Unity (or Forming a More Perfect Union)
Wednesday Evening Readings for June 16, 2021
From The Bible
Isa. 45:5 (to 1st
¶ I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: …
Isa. 45:12 (to :), 13 (to
I have made the earth, and created man upon it: …
I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: …
Isa. 43:4 (to :), 6 bring, 7 (to 1st ,)
Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: …
… bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth; Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, …
Matt. 3:16, 17
And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Matt. 8:5–7, 13 3rd And
¶ And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him. …
… And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
John 9:1–3, 6, 7, 18 (to 3rd ,), 24, 30–33
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. …
When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing. …
But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, …
Then again called they the man that was blind, and said unto him, Give God the praise: we know that this man is a sinner. …
The man answered and said unto them, Why herein is a marvellous thing, that ye know not from whence he is, and yet he hath opened mine eyes. Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth. Since the world began was it not heard that any man opened the eyes of one that was born blind. If this man were not of God, he could do nothing.
John 10:23–25, 30, 37, 38
And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. …
I and my Father are one. …
If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
Matt. 13:34 (to
All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; …
Luke 11:17 Every
… Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.
Matt. 6:24
¶ No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
John 8:28 When
… When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.
John 15:1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 12
I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. …
I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. …
Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. …
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. …
This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
I John 3:1 (to :), 23, 24 (to 1st .)
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: …
And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. …
Eph. 4:4 (to 2nd ,), 6, 13
There is one body, and one Spirit, …
One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. …
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Isa. 2:2 (to house), 2 3rd shall, 4 (to 1st ,), 4 3rd and
And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house … shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it. …
And he shall judge among the nations, … and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
Ps. 46:9
He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.
I John 4:11
Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
Ps. 133:1
Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
SH 502:22–27
Genesis i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning is employed to signify the only, — that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe.
Selections from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
SH 140:28–31
In the beginning God created man in His, God’s, image; but mortals would procreate man, and make God in their own human image.
SH 306:13–18
If Life or Soul and its representative, man, unite for a period and then are separated as by a law of divorce to be brought together again at some uncertain future time and in a manner unknown, — and this is the general religious opinion of mankind, — we are left without a rational proof of immortality.
SH 444:27
Immortals, or God’s children in divine Science, are one harmonious family; but mortals, or the “children of men” in material sense, are discordant and ofttimes false brethren.
SH 477:26 (only), 29
Man is the expression of Soul. … Separated from man, who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man, divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is, there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with God.
SH 282:3–18, 20
The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight line. The circle represents the infinite without beginning or end; the straight line represents the finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in a self-made and temporary material existence. Eternal Mind and temporary material existence never unite in figure or in fact.
A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly, matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter. Truth has no home in error, and error has no foothold in Truth. … At no point can these opposites mingle or unite. Even though they seem to touch, one is still a curve and the other a straight line.
SH 356:9
Jesus reasoned on this subject practically, and controlled sickness, sin, and death on the basis of his spirituality. Understanding the nothingness of material things, he spoke of flesh and Spirit as the two opposites, — as error and Truth, not contributing in any way to each other’s happiness and existence. Jesus knew, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.”
SH 355:32–3
Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in support of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so antagonistic that the material thought must become spiritualized before the spiritual fact is attained.
SH 14:5–6
We cannot “serve two masters.”
SH 118:26
The definitions of material law, as given by natural science, represent a kingdom necessarily divided against itself, because these definitions portray law as physical, not spiritual. Therefore they contradict the divine decrees and violate the law of Love, in which nature and God are one and the natural order of heaven comes down to earth.
SH 270:7–10 Only
Only by understanding that there is but one power, — not two powers, matter and Mind, — are scientific and logical conclusions reached.
SH 269:5
Jesus’ demonstrations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothingness, of evil.
SH 167:17
To have one God and avail yourself of the power of Spirit, you must love God supremely.
SH 315:3–9 (to ;), 16–18 (to
That saying of our Master, “I and my Father are one,” separated him from the scholastic theology of the rabbis. His better understanding of God was a rebuke to them. He knew of but one Mind and laid no claim to any other. He knew that the Ego was Mind instead of body and that matter, sin, and evil were not Mind; …
… The likeness of God we lose sight of through sin, which beclouds the spiritual sense of Truth; …
SH 12:10
It is neither Science nor Truth which acts through blind belief, nor is it the human understanding of the divine healing Principle as manifested in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and conscientious protests of Truth, — of man’s likeness to God and of man’s unity with Truth and Love.
SH 361:16–18
As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being.
SH 250:12 like
… like a ray of light which comes from the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God.
SH 18:1–4 (to ,); 19:6
ATONEMENT is the exemplification of man’s unity with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated man’s oneness with the Father, …
… Jesus aided in reconciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, the divine Principle of Jesus’ teachings, and this truer sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, sin, and death by the law of Spirit, — the law of divine Love.
SH 333:26–30
The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God. Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus: “Before Abraham was, I am;” “I and my Father are one;” “My Father is greater than I.”
SH 469:30–5
With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science.
SH 571:19
The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.
SH 57:32
To happify existence by constant intercourse with those adapted to elevate it, should be the motive of society. Unity of spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy’s drooping wings trail in dust.
SH 202:3
The scientific unity which exists between God and man must be wrought out in life-practice, and God’s will must be universally done.
SH 276:4–7 (to 3rd ,)
When the divine precepts
are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship, in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, …
SH 467:9–13
It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established.
SH 340:23–25 (to
One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, “Love thy neighbor as thyself;” …
Hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn. 196
Now is the time approaching, / By prophets long foretold, / When all shall dwell together, / One Shepherd and one fold. / Now Jew and Gentile, meeting / From many a distant shore, / Around one altar kneeling, / One common Lord adore.
Let all that now divides us / Remove and pass away, / Like shadows of the morning / Before the blaze of day. / Let all that now unites us / More sweet and lasting prove, / A closer bond of union, / In a blest land of love.
Words: Jane Borthwick
Music: James W. Elliott
Hymn. 524
REFRAIN / Like a river that runs to the ocean, / Like a ray reaching out from the sun, / Like a branch and the tree, a drop and the sea, / I and my Father are one.
And may each of us claim it as truly / As Jesus, who came as God’s son, / And may each of us know in the depths of our soul, / I and my Father are one.
One in beauty, one in truth, / One in the asking, one in the proof, / One in time and one in space, / One in the goodness that flows from God’s grace. / / REFRAIN / Though our fears may estrange and divide us, / May we seek to dissolve them through love. / We are sister and brother, each bound to the other, / One with our Father above.
One in purpose, one in power, / One in the Spirit, blessing each hour, / One in kindness, one in peace, / One in the Mind that makes all trouble cease. / / REFRAIN
Words: Mindy Jostyn, alt.
Music: Mindy Jostyn; arr. CSPS
Hymn. 30
Brood o’er us with Thy shelt’ring wing, / ‘Neath which our spirits blend / Like brother birds, that soar and sing, / And on the same branch bend. / The arrow that doth wound the dove / Darts not from those who watch and love.
If thou the bending reed wouldst break / By thought or word unkind, / Pray that his spirit you partake, / Who loved and healed mankind: / Seek holy thoughts and heavenly strain, / That make men one in love remain.
Learn, too, that wisdom’s rod is given / For faith to kiss, and know; / That greetings glorious from high heaven, / Whence joys supernal flow, / Come from that Love, divinely near, / Which chastens pride and earth-born fear,
Through God, who gave that word of might / Which swelled creation’s lay: / “Let there be light, and there was light.” / What chased the clouds away? / ‘Twas Love whose finger traced aloud / A bow of promise on the cloud.
Thou to whose power our hope we give, / Free us from human strife. / Fed by Thy love divine we live, / For Love alone is Life; / And life most sweet, as heart to heart / Speaks kindly when we meet and part.
Words: Mary Baker Eddy
Music: Walter E. Young
