Something gleaned from Psalm 145

By Stirling Watts, CS

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; thy saints shall bless thee

If God is good to you, this goodness is continual because God never pauses in being Himself. You ARE his work. Not sometimes but at every moment. His work is perfect. Then what is it that feels imperfect? It is certainly NOT you, the perfect work of God! Nothing exists but God and his works. His works (i.e., YOU) praise Him by BEING that goodness and expressing it. That being cannot be stopped, any more than the image in a mirror can stop reflecting what is in front of it. That expression IS a healthy and happy you. You don't see it because false belief tries to put up a block between you and God. But that block is only a transparent belief and a source of distortion, not a divine power.

A sickly and a sad you is NOT God's likeness. You see yourself that way because of this blockage in thought. That blockage is human perception. Human belief adds a false distortion to what you really reflect. So, the sick image is a human thought image, a distorted view of you. The perfect spiritual you is already there, behind the blockage that adds the distortion.

Think of a circus mirror that makes us look exaggerated or tall or fat or skinny. You would not think of changing that reflection to look normal by working on the reflection itself. You would, instead, replace the distorting mirror with a normal mirror. The circus mirror only makes the image you see an untrue image, and it is telling a lie about what you are. But does the circus mirror have the authority to change what you are? Did you really become bloated or tall, or do you realize that this image is a product of the faulty mirror?

In the same way, we see the distorted picture of a diseased person or of our own self through the distorting view of the human mind. The human view has added the lies of discord, disease, sin, war, etc. to the image. These discords are lies, deceptions added by human belief. The real happy and healthy person is still there, and can be seen by viewing them through the reflection presented by the divine Mind. Using this point of view removes the lies.

Virtually the entire world, however does believe the lies, the distortions created by human sense. It sees this distorted human mind view of man, and mistakenly believes it to be God's image, not realizing that human thought and belief have introduced erroneous distortions to the picture. The world believes that the ugly images it sees through human sense need to be worked on. The real solution lies in ceasing to look through human sense, and seeing instead with divine understanding. Because the world is convinced that what it sees is true, it invents intricate and complex technical medical methods to fight that which it does not understand - namely, the deception of evil, lies contrary to God's loving nature and principle.

Realize that, and understand yourself to be God's image. When you feel it, it becomes experience.

Christmas Poem

By Ken Cooper

When all around seems bleak and cold

Remember please this story old:

Midst Roman rule and Herod’s law,

And poverty that made men sore,

A light shone forth in dark of night

That told of God, the one true Might.

And three wise men beheld this sign,

Responded to this light divine,

And came with gifts to recognise

The gift of God before men’s eyes.

The baby Jesus, innocent,

The problems of the world would rent.

Sin, sickness, death he would dispose;

God’s love for you and I disclose.

That light still shines, it never went,

For it was from heaven sent.

So this Christmas, through the year,

If ever doubts and fears appear,

Remember please this story old:

The Christ is here. Look up! Behold!

©Ken Cooper 2011

Heaven: A place free of failure!

By Anthony John Whitehouse CS

Until we are aware of it , we have really no idea how much of a role the belief of failure plays in our lives: the belief of past failure , the belief of impending failure and the belief of endemic failure.

The whole of human experience cries out “ you have failed and mankind has failed”. And since such beliefs have to find expression in our experience then we see the organs of our body failing , our church failing and our government failing.

At this time in the US, the country seems perplexed by failing political institutions and the effect of this paralysis. But where does the problem lie ? Oddly enough it lies in our own belief of failure. If we take the beam of failure out of our own eye we will see improvement in every aspect of our lives. Not only in our physical bodies but in the body politic and corporate bodies.

It is an easy trap to fall into unfortunately. It probably comes from those years spent in school where we never scored 100% in our tests. Inevitably we ended up with the sense that , in certain areas , we were failures. And personal sense reinforces that sense of failure by furnishing evidence of failed marriages , failed careers and failed attempts at healing.

But in Isaiah 40:26 we find a wonderful antidote to such satanic edicts..
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

This culture should warn us against holding ourselves to be human rather than spiritual because failure is endemic to personal or human sense. Within the human selfhood failure is always going to be manifest because the belief of having been born ( a prime factor in being human ) is always going to carry with it ultimate decline or failure in death.

But we can overcome this culture of failure by operating not from a sense of selfhood but from a sense of Mindhood. Yes.. I had to make the word up because it does not exist. But it signifies the extent to which we are a condition of mind rather than self. And we need the word. Why ? because without it we cannot really get a handle on our right sense of being. With a sense of being as Mindhood we will function correctly.

The function of words and finding the right words for a particular facet of spirituality is essential to attaining the kingdom. If you cannot seize a concept mentally you can never makes it yours. Heaven has to be closer to us because someone coined the word serenity to indicate a state of consciousness which is totally sublime, calm and placid. It is not a word which appears in the bible and without it our sense of heaven is not complete.

For this reason we need to understand the nature of our Mindhood because without seeing ourselves as a condition of mind we are not going to taste the real nature of our Divine Science. When Mrs Eddy says that “Science is an emanation of divine Mind, and is alone able to interpret God aright.”, we do not really experience the full impact of that statement if we are thinking out from a sense of selfhood. But from a sense of Mindhood it makes perfect sense.

Abigail

By Ken Cooper

1 Samuel 25

NABAL:

I am rich.

I have three thousand sheep, a thousand goats.

That sets me well apart from other people.

My money lets me buy and get myself out of any problems.

What I think and do is all that matters,

- and that includes anything concerning my wife, the beautiful Abigail.

She loves me, as is her due, and I deserve no less.

Abigail:

I love him for his good qualities.

And I love him because he is my husband.

Sometimes, nay, too often, he fulfils the attributes of his name.

But he needs my wisdom to counteract his foolishness.

I will be loyal to his goodness, the tenderness he occasionally shows.

But I shall have respect to my virtues

And seek to instil them in my man because I love him.

NABAL:

A band of ten young men have sought my presence.

As something to do, I deign see them, these servants of this David.

I have heard of him, but I shall nevertheless demean him in their eyes,

Make him out as nothing, a nobody, and them therefore as worthless knaves.

They seek to share my riches! Let them grovel with their empty request.

The custom of hospitality is for fools.

I shunt them away with my words.

One of my servants dares approach to speak on their behalf. I know his face but not his name. He is a slave, nothing more. I wave him away with a flick of my hand and snap my fingers for my wine cup to be filled.

The insult enrages David.

Four hundred men get themselves armed

Gath’ring their pace towards Nabal

For he and all his will be harmed.

Abigail:

One of our servants, Shammah, comes running to me, bows and begs my attention.

His words run through me like a sword. Oh Nabal! Nabal!

We are all in peril for our lives.

There is no time to lose.

I order a feast of supplies, done quickly, sent on before me.

There is no time or wisdom to tell Nabal. The servants leave. I follow.

An angry David leads his men

Their swords are drawn and blood-ready

But laden asses cross his path:

Abigail’s resolve holds steady.

Abigail:

Gifts from our best produce mellow his wrath.

I meet the proud David, falling at his feet, beseeching him.

I take upon me full responsibility for all that has made him angry,

Offering my life to spare the foolish life of Nabal.

I appeal to his reason, to his innate sense of justice and mercy.

I see in him what I would see in my own husband, despite my admission of his folly Nabal name.

An underlying strength of purpose born of love for both men flows out from my heart,

Gives me a power that seems divine and omnipresent.

It lends eloquence to my words, and a surety that he will respond truly.

Like melting mist his anger gone

Replaced as warmth of rising sun

He blesses me with generous word

And thanks me for a deed well done.

Abigail:

I return back to Nabal, quite oblivious of what has passed, and find him feasting to glut.

He is beyond reason, senses dulled to nothingness in the excess of self-gratification.

I will tell him when he is sober what has come to pass, for it is right that he knows and understands.

And in the morning, when the sun’s rays lifted the dark, I told him everything.

As I spoke the light of Truth shone steadfastly through my words and the error of his ways touched me no more.

His heart turned to stone in the cold realization of all he had done,

And for ten long days I nursed him as one would a newborn babe.

Ten days of utter dependence, enforced humility, his wealth irrelevant, my love all.

On the tenth day I wiped a tear from his eye, and he passed from my company.

I knelt once again before God and He comforted me

So Abigail was left alone.

Days followed, and the news soon spread:

It reached to David, now contrite,

That churlish Nabal he was dead.

Abigail:

I prayed for my departed husband, and I also prayed for myself.

God rewarded my prayer, for this David sought me as his wife, not in conquest but in love.

I found a richness in living that surpassed the empty richness of wealth,

In humility I was led to grandeur, and gave all I had.

So in love was tender blessing,

No more held by what was wrong

Both were blessed by love’s new caring

In deep respect, their marriage strong

So the evil that was deadly

Overcome by action fast.

She did quickly what was righteous.

Good did win. And good will last.

© Kenneth G Cooper 2011

Love is the only activity

By Anthony John Whitehouse CS

Occaisionally one is struck by a notion of such simplicity and import that one finds it difficult to realise that in one short phrase the kingdom of heaven unfolds itself .

In this one notion " Love is the ONLY activity " one finds exactly that combination of power and import that transforms mere consciousness from simply thought into the very activity of the Christ.

Mrs Eddy tells us that " All that really exists is the Divine Mind and its idea and in this mind the entire being is found harmonious and eternal" . The exact power of that statement eluded me until I understood that Love is the only activity because within the ambit of that truth lay the reallsation that God, the divine Mind HAD to be present as the operation of Love , was present as the operation of Love and there was nothing else was operating because only God, the Divine Mind alone was capable of operating.

The "aha" moment comes in all this when we realise that what appears NOT to be the operation of Love has to be the operation of Love when we realise that Love is the only thing that can operate. You could be standing at the foot of the cross at the time of crucifixion and might be excused for wondering how this event could possibly be the operation of Love.

Although it looked like the crucifixion what was really happening on the cross was Jesus demonstrating that death actually has no power over us. Seen simply at the crucifixion the event looks like an appallling miscarriage of justice. Seen through dictum "Love alone can operate" it is seen to be the singular most important event in human history. Love transforms the horrow into sublimity.

So if you are going through an experience which appears to evidence an encounter with pure evil, or which manifests no sense of love, harmony or heaven insist on the divine maxim that Love is the only activity and " you will entertain an angel unawares" as Mrs Eddy puts it. It is our ability to do this, to insist on God or love being present or active which makes us the Christ.

Jesus was the greatest exponent of this maxim whoever ever lived. Knowing that Love, God was ever actiive and the Sole activity allowed him to walk on water, feed the five thousand and raise the dead. It allowed Mrs Eddy to understand that a dry well did not have to be that way.

The great difficulty we face humanly in all this is that we just cannot understand how what looks like the appearance of evil could possibilly have any relationship to the divine. If we are struggling with unemployment , poverty and ill health how could these things possibilly have the taint of love about them ? Well , if they force us to abandon the idea that we are human beings , if they are the evidence of our own sloppy ideas that we are separated from God then surely they serve a purpose ? Surely we can say like the prodigal son " I really need to leave this place" knowing that the Love of God will aocomodate us in our right place.

The mere fact that we insist that Love is the only thing that can operate means the transforming power of that realisation must operate for our benefit even though we do not need to know how it will operate. Its like the time I found myself stuck at a train station in London last winter. My train to Paris had been cancelled and I had no where to go. There appeared to be no human solution but I knew that Divine Love had to be the only thing that could operate even though all the evidence was that it was apparently not operatng.

I was standing in front of customs section of the station. The station was organised like an airport because it was dedicated to international travel. In my need I reached out to apply the laws I knew to be true. I insisted that Love was the only thing that could operate. As I was insisting on this, the door to the customs department opened but there was no one around. Through that door I could see the platform to the trains. I just walked through to the plaftform area and shortly afterward was able to board a train. The ticket inspectors completely ignored me. I was even able to get a seat on an otherwise very crowded train. Miracle ? No.. it was the operation of divine law, the law that Love has to operate because it is the only law that can operate.

The only mistake we make in life is not understanding that Love is the only power than can and does operate.