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Wednesday, December 07, 2022

Theme: The Need to Watch

Readings from the Bible:

1) Hab. 2:1, 2

The Bible I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved. And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

2) Ps. 17:15 I

... I will behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.

3) Ps. 139:1, 15 (to 1st ,), 17, 18

O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. ... My substance was not hid from thee, ... How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

4) Gen. 31:36 Jacob, 37, 41, 43–46, 48–50, 54, 55

... Jacob was wroth, and chode with Laban: and Jacob answered and said to Laban, What is my trespass? what is my sin, that thou hast so hotly pursued after me? Whereas thou hast searched all my stuff, what hast thou found of all thy household stuff? set it here before my brethren and thy brethren, that they may judge betwixt us both. ... Thus have I been twenty years in thy house; I served thee fourteen years for thy two daughters, and six years for thy cattle: and thou hast changed my wages ten times. ... ... ¶ And Laban answered and said unto Jacob, These daughters are my daughters, and these children are my children, and these cattle are my cattle, and all that thou seest is mine: and what can I do this day unto these my daughters, or unto their children which they have born? Now therefore come thou, let us make a covenant, I and thou; and let it be for a witness between me and thee. And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And Jacob said unto his brethren, Gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap: and they did eat there upon the heap. ... And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed; And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another. If thou shalt afflict my daughters, or if thou shalt take other wives beside my daughters, no man is with us; see, God is witness betwixt me and thee. ... Then Jacob offered sacrifice upon the mount, and called his brethren to eat bread: and they did eat bread, and tarried all night in the mount. And early in the morning Laban rose up, and kissed his sons and his daughters, and blessed them: and Laban departed, and returned unto his place.

5) I Cor. 15:41

There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory.

6) I Thess. 5:5 (to 1st ,)

Ye are all the children of light, ...

7) Mark 13:33–35, 37

Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is. For the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch. Watch ye therefore: for ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning: ... And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

8) John 5:1–9 (to :)

After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches. In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: ...

9) Mark 14:27, 32, 34 tarry, 36–38

And Jesus saith unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. ... And they came to a place which was named Gethsemane: and he saith to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I shall pray. ... ... tarry ye here, and watch. ... And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt. And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

10) Luke 12:37 (to :)

Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: ...

Readings from Science and Health:

1) SH 47:31–1

and correlative passages from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy During his night of gloom and glory in the garden, Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possible material intelligence.

2) SH 48:2

His students slept. He said unto them: “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” Could they not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voiceless agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world? There was no response to that human yearning, and so Jesus turned forever away from earth to heaven, from sense to Soul.

3) SH 497:24

6. 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.

4) SH 190:21–29

The Hebrew bard, swayed by mortal thoughts, thus swept his lyre with saddening strains on human existence: As for man, his days are as grass: As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; And the place thereof shall know it no more. When hope rose higher in the human heart, he sang: As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness.

5) SH 458:14–15 (to 1st .), 17

Divinity is always ready. ... The two-edged sword of Truth must turn in every direction to guard “the tree of life.”

6) SH 234:9–12

We should become more familiar with good than with evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we bar our doors against the approach of thieves and murderers.

7) SH 144:3–13

If Mind is foremost and superior, let us rely upon Mind, which needs no cooperation from lower powers, even if these so-called powers are real. Naught is the squire, when the king is nigh; Withdraws the star, when dawns the sun's brave light. The various mortal beliefs formulated in human philosophy, physiology, hygiene, are mainly predicated of matter, and afford faint gleams of God, or Truth. The more material a belief, the more obstinately tenacious its error; the stronger are the manifestations of the corporeal senses, the weaker the indications of Soul.

8) SH 249:24–28, 31

Sleep and apathy are phases of the dream that life, substance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night-dream is sometimes nearer the fact of being than are the thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has less matter as its accompaniment. ... Man is the reflection of Soul. He is the direct opposite of material sensation, and there is but one Ego. We run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind, then mind to be in matter and matter to be a lawgiver, unintelligence to act like intelligence, and mortality to be the matrix of immortality.

9) SH 250:7

Spirit is the Ego which never dreams, but understands all things; which never errs, and is ever conscious; which never believes, but knows; which is never born and never dies. Spiritual man is the likeness of this Ego. Man is not God, but like a ray of light which comes from the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God.

10) SH 392:24–27, 32

Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. ... The issues of pain or pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forgetting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.

HYMNS: 368, 172, 124

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