad in a sense. That’s challenging what we are accepting without question. Why am I depressed? Why is this disquiet? What’s the reason for it? Then notice the remedy. “Hope thou in God: praise God, hope in God. The health of our countenance is in God. “
“Leaves of the Tree: Prescriptions from Psalms,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
[Cobbey: “Verse 11 [of Psalm 42] is the effect of that [enemy] thought [of questioning the existence of God in verse 10]. Our “soul is cast down,” our whole identity depressed, “disquieted.” Only “hope in God” restored will restore “the health of our countenance,” showing the physical effect of the mental cause.”
“War in Heaven: Conquest of Inner Space,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
ELEVATE ALL YOU DO as well as THE RACE! MAKE ADAPTATIONS and RECEIVE DIVINE BESTOWALS! [Warren & Geith Plimmer, CS on Science & Health 13:2 (citation S1)
I’ll always remember something that Geith Plimmer, a Christian Science Lecturer living in Great Britain, said about part of citation S1; “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptations and bestowals.” (SH 13:2-3) Geith commented that one ready to receive divine bestowals only when one has enough humility and love to be ready to let “Thy will be done” and to make right adaptations and appropriate changes to a humanly-willed or outlined plan.
APPRECIATE that Mary Baker Eddy was 1 of her day’s BEST-KNOWN WOMEN & REVOLUTIONARY THINKERS!
Mary Baker Eddy (MBE) was a revolutionary thinker, way ahead of her time. She wrote and lived in a remarkable way with a profound, spiritual understanding that liberated humanity!**
For example, Mary Baker Eddy (MBE) wrote: “Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a skyward flight” (S28, Science and Health 261:27). But in her day, researchers had not yet discovered and documented how “super-precocial” chicks of the “megapodes” came out of their eggs “completely independent…which hatch fully feathered, their eyes open and capable of flight.” [according to W’s Class Instruction notes]
Also see www.audubon.org/news/the-art-hatching-egg-explained (A video about Australian Brush Turkey chicks that illustrates this at https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Australian+Brush+Turkey&&view=detail&mid=D18F12E1C492D412064AD18F12E1C492D412064A&FORM=VRDGAR
**HERE’S ANOTHER “WAY AHEAD of HER TIME” EXAMPLE WRITTEN by Mary Baker Eddy: “The light of spiritual understanding gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indicate the immensity of space.” (Science and Health 509:18)
This is another example of how Mary Baker Eddy in her writing of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was way ahead of her time in referring to this phenomenon that had not yet been discovered or explained scientifically. She could only do this by humbly, sincerely listening to her all-knowing, divine Mind.
A Christian Scientist friend of mine, Chuck Douglas, was an avid amateur astronomer and the Kansas City dad of CedarS staff friends, Charlie Douglas, Carol Douglas and Elaine Douglas Boudreaux). Chuck had the wisdom and the occasion to ask a professional astronomer what a woman author could have meant when she stated “even as nebulae indicate the immensity of space.” (509:18) The astronomer asked when this insightful observation was made and was amazed that Mary Baker Eddy wrote the first edition of Science & Health in 1875 and its last (418th) edition in 1906. He explained that it was not until 1929 when American astronomer, Edwin Hubble (who the Hubble Space Telescope is named after) was the first to describe the redshift phenomenon and tie it to an expanding universe and exploding stars (nebulae) as explained further at https://www.space.com/25732-redshift-blueshift.html in 1990 when the Hubble Space telescope was launch into its orbit around the earth astronomers’ able to see more distant nebulae and to measure the speed at which their exploding light was simultaneously moving towards observers at light speed in a blueshift spectrum of light and away from us at light speed in a redshift spectrum of light. If you download the amazing pictures of the red and blue light from Helix Nebulae (in the upper right part of thus GEM’s online version), imagine this and countless other nebulae expanding in opposite directions at the speed of light of 186,282 miles per second—with no end in sight! Now, that “indicates immensity”!
** ANOTHER ADVANCED STATEMENT by MARY BAKER EDDY CLOSES EVERY SUNDAY SERVICE:
Dr. Albert Einstein, when he was a professor at Princeton University, is said to have said privately of Mary Baker Eddy’s “Scientific Statement of Being” (SH 468:8-15): “That is the most profound statement ever uttered by mankind.” He is also said to have quipped to a research colleague, Christian Scientist, Dr. Underwood, “Had I known of the “Scientific Statement of Being” sooner, I could have developed my Theory of Relativity ten years sooner.”
Mary Baker Eddy said of her “Scientific Statement of Being”:
*“St. Paul said to the Athenians, ‘For in Him we live and move and have our being.’ This statement is in substance identical with my own: ‘There is no life, truth, substance, nor intelligence in matter.’ It is quite clear that this great verity has not yet been fully demonstrated, but it is nevertheless true. If Christian Science reiterates Paul’s teaching, we, as Christian Scientists, should give to the world convincing proof of the validity of this scientific statement of being. Having perceived, in advance of others, this scientific fact, we owe to ourselves and to the world a struggle for its demonstration.”
Retrospection & Introspection, p. 93: 17, Mary Baker Eddy’s quote & comment on Acts 17:28.
WARREN’S ACUTE ABDOMINAL PAIN AND DEMANDING FINAL EXAMS OVERCOME THROUGH PRAYER
and the application of ideas in this week’s Bible Lesson (cits. S8/SH 57 & S14/84:11)
“One of my many landmark healings in Christian Science occurred when I was a freshman at Princeton University. Somehow all fifteen hours of my five three-hour finals were scheduled for the first two days of exam week. On top of that, due to daily football practice and working multiple jobs, I had fallen behind on heavy reading assignments in a couple of the courses. So, on the Saturday morning before these finals, I felt pressured and inadequate. I asked myself, “How am I ever going to be ready to read, study and prepare for these exams with no real study time between them?”
“Just as I started to ponder my seemingly impossible situation, a dull pain in my right side that I’d been aware of overnight suddenly became very sharp and would not go away. A roommate, whose dad was a doctor, suggested that it looked like my appendix had burst and that I was having an appendicitis attack. I chose to handle this suggestion with prayer, just as I’d had done successfully to meet many other challenges — from making hard decisions to experiencing very quick healings of broken bones, severe wounds, sprained ankles, torn cartilage, and so forth. When this very aggressive problem refused to yield quickly to my own prayers, I struggled to get to the privacy of a pay phone booth on campus to call a Christian Science Practitioner for help (this was long before cell phones). I was seeking the uniquely powerful and prayerful support known as a Christian Science treatment, given with professional warmth and principled love. On this occasion, though, none of the practitioners I knew from Christian Science summer camp or from church answered their phones, and no human help seemed to be readily available. So, I hobbled—still doubled over in pain— to a nearby Christian Science Reading Room on Nassau Street in Princeton, New Jersey. The Reading Room’s “quiet precincts” were a perfect place to reach out directly to God for angel messages and my healing.
“For several hours that Saturday, I was the only visitor to the private study area in the back of the Reading Room. That sacred privacy enabled me to feel free enough to stretch out on the floor whenever sitting wasn’t comfortable. Whenever I physically struggled, I spiritually snuggled up to apply passages that I felt the Comforter was indelibly teaching me from that week’s Christian Science Bible lesson. I kept coming back to an uplifting assurance in a sentence in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, which reads, “… Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for heaven.” (cit. S8/SH 57) I saw clearly that as long as my heart was sighing (moaning, groaning, complaining…) over the world—over exam-based concerns, time-based pressures and body-based pains— it could not begin “to unfold its wings for heaven” and healing.
“Through prayer, I began to “unfold the wings of my heart for heaven” by turning away from my worldly worries and toward the infinite possibilities of being at one with all-knowing, divine Mind. Another insight I found in the Bible Lesson was the account of Joseph’s divine intuition that enabled him to interpret the humanly unknowable dream of Pharaoh (Genesis 41:1-57). I reasoned that his example showed me that I too could have direct insight from divine Mind. I felt that God was telling me that Joseph’s talent was my talent too, and that God would give me the healing insights I needed for both physical healing and to know what I needed to study and what to write on my upcoming exams. I loved that Joseph’s explanation of how he knew the meaning of the dream, telling Pharaoh, “it is not in me: God shall give … an answer of peace.” (Genesis 41:16). Joseph’s words helped me feel more confidence and peaceful about my upcoming exams.
“I also distinctly remember finding relief in affirming for myself, “When man is governed by God, the ever-present Mind who understands all things, man knows that with God all things are possible.” (SH 180:25)
“That private Reading Room study area also gave me a perfect place sing some favorite hymns. I knew by heart all of Mary Baker Eddy’s hymns from years of singing them in Sunday School, plus scores of others. This may seem like an unconventional way to study for exams, but, in hindsight, I was being forced to prioritize feeling my one-ness with God by cherishing each word of every hymn that came to me. This turned out to be the best possible exam preparation that I’ve ever had.
“I’ll always remember concluding my hymn singing by cherishing each word of “Christ My Refuge,” a poem and hymn by Mary Baker Eddy. My tears of pain changed to tears of joy! The pain lifted as I let my heart sing the following words, “O’er waiting harps strings of the mind, there sweeps a strain, Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind the power of pain… And wake a white-winged angel throng of thoughts illumed By faith, and breathed in raptured song, With love perfumed. Then His unveiled, sweet mercies show Life’s burden’s light. I kiss the cross, and wake to know A world more bright… I see Christ walk and come to me and tenderly divinely talk. Thus Truth engrounds me on the rock… whereto God leadeth me. (Christian Science Hymnal #254)
“With renewed freedom, I was inspired to not just walk, but to run back to my Dodd Hall dorm room, to eat normally and to prepare with peaceful inspiration Saturday night and Sunday for my first four final exams (12-hours worth) on Monday and Tuesday morning. I felt divinely directed toward just what I needed to review and felt great and full of gratitude to God about my first four exams.
“However, when I opened the fifth exam on Tuesday afternoon, my heart fell as I read all the exam questions which asked me to compare and contrast several books that I had intended to read over the weekend but did not because of the healing time I needed to spend in the Reading Room. I was seriously tempted to just go up to the exam proctor and turn in the exam with a note that I’d had a health challenge, was unable to adequately prepare for the exam, and to ask to take the course on a Pass-Fail basis so that my good work going into the final could at least get me a “Pass” on my transcript for this Sociology course.
“Then, I remembered the citations from the Christian Science Bible Lesson that I’d mined in the Reading Room as cherished gems to apply to myself. I recalled the account of Joseph humbly knowing it was not in him, but in God to give the right answer. (Genesis 41:1-57)
“As I stood up from my desk with the intention to humanly give up, rather than try to write about books that I hadn’t even read, an angel message stopped me, saying “I am the same Mind that made this test and that wrote every book and I am with you to take this test and tell you everything you need to know.” I heard these words as a direct message from God. I gained confidence from this angel message and from remembering other ideas from the Bible lesson I’d cherished and made my own during my healing time of study in the Reading Room.
“They included these passages from Science and Health:
“It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and of thought in rapport with this Mind, to know the past, the present, and the future. Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind… to be divinely inspired, yea, to reach the range of fetterless Mind.” (cit. S14/84:11-18)
“A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.” (SH 128:14)
“Spirit imparts the understanding uplifts consciousness and leads… This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments, it is the reality of all things brought to light.” (SH, 505:16, 26-28)
“I sat back down at my desk with a joyous and confident motive to glorify God by being a clear transparency to let God’s goodness shine through me. I strove to see myself as a “scribe under orders.” I was determined not to try to make up myself what I humanly didn’t know, but rather to “welcome” divine Mind’s ideas. Ideas flowed and I wrote them down effortlessly. At the end of the three hours, I handed in the exam with a sense of inspired joy. And the next day I found out that my grade in the course actually improved! I was grateful and gave all glory to God alone. I had demonstrated that what cannot God do for me when I, like Joseph, know that “it is not in me. God shall give (me every) … answer” that I need, and I know it! This demonstration helped realized that every time we have no clue humanly how to answer any question or problem, we can turn to divine Mind for answers. All we ever need do is be “Looking unto (Christ) Jesus the author and finisher”! (Heb. 12:2)
“I have turned to this landmark healing for years as a reminder that we can always lean on God for refuge and strength, as a “very present help in trouble.” (Psalms 46:1)
KNOW THAT YOUR “ABILITY & OPPORTUNITY ARE COORDINATE IDEAS” AND THEN “RISE TO THE OCCASION!”
Application ideas offered by Warren Huff on citation S14/ Science & Health 571:16
“Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil.”
“What occasions or opportunities are demanding your best these days?
1. Hard assignments, unbelievable work load and killer deadlines?
2. Important tests of our abilities or our faith and resilience?
3. A big game, presentation or performance?
4. Group Leadership role(s)?
5. An important date or social event?
6. A sticky situation where taking a moral or ethical stand and integrity are needed?
7. Challenging restrictions that keep testing your patience, equanimity and reliance on God?
Whatever opportunities you face, you can meet them as their master by obeying this powerful two-word command.
“Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil.” Science & Health, 571:15 (cit. S14)
“Know yourself as God knows you – as an ever-perfect expression of “infinity, freedom, harmony and boundless bliss.” (see S&H 481:3) Totally accept and simply express each of these elements of your divine identity to eradicate their illegitimate opposites. Without a body-based sense of self, you will be open for God to eliminate from your experience: all of matter’s debilitating drag of limited energy, funds, intelligence, speed, inspiration; all its sapping slavery of restrictions (injuries, illness, red tape, tie-ups); all its regular rub of inharmonious relationships and its constant cloud of frustration and unhappiness. All gone! These are all just fables that were never part of you or of those you love.
In the next couple of days, “your assignment, should you choose to accept it,” will be to simply do your part—know yourself spiritually—and watch God do Her part, to supply you with all the wisdom and occasions where victories are wanted. You may also enjoy highlighting in every lesson all of God’s jobs in one color and all of yours in another color.
A friend shed new light on this passage with this one-line insight:
“ABILITY (the wisdom) and OPPORTUNITY (the occasion) are coordinate ideas.”
By accepting this divine law and knowing yourself spiritually, you will never have ability without being given opportunity to express it. (no unneeded bench-sitting) And, you’ll also never be given opportunities (like the seven listed at the top) without having the God-given abilities to rise to the occasion!”
Warren Huff originally posted this on CedarS website on December 5, 2002
DEMAND OF YOUR PATIENT (& YOURSELF) TO DO THE PART THAT GOD EQUIPPED YOU TO DO!
Cobbey Crisler on citation B13/Luke 6:6-12 (& Matthew 12:10-15) with Jesus healing the man with the withered hand in the synagogue
[Click for a scene from The Chosenfeaturing this healing]
[Cobbey:] “Matthew 12, Verse 13: Jesus says to the man with the withered hand, “Stretch forth your hand.” Notice, he did not go up to the man and do it physically for him. He said to the man, and notice what role he assigns to the patient in every case, “You do it.” You’re equipped to do it. That’s your part. Stretch forth your hand. Immediately this happened. It was whole again.” A fragment of the body could not depart along its separate route and create its own rules. The eye had to be single as God’s eye was single.
(Verse 14). “The Pharisees went out, and held a council right there on how they could destroy Jesus.” They brought the man to Jesus and challenged him. Here a man’s whole life was turned around. One of the great insoluble problems, a man’s distorted physical being had been corrected and changed.
(Verse:15). “Jesus had to withdraw, but many followed him.”
“The Book of Matthew: Auditing the Master,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
LIKE JESUS, TAKE TIME TO PRAY FOR YOURSELF & THOSE WHO WILL FOLLOW YOU!
Cobbey Crisler on John 17:1-21/citation B18
“In Chapter 17 of John’s gospel, Jesus is praying audibly. If we’ve ever wanted to be present when Jesus is praying, this is a very moving prayer indeed. It’s divided into three sections. To whom does the prayer, represented in the first five verses, refer? Himself. It’s a prayer for himself. Jesus did take time out for himself. This is just before Gethsemane. So you know what’s in his thoughts.
John 17:1. It’s in this prayer he says, “These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.”
John 17:2, “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.”
John 17:3, “This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”
John 17:4. Imagine being able to say at the end of an earthly career, ”I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” It would be wonderful if we could say that in any given day. But this is an entire career.
John 17:5, “Glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” Look at the emphasis there. Again, on nativity and Spirit, the before-Abraham concept.
He ends his prayer for himself there. Beginning in Verse 6 and going all the way through Verse 19, he prays for the disciples, “I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world.”
John 17:8, “I have given unto them the words.” This is the beginning of Christianity, then, the prayer for the emergence of Christianity. “I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.” Now what are they going to do with it?
In John 17:15, Jesus prays not for monasticism, nor to have the disciples remove themselves from the world. “I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” What a prayer! That was the prayer the disciples operated under from Pentecost onward.
Then John 17:20 begins the third section of the prayer. For whom? For us. That is, if we believe. “Those which shall believe on me through the disciples ‘word.”
Can you possibly envision the kind of character required to spend the very evening of Gethsemane praying for us? Is there a shepherd motive? Its ultimate is being exemplified there. “Those that believe on me through their word.”
Has that prayer terminated? Has any communication between God and man, ascending or descending angels, terminated? Does that prayer still rest on the Son of Man, on you and me?
John 17:21. The prayer is, “that they all may be one.” Look around and see what the major target is. To keep “all men from being one.” If one can keep man from being at-one, then you’re stuck with a divided God as well. It wrecks and ruins basic theology, that is, for the ones participating. No fragmentation, no separation. Jesus’ prayer, as one of the hymns says, “For all his brethren, Father, that we may be one.” That prayer extends way down to our age. If that were Jesus’ prayer, it better be ours, especially if we claim to be his followers. The prayer “that we all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me.” There’s the standard of measurement. With that, Jesus ends his audible prayer.”
“Book of John, A Walk with the Beloved Disciple,” by B. Cobbey Crisler**
