Description
Association Addresses in Vol. I are:
• Life Eternal – Address of 1955
• Divine Capacity – Address of 1956
• The Platform – Address of 1957
• All and Nothing – Address of 1958
In his 1955 address, Mr. Merriman writes: “CONVERSATION is a very important subject. All thinking is conversation, either silent or audible. Keep your conversation in heaven. . .. Your thinking is your experience. That which you are experiencing could be none other than your thinking. Everything you see, everything you hear, everything you feel, or do, is always a mode, or manner, of consciousness. The only reality it has is the sense you have of it. This is your awareness. (See Unity of Good 8:5-8).
“How much longer are you going to clothe your thinking with material wrappings? How long are you going to embody your thinking with thoughts of delay, tomorrow, limitation, maybe, and so forth?
“All your troubles come from thinking habitually from the human viewpoint instead of from inspiration. Watch your habit of speech and conversation. They are your habits of thinking. In Proverbs it says, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Prov. 23:7). Your word choice determines the kind of thinking you are doing. What words are you using? You cannot afford to be careless with your words.
“You should consider how you converse with yourself. You sometimes think you are thinking when you are only rationalizing, cogitating, dreaming about something, or brooding over something. This is a time when you are not actually handling the error, you are just entertaining it.”
In the same address he also tells his students: “You know you cannot escape health! Don’t try any more. Health is an acknowledged fact. You understand this. It is reported that Mrs. Eddy once said, ‘Disease is a coward that leaves when you are not afraid of it.'”
In his 1958 address, Mr. Merriman shares this interesting idea: “Mrs. Eddy tells us, ‘Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action.’ (S&H 393:10-11) How could you do this if you lived in the body? Let me give you a simile that will explain this to you; this illustration has always been helpful. In class we talked a great deal about the letter ‘A’ and the alphabet in general. You readily admit the alphabet is mental, wholly within your consciousness, and that you have dominion over it. The letters of the alphabet never get out of line, never get sick, cantankerous. You never seem to have any unruly members in the alphabet! The letter ‘A’ never wanders off and gets into the wrong word! You are never called upon to give any letter a treatment or have an operation performed on any of them. The letters at all times maintain their identity and never deviate from the normal. Now, someone comes to you, knowing that you understand the alphabet and that it never gives you any trouble at all, and says, ‘I have quite a problem and I need your help.’ He tells you, ‘My letter ‘Q’ is upside down and hind-side fore.’ He is indeed perplexed. You know that such a statement is utterly ridiculous, but of course, he wants a treatment for it. What do you do? Why, you say, “‘Q’is just all right.’ You know the truth as to the letter ‘Q’; you don’t treat an upside-down ‘Q’ but you see that all he has is a belief, a false sense of ‘Q’and that the whole suggestion is error, animal magnetism. You maintain the letter ‘Q’ is perfect and there you stand. Use this line of thought in your work, no matter what suggestion is presented. A disabled organ, so-called, is no different than the belief of a disabled letter ‘Q.’
“One of the first things you did when the alphabet was presented to you was to see it in a normal way and establish it thusly. Mrs. Eddy says, ‘Establish the scientific sense of health, and you relieve the oppressed organ. The inflammation, decomposition, or deposit will abate, and the disabled organ will resume its healthy functions.’ (S&H 373:22-26) You establish the scientific sense of harmony. Scientific sense is the exact knowing of things as they really are. Years ago, you established your honesty, and you likewise established your alphabet. It is just as easy to establish health or harmony, because the kingdom of heaven is within you.”