Christ, Our Refuge

Readings for August 25, 2021

From The Bible

27 The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; ...
(Deuteronomy 33:27 (to ;))

18 He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and widow, and loveth the stranger, ...
(Deuteronomy 10:18 (to 2nd ,))

9 The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble.
10 ... for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.
(Psalms 9:9, 10 for)

4 ... Thus saith the LORD, ...
(Exodus 11:4 Thus (to 2nd ,))

21 ¶ Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him: ...
(Exodus 22:21 (to :))

34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; ...
(Leviticus 19:34 (to ;))

10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
(Malachi 2:10)

25 ¶ And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, ...
25 ... saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? ...
27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: ...
29 But he, ...
29 ... said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?
30 And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.
31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.
33 But a certain Samaritan, ...
33 ... came where he was: and when he saw him, ...
34 ... went to him, and bound up his wounds, ...
34 ... and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?
37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
(Luke 10:25 (to 3rd ,), 25 saying, 26 (to 1st ?), 27, 28 (to :), 29 (to 1st ,), 29–33 said (to 1st ,), 33 came (to 3rd ,), 34 went (to 2nd ,), 34 5th and, 36, 37)

1 These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, ...
11 ... Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: ...
(John 17:1 (to 3rd ,), 11 Holy, 20, 21 (to :))

3 ¶ And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, ...
3 ... what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, ...
31 ¶ When the Son of man shall come in his glory, ...
34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, ...
35 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: ...
35 ... I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? ...
38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? ...
40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
41 Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, ...
42 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: ...
43 I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: ...
44 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, ...
44 ... or a stranger, ...
44 ... and did not minister unto thee?
45 Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.
(Matthew 24:3 (to 4th ,), 3 what, 4 (to ,); 25:31 (to 1st ,), 34 (to 3rd ,), 35 (to 1st :), 35 3rd I, 37 (to 1st ?), 38 (to 1st ?), 40, 41 (to 3rd ,), 42 (to 1st :), 43 (to 1st :), 44 (to 4th ,), 44 2nd or (to 6th ,), 44 and, 45 )

14 ... Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.
(Ephesians 5:14 Awake)

9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; ...
17 Recompense to no man evil for evil. ...
20 Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: ...
21 Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
(Romans 12:9, 10 (to 1st ;), 17 (to 1st .), 20 (to :), 21)

1 Let brotherly love continue.
2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
(Hebrews 13:1, 2)

10 ... Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: ...
(Revelation 12:10 Now (to :))

Selections from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy

Angels are pure thoughts from God, Thought-angels
winged with Truth and Love, ...

15 By giving
earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us,
and we entertain "angels unawares."
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 298:28–29 (to ,); 299:15)

3 These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth
and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong
faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through
6 the understanding of God.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 567:3–6)

GOD. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing,
6 all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, ... ... Principle;
Mind; ... Truth; Love; ...
... intelligence.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 587:5–6 (to 3rd ,), 6–7 Principle (to 1st ;), 7 Truth (only, to 2nd ;), 8 intelligence)

3 ... As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word
of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 497:3 As)

"All
things work together for good to them that love God," is
6 the dictum of Scripture.

Step by Refuge and strength
step will those who trust Him find that "God is our refuge
12 and strength, a very present help in trouble."
Students are advised by the author to be charitable
and kind, ...
18 but let us also be careful always to "judge righteous judg-
ment," and never to condemn rashly.

27 Immortals,
or God's children in divine Science, are one harmonious
family; but mortals, or the "children of men" in material
30 sense, are discordant and ofttimes false brethren.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 444:4, 10–14 (to ,), 18–19 but, 27)

The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelli-
gence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood
18 of man at the very outset.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 541:16)

The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day
show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of
15 the age, struggling against the advancing Powerless promises
spiritual era.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 65:13–16)

If the soft palm, upturned to a lordly salary, ...
... turn the poor and the stranger from the Selfishness and loss
gate, they at the same time shut the door on
15 progress.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 142:11 (only, to 2nd ,), 13–15 turn)

1 Want of uniform justice is a crying evil caused by the
selfishness and inhumanity of man.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 64:1–2)

Erring power is a material belief, a blind miscalled force,
12 the offspring of will and not of wisdom, of the mortal mind
and not of the immortal. It is the headlong Human power a blind force
cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest's
15 breath. ... all that is selfish,
wicked, dishonest, and impure.

In Science, you can The one real power
have no power opposed to God, and the physi-
21 cal senses must give up their false testimony. Your in-
fluence for good depends upon the weight you throw into
the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you
24 the only power obtainable. Evil is not power.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 192:11–15, 15 all, 19–24 (to 2nd .))

24 Are material means
the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine
permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony,
27 with Truth and Love?
We should remember that Life is God, and that God
is omnipotent.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 394:24–29)

Mortals must find
refuge in Truth in order to escape the error of these latter
9 days.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 83:7–9)

1 "The prayer of faith shall save the sick," says the
Scripture. What is this healing prayer?

It is neither Science nor Truth which
acts through blind belief, nor is it the human under-
12 standing of the divine healing Principle as manifested
in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and con-
scientious protests of Truth, - of man's likeness to
15 God and of man's unity with Truth and Love.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 12:1–2 (to ?), 10)

27 We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by follow-
ing the example of our Master in the understanding of
divine metaphysics. Christianity is the basis of true heal-
30 ing. Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed
love, receives directly the divine power.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 192:27)

"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and,
when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father
1 which is in secret; ...

3 So spake Jesus. The closet typifies the sanctuary of
Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but
lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to Spiritual sanctuary
6 error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa.

In the quiet Effectual invocation
sanctuary of earnest longings, we must
18 deny sin and plead God's allness.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 14:31–1 (to ;); 15:3–6, 16–18)

The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge
6 from his foes, a place in which to solve the great
problem of being.

He met and mastered on the basis of Chris-
tian Science, the power of Mind over matter, ...
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 44:5–7, 10–11 (to 2nd ,))

The exterminator of error
is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and
15 that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind True sense of infinitude
- called devil or evil - is not Mind, is not
Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There
18 can be but one Mind, because there is but one God; ...

We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when
after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and
27 has all-power, we still believe there is another The sole governor
power, named evil.

The supposed existence of
6 more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry.

Divine Science explains the abstract statement that
12 there is one Mind by the following self-evident propo-
sition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the The divine standard of perfection
unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can
15 only seem to be real by giving reality to the
unreal. The children of God have but one Mind.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 469:13–18 The (to ;), 25–28; 470:5–6, 11–16 (to 2nd .))

30 Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-
called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian
Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently
1 promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore
in the community.

6 The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through
Science, by which man can escape from sin Liberation of mental powers
and mortality, blesses the whole human fam-
9 ily.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 102:30–2; 103:6–9)

The law of the divine Mind must
end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware
9 of man's inalienable rights and in subjection to hope-
less slavery, ...

Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to fore-
15 see the doom of all oppression.

Love and Truth make free, but evil and error
lead into captivity.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 227:7–10 (to ,), 14–15, 19)

15 Jesus
demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the
infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring Reason and Science
18 human sense to flee from its own convictions
and seek safety in divine Science.

30 Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick.
It should be said of his followers also, that they cast fear
and all evil out of themselves and others and heal the sick.
1 God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is
governed by God. Truth casts out error now Followers of Jesus
3 as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 494:15–19 Jesus, 30–3)

9 There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ
in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no
other reality - to have no other conscious- The one only way
12 ness of life - than good, God and His reflec-
tion, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure
of the senses.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 242:9)

When man is governed by God, the ever-present
Mind who understands all things, man knows that with
27 God all things are possible. The only way to this
living Truth, which heals the sick, is found in the Science
of divine Mind as taught and demonstrated by Christ
30 Jesus.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 180:25)

Revelation xii. 10-12. And I heard a loud voice saying
in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the
15 kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the
accuser of our brethren is cast down, ...

3 Every mortal at some period,
here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the
mortal belief in a power opposed to God.

He that touches the hem
12 of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality,
and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, - in a sweet
and certain sense that God is Love.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 568:13–16 (to ,); 569:3, 11–14)

30 With
1 one Father, even God, the whole family of man would
be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good,
3 the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth,
and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which
constitute divine Science.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 469:30–5)

18 "Now," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; be-
hold, now is the day of salvation," - meaning, not that
now men must prepare for a future-world salva- Present salvation
21 tion, or safety, but that now is the time in which
to experience that salvation in spirit and in life.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 39:18–22)

Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact
12 becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brother-
hood of man will be established. Having no other gods,
turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide
15 him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, hav-
ing that Mind which was also in Christ.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 467:11)

Hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal

Hymn. 256
O'er waiting harpstrings of the mind
There sweeps a strain,
Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind
The power of pain,

And wake a white-winged angel throng
Of thoughts, illumed
By faith, and breathed in raptured song,
With love perfumed.

Then His unveiled, sweet mercies show
Life's burdens light.
I kiss the cross, and wake to know
A world more bright.

And o'er earth's troubled, angry sea
I see Christ walk,
And come to me, and tenderly,
Divinely talk.

Thus Truth engrounds me on the rock,
Upon Life's shore,
'Gainst which the winds and waves can shock,
Oh, nevermore!

From tired joy and grief afar,
And nearer Thee,-
Father, where Thine own children are,
I love to be.

My prayer, some daily good to do
To Thine, for Thee;
An offering pure of Love, whereto
God leadeth me.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 256)

Hymn. 472
Father, You are very near us,
Well we know that You will hear us,
And will answer when we call:
May the prayer of faith now heal us,
May the vision true reveal us
One with You, and You our All-in-all.

Christ, the way of our salvation,
Lifts the veil of separation,
Shows our life in Spirit, free-
Shows the glory of creation,
God and man in true relation:
Children of the living God are we!

Father, this most wondrous union
We would prove in blessed communion:
Take the Truth, our bread from heaven,
Drink the wine of inspiration,
Rise in holy exaltation,
One in You, redeemed, restored, forgiven.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 472)

Hymn. 589
Through pure love, God has commanded
Healing light to shine on earth.
And in our hearts there beams the same love-
Let the love of Christ shine bright.

REFRAIN
Rise and shine, your light has come,
God the everlasting sun.
Christ has given us this light-
Radiate God's glory.

Jesus' grace revealed God's goodness,
Giving hope to all the world.
Love is the light that burns within us-
Let the life of Christ shine bright.

REFRAIN
God has made us in Love's image,
Perfect, Christlike, pure, and free.
We all reflect this strength and power-
Let the mind of Christ shine bright.

REFRAIN
We are one with God forever,
One with Love eternally-
A perfect bond that can't be broken-
Let the truth of Christ shine bright.

REFRAIN
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 589)