Sunday, September 25th, 2016


Subject — Reality

Golden Text: Matthew 5: 3


“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”


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Responsive Reading: Psalm 145 : 9-13

9.     The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

10.     All thy works shall praise thee, O LORD; and thy saints shall bless thee.

11.     They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, and talk of thy power;

12.     To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and the glorious majesty of his kingdom.

13.     Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations.


Lesson Sermon

The Bible


1.     Psalm 146 : 1, 2, 5, 7-10

1     Praise ye the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.

2     While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.

5     Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:

7     Which executeth judgment for the oppressed: which giveth food to the hungry. The Lord looseth the prisoners:

8     The LORD openeth the eyes of the blind: the LORD raiseth them that are bowed down: the LORD loveth the righteous:

9     The LORD preserveth the strangers; he relieveth the fatherless and widow: but the way of the wicked he turneth upside down.

10     The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise ye the LORD.


2.     Matthew 9 : 35 (Jesus)

35     …Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.


3.     Matthew 18 : 1-5

1     At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

2     And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

3     And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

4     Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

5     And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.


4.     Luke 9 : 57-62

57     And it came to pass, that, as they went in the way, a certain man said unto him, Lord, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.

58     And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.

59     And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.

60     Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God.

61     And another also said, Lord, I will follow thee; but let me first go bid them farewell, which are at home at my house.

62     And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.


5.     Matthew 7 : 21-23

21     Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

22     Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

23     And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.


6.     Luke 14 : 1-15

1     And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.

2     And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.

3     And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?

4     And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;

5     And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?

6     And they could not answer him again to these things.

7     And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them,

8     When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;

9     And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.

10     But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.

11     For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

12     Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.

13     But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:

14     And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.

15     And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.


7.     Luke 17 : 20, 21

20     And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

21     Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.



Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures


1.     590 : 1-3

KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. The reign of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme.


2.     476 : 28-5

When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.


3.     207 : 27-4

The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth. Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord, which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real. The only evidence of this inversion is obtained from suppositional error, which affords no proof of God, Spirit, or of the spiritual creation. Material sense defines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the infinite.


4.     109 : 32-12

The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science, — contradict forever the belief that matter can be actual. These eternal verities reveal primeval existence as the radiant reality of God's creation, in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wisdom good.

Thus it was that I beheld, as never before, the awful unreality called evil. The equipollence of God brought to light another glorious proposition, — man's perfectibility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth.


5.     122 : 1-14

The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, — assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and death; but the great facts of Life, rightly understood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, — the actual reign of harmony on earth. The material senses' reversal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nineteen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus; yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure, from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status of happiness or misery.


6.     40 : 31-13

The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions. Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being.

The God-inspired walk calmly on though it be with bleeding footprints, and in the hereafter they will reap what they now sow. The pampered hypocrite may have a flowery pathway here, but he cannot forever break the Golden Rule and escape the penalty due.


7.     66 : 1-16

Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of humanity:

Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, — a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not half remember this in the sunshine of joy and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are proofs of God's care. Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.


8.     560 : 10-17

Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science interprets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of anyone whom God has appointed to voice His Word.


9.     248 : 26-32

We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love — the kingdom of heaven — reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.


10.     572 : 19-22

In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: —

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.


11.     573 : 19 (St. John’s)-2

…St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scriptural authority for concluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men in this present state of existence, — that we can become conscious, here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain. This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science. Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When you read this, remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you." This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility.


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