Mercy & Justice, over all

June 12th, 2024

From The Bible

Isa. 42:1 (to :), 3

Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: ...
A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth. 

Matt. 9:35 (to 1st ,), 35 healing

And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, ... healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 

Luke 13:10–14 (to 2nd ,), 15 (to 2nd ,), 16 ought

And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. ¶ And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, ...
The Lord then answered him, and said, ...
... ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? 

Matt. 9:10–13

¶ And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners? But when Jesus heard that,he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 

Matt. 5:2, 7, 43–45

And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, ...
Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. ...
... ¶ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. 

Mark 15:25

And it was the third hour, and they crucified him. 

Luke 23:34 (to 1st .)

¶ Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. ...

Mic. 6:8

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

SH 465:9 God (only, to is), 9–10 infinite (to 1st ,), 10 Life, 14

... God is ... infinite Mind, ... Life, Truth, Love. ...
... The attributes of God are justice, mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on. 

SH 340:23 (only, to 2nd ,), 23–24 constitutes (to 1st ;), 28 equalizes (only, to ;), 28 and

One infinite God, good, ... constitutes the brotherhood of man; ... equalizes the sexes; ... and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed. 

SH 6:17 (only)

“God is Love.” 

SH 35:30 (only); 36:7

The design of Love is to reform the sinner. ... Escape from punishment is not in accordance with God’s government, since justice is the handmaid of mercy. 

SH 6:18–25 (to 1st ,)

To suppose that God forgives or punishes sin according as His mercy is sought or unsought, is to misunderstand Love and to make prayer the safety-valve for wrong-doing. 
Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before he cast it out. Of a sick woman he said that Satan had bound her, ...

SH 22:30–31

Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy cancels the debt only when justice approves. 

SH 36:19–21, 30–31

A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the unlimited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as well as of mercy. ...
Religious history repeats itself in the suffering of the just for the unjust. 

SH 40:17–19

Was it just for Jesus to suffer? No; but it was inevitable, for not otherwise could he show us the way and the power of Truth. 

SH 20:16–20 (to ,)

“Despised and rejected of men,” returning blessing for cursing, he taught mortals the opposite of themselves, even the nature of God; and when error felt the power of Truth, the scourge and the cross awaited the great Teacher. Yet he swerved not, ...

SH 51:6 (only)

Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies. 

SH 20:20 (only, to ,)

Yet he swerved not, ...

SH 51:28 His

His spirituality separated him from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the dead. 

SH 391:17–18

Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice declares the absence of law. 

SH 63:12–13, 15–20 2nd it

Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the rights of the two sexes. ... it is a marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than does either Christian Science or civilization. 
Our laws are not impartial, to say the least, in their discrimination as to the person, property, and parental claims of the two sexes. 

SH 64:1–2

Want of uniform justice is a crying evil caused by the selfishness and inhumanity of man. 

SH 29:1–2

Christians must take up arms against error at home and abroad. 

SH 225:23–25

Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery is a more difficult task. 

SH 226:22; 227:3–8 (to ,)

I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servitude to an unreal master in the belief that the body governed them, rather than Mind. ...
I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error, and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mortals are taught their right to freedom, so the claims of the enslaving senses must be denied and superseded. The law of the divine Mind must end human bondage, ...

SH 430:17–19, 25 Judge; 432:16–17 (to 1st ,), 18 and (only, to ,); 433:6–7, 24

Suppose a mental case to be on trial, as cases are tried in court. A man is charged with having committed liver-complaint. ... Judge Medicine is on the bench. ...
The Judge asks if by doing good to his neighbor, it is possible for man to become diseased, ... and merit punishment, ...
... His conclusion is, that laws of nature render disease homicidal. ...
... For this crime Mortal Man is sentenced to be tortured until he is dead. “May God have mercy on your soul,” is the Judge’s solemn peroration. 

SH 434:19 (only, to Science), 20–21 opens (to :), 30–32 the; 435:2–4, 7

Then Christian Science ... opens the argument for the defence: ...
... the lower court has sentenced Mortal Man to die, but God made Man immortal and amenable to Spirit only. ... Who or what has sinned? Has the body or has Mortal Mind committed a criminal deed? ... The body committed no offence. Mortal Man, in obedience to higher law, helped his fellow-man, an act which should result in good to himself as well as to others. 

SH 440:30–34 (to ,); 441:2 explained, 8–9 (to :), 15–17; 442:1–3 Man (to 1st .), 5–6 (to ,), 7–8 Not

I appeal to the just and equitable decisions of divine Spirit to restore to Mortal Man the rights of which he has been deprived. 
Here the counsel for the defence closed, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, ... explained from his statute-book, the Bible, that any so-called law, which undertakes to punish aught but sin, is null and void. 
... He concluded his charge thus: ...
... Our law refuses to recognize Man as sick or dying, but holds him to be forever in the image and likeness of his Maker. ...
... Man is adjudged innocent of transgressing physical laws, because there are no such laws. ...
The Jury of Spiritual Senses agreed at once upon a verdict, ... Not guilty. Then the prisoner rose up regenerated, strong, free. 

SH 106:6–9

Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration of Independence. God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. 

SH 390:13–16 (to ,), 29–2

Let your higher sense of justice destroy the false process of mortal opinions which you name law, ...
... Meet the incipient stages of disease with as powerful mental opposition as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage of an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit. 

SH 542:19–21

Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God’s own way, and let human justice pattern the divine. 

SH 497:24 And

... And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

Hymn. 460

Come, O fount of every blessing, / Tune our hearts to sing Your grace. / Streams of mercy never ceasing, / Call for songs of deepest praise. / While the truth of life’s perfection / Fills our hearts with joy and love, / Teach us ever to be faithful, / May we still Your goodness prove. 

Come, O fount of every vision, / Lift our eyes to what will come. / See the lion and the young lamb / Dwell together in Your home. / Hear the cries of war fall silent, / Feel our love glow like the sun. / When we all serve one another, / Then our heaven is begun. 

Come, O fount of inspiration, / Turn our lives to higher ways. / Lift our gloom and desperation, / Show the promise of this day. / Help us bind ourselves in union, / Help our hands tell of our love. / With Your grace, O fount of justice, / Earth be fair as heaven above. 

Words: verse 1 Robert Robinson, adapt., alt.; verses 2, 3 Eugene B. Navias, alt.

Music: American melody, Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, 1813

Hymn. 500

I awake each morn to a brand-new day, / Singing Hallelujah! as I go on my way, / For my heart is fixed on this one guarantee: / The Love that is All holds me tenderly. 

REFRAIN / Tender mercies, oh tender mercies, / Tender mercies are holding me. / Tender mercies, oh tender mercies, / Tender mercies are holding me. 

I can walk with Love through the valley of fear, / Singing Hallelujah! O, my Savior is here! / For my empty longing no hope can fulfill, / But Love meets all need and bids want be still. / / REFRAIN / So no matter the need and no matter the threat, / I’m secure in Your love, no fear, no regret. / Can there be a sweeter comfort, a grace more divine, / Than the thought that Your love is here and is mine? / / REFRAIN 

Words: Susan Booth Mack Snipes

Music: Susan Booth Mack Snipes

Hymn. 340

There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, / Like the wideness of the sea; / There’s a kindness in His justice, / Which is more than liberty. 

For the love of God is broader / Than is seen by human mind, / And the heart of the Eternal / Is most wonderfully kind. 

If our love were but more simple, / We should take Him at His word; / And our lives would be all sunshine / In the sweetness of our Lord. 

Words: Frederick W. Faber*

Music: Edmund S. Carter