"we cannot be poisoned by hatred"
/Yes, it deepened my conviction in the reality of God and the reality of reality where Spirit truly is All-in-all, and our ability to demonstrate what Spirit, Love, is actually doing, whatever it looks like materially. And not just that we have the ability to do this work, but that we face the necessity as scientific Christians to prove and live what God is and does.
I read A Century of Christian Science Healing with joy, looking forward to favorite accounts that I recalled from earlier readings, but taken by surprise again and again by how consecrated these Christian Scientists were, how naturally they turned to God and followed Jesus.
Starting on page 75, Henry Allen Nichols tells about his “conquest over fear” while serving in an ambulance unit during World War I. His demonstration of divine protection while transporting the wounded – deeply moving – still had to be purified from self. He called the error “a complacent sense of personal immunity, a deceptive counterfeit of that spiritual understanding of God’s presence,” which is genuine protection. In the midst of war, he was still doing the work of an actual Christian, purifying thought and denying self as Jesus taught. The applications to our current circumstances in this pandemic seem obvious – that it takes humility, the willingness to be God’s effect, as well as self-denial and Christian regeneration to gain that sense of protection in the allness of God that includes everyone, us too, no one left out.
I also loved John J. Spouse’s testimony (pgs. 117-119.) He was the ordained minister who came to hold “all religion in contempt.” Yet when he finally read it, our textbook offered “ ‘the ‘key’ that has opened the Scriptures and made the Bible, to me, a new revelation.” I love, deep down to my soul, to hear again and again the “old, old story” that Mrs. Eddy’s discovery was the very same Science of God that Jesus lived and taught and demonstrated. And that hungry Christian hearts – mine, too – find what they are longing for in genuine Christian Science.
At one time I found myself suddenly weak and ill, apparently the result of venom of some kind. I was carrying out work for my church, and there appeared to be a great deal of opposition to the work, though it was under the surface. A practitioner prayed for me, and I also prayed deeply. It came clearly that Church, “the body of Christ,” is a blessing to me and all, never a curse; that the world’s or anyone’s hatred of genuine church in action cannot harm me or anyone. And that membership in and service to the “body of Christ” is the great privilege of my life. The symptoms subsided, and the inspiration remained and protected.
In thinking about it now, I can see that God’s law declares that we cannot suffer for others’ sins, and thus we cannot be poisoned by hatred if we are honestly joined to divine Love. Church, the structure of Love, the structure of God’s universe, is a protection and refuge for its members, which includes His whole creation.
Rereading this book deepened my desire to come to Science and Health each time with the same fresh eyes and wonder that so many of these testifiers did. But I had to pause for several days and really think about what I was actually going to do to be more active in healing. My answer is that I will do my best to respond to what comes in daily life by seeking to know and do what God is knowing and doing, turning away from the mortal grind and appearances; to be more of a Christian by following Jesus better and learning more of what his Godlike character reveals of true selfhood; and to be more instant and conscientious in giving specific treatment with Truth’s counterfacts to error’s lies that present themselves, whether as cases or not.