Description
Association Addresses included are:
1952, 1953
1952 Topics:
HUMAN AND DIVINE COINCIDENCE
and
SPIRITUAL SONSHIP
1953 Topics:
SHEPHERDING OUR THOUGHTS
and
AS A MAN THINKETH
from HUMAN AND DIVINE COINCIDENCE:
“Man is spiritual, immortal consciousness, the divine idea of God. No evil is present in real being. Man is unlimited in intelligence and ability. He reflects the wisdom and understanding of eternal Mind, and the range of his thought is infinite.
From the beginning of time, that is as far back as human history records, men and women have reached out mentally to grasp these facts. They have striven, often falteringly, to enlarge their perception and understanding of man and the universe. They have sought to utilize existing potentialities coming within range of their comprehension and so to better their conditions.
Without knowing it or analyzing it, they have been reaching out for the truth of their own being, ‒ the Christ, the divine idea of God, ‒ that they might apply it to the human. This effort of the human race to rise above the physical, cultural, and spiritual levels on which they have progressively found themselves, has led on the ages.”
from SPIRITUAL SONSHIP:
“Jesus knew and demonstrated the love with which divine Principle embraces and blesses humanity. He said, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) No more precious gift could the Father bestow upon mankind than a knowledge of His only begotten Son, for this Son is the true selfhood of everyone, embodying and making manifest to human consciousness the permanency, perfection, beauty, and holiness of man as he really is. This son, conscious of the Father’s goodness, brings the assurance of Immanuel, God’s power and presence with us now, and is our Messiah, our Saviour from all human woes.
Spiritual sonship is complete. It is compound idea, in which no quality of God is missing. Spiritual sonship is, in reality, the only sonship. There is not two of any of us. We do not have a material and a spiritual selfhood which war against each other. We have only one selfhood, and that divine sonship. ”
Association Address – 1953
SHEPHERDING OUR THOUGHTS
and
AS A MAN THINKETH
from SHEPHERDING OUR THOUGHTS:
“Faith in a power invisible to and higher than material sense – a good power guiding and directing human affairs – has brought comfort and courage to many people, and has often been symbolized in the idea of the good shepherd. The ancient Hebrews, tenders of flocks and herds, frequently used the illustrations of the shepherd in their writings. Jesus used it, and in this present day our Leader has brought the thought of the good shepherd very close to each heart, revealing it as the Christliness present in every human consciousness, ready and able to guide into unlimited good all those who follow its wise and pure leading.”
from AS A MAN THINKETH:
“Our Leader writes (S&H pref. vii:13), “The time for thinkers has come.” This call is not a call to mere intellectualism. It is a call to spiritual awakening, because spiritual thinking is the only thinking which, in the final analysis, stands as real thought.
The Christian Science church is a thinking organization, and the degree of excellence of the thinking therein determines the effectiveness of the Movement in its healing and saving capacity. The ministry of Christian Science is a thinking ministry. Healing in Christian Science is a spiritually mental process.
Christian Science mentalizes everything. It rises above physics into metaphysics. It lifts thought into a spiritual perspective which discerns the erroneously mental nature of evil, and perceives the divinely mental nature of good. It uncovers matter as a mortal, mental concept without substance, and declares real substance to consist of divine ideas emanating from divine Mind.”