Subject — God The Preserver Of Man

23.     O love the LORD, all ye his saints: for the LORD preserveth the faithful, and plentifully rewardeth the proud doer.

1.     I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.

2.     I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.

3.     When mine enemies are turned back, they shall fall and perish at thy presence.

4.     For thou hast maintained my right and my cause; thou satest in the throne judging right.

9.     The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.

1.     Proverbs 31 : 10, 20, 25-27, 30, 31

10     Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.

20     She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.

25     Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.

26     She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

27     She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.

30     Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.

31     Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.

2.     I Corinthians 3 : 16, 17

16     Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

17     If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

3.     Galatians 3 : 28

28     There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

4.     I Samuel 25 : 2 (to 2nd ,), 3 (to 2nd ;), 4-6 (to 1st ,), 8 (give), 9 (to words),10 (Nabal) (to 2nd ?), 11-13 (to 1st .), 13 (and there) (to next ;), 14, 17 (to :), 18, 19, 23, 24 (to 2nd ,), 28, 32, 33, 35 (Go)-37, 39 (And David)

2     And there was a man in Maon, whose possessions were in Carmel; and the man was very great,

3     Now the name of the man was Nabal; and the name of his wife Abigail: and she was a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance: but the man was churlish and evil in his doings;

4     And David heard in the wilderness that Nabal did shear his sheep.

5     And David sent out ten young men, and David said unto the young men, Get you up to Carmel, and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name:

6     And thus shall ye say to him that liveth in prosperity,

8     …give, I pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

9     And when David’s young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words…

10     …Nabal answered David’s servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse?

11     Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?

12     So David’s young men turned their way, and went again, and came and told him all those sayings.

13     And David said unto his men, Gird ye on every man his sword. …and there went up after David about four hundred men;

14     But one of the young men told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, saying, Behold, David sent messengers out of the wilderness to salute our master; and he railed on them.

17     Now therefore know and consider what thou wilt do; for evil is determined against our master, and against all his household:

18     Then Abigail made haste, and took two hundred loaves, and two bottles of wine, and five sheep ready dressed, and five measures of parched corn, and an hundred clusters of raisins, and two hundred cakes of figs, and laid them on asses.

19     And she said unto her servants, Go on before me; behold, I come after you. But she told not her husband Nabal.

23     And when Abigail saw David, she hasted, and lighted off the ass, and fell before David on her face, and bowed herself to the ground,

24     And fell at his feet, and said,

28     I pray thee, forgive the trespass of thine handmaid: for the LORD will certainly make my lord a sure house; because my lord fighteth the battles of the LORD, and evil hath not been found in thee all thy days.

32     And David said to Abigail, Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, which sent thee this day to meet me:

33     And blessed be thy advice, and blessed be thou, which hast kept me this day from coming to shed blood, and from avenging myself with mine own hand.

35     …Go up in peace to thine house; see, I have hearkened to thy voice, and have accepted thy person.

36     And Abigail came to Nabal; and, behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken: wherefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light.

37     But it came to pass in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, and his wife had told him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became as a stone.

39     …And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife.

5.     Psalm 121 : 1-8

1     I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

2     My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth.

3     He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

4     Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5     The LORD is thy keeper: the LORD is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6     The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7     The LORD shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8     The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

1.     481 : 3-6

God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Like the archpriests of yore, man is free "to enter into the holiest," — the realm of God.

2.     444 : 10-12

Step by step will those who trust Him find that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

3.     587 : 3-4

GIHON (river). The rights of woman acknowledged morally, civilly, and socially.

4.     63 : 5-17

In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being.

Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the rights of the two sexes. Christian Science furnishes no precedent for such injustice, and civilization mitigates it in some measure. Still, it is a marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than does either Christian Science or civilization.

5.     226 : 14-17

God has built a higher platform of human rights, and He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not made through code or creed, but in demonstration of "on earth peace, good-will toward men."

6.     224 : 28-4

Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner is the Soul-inspired motto, "Slavery is abolished." The power of God brings deliverance to the captive. No power can withstand divine Love. What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God? Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free.

7.     144 : 14-16, 18-22

Human will-power is not Science. Human will belongs to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned.…Human will-power may infringe the rights of man. It produces evil continually, and is not a factor in the realism of being. Truth, and not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to disease, "Peace, be still."

8.     227 : 7-16 (to 2nd .), 21-29

The law of the divine Mind must end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware of man's inalienable rights and in subjection to hopeless slavery, because some public teachers permit an ignorance of divine power, — an ignorance that is the foundation of continued bondage and of human suffering.

Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to foresee the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legitimate state of man. God made man free.

Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: "Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!" Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the "glori- ous liberty of the children of God," and be free! This is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being.

9.     516 : 9-13, 19-31

God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light.…Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's dominion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.

Genesis i. 27. So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.

To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated that God made man in His own image, to reflect the divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter genders are human concepts.

10.     517 : 8-14

The ideal man corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth. The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In divine Science, we have not as much authority for con- sidering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity.

11.     57 : 4-14

Union of the masculine and feminine qualities constitutes completeness. The masculine mind reaches a higher tone through certain elements of the feminine, while the feminine mind gains courage and strength through masculine qualities. These different elements conjoin naturally with each other, and their true harmony is in spiritual oneness. Both sexes should be loving, pure, tender, and strong. The attraction between native qualities will be perpetual only as it is pure and true, bringing sweet seasons of renewal like the returning spring.

12.     249 : 5-8

Let the "male and female" of God's creating appear. Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy.

13.     521 : 12-17

The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We should look away from the opposite supposition that man is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual record of creation, to that which should be engraved on the understanding and heart "with the point of a diamond" and the pen of an angel.