Morning Light Foundation, Inc. Annual Meeting

April 10, 2:00 p.m.

Cheryl F. Peters CS

SAFE IN THE “PANOPLY OF LOVE”

As you heard, our talk is entitled, “Safe in the Panoply of Love.” I’d like for you to experience with me today the awe-inspiring nature of God’s Love for all that expresses Him and how an understanding of divine Love protects us and keeps us safe and sound in the “the secret place of the most High.” [Ps 91:1]

I once had a cat that was expecting kittens. My mother helped me to put together a comfortable house for the cat to live in while she had her kittens. Actually it was just a box with a blanket and some towels. I placed it in the basement out in the open so the cat would surely be able to find it. One night the kittens were born apparently in the box but when I went down the next morning to see if they had arrived, they were all gone including the mother cat. I searched all over and found them hidden away in a dark corner behind the furnace. The mama cat knew instinctively that they would be safe there. Love had given her the intelligence to seek out a well protected place of safety for her young.

Isn’t it nice to know that Love has provided a safe place for us where restoration and healing can take place? It is called Morning Light. Its name signifies Truth, revelation, and progress. It is a safe haven nestled on a beautiful wooded lot. Of course, the location is peaceful and charming but the real location is in Mind and is established in the substance of spiritual, loving qualities. The realm of spiritual consciousness should be the constant dwelling place of everyone which includes protection and health.

Now interestingly enough the root word for health, safety and saved come from the Latin salvus. Noah Webster says to be safe is to be free from danger, free from disease, free from hurt, injury, or damage. So it stands to reason that when we feel safe, that is when we feel embraced in the arms of God’s love, we experience uninterrupted health and we are saved from the entrapments of mortal belief Research shows that infants who are touched often have happier healthier lives. The arms of God’s love symbolize the power of the Almighty. This power is as gentle as a sunrise and as powerful as the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly. “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.” [91:4]

How does one gain this assurance of safety, health, and salvation in his own life? Mary Baker Eddy puts it this way, “Immortal man, in God’s likeness, is safe in divine Science. Mortal man is saved on this divine Principle, if he will only avail himself of the efficacy of Truth, and recognize his Saviour.” [Misc p 89-90] “...if he will only avail himself of the efficacy of Truth, and recognize his Saviour.” Now you know the Christ, your only Saviour from all sickness, sin, and death. Jesus always saw before him God’s own likeness right where the material sense testimony of a mortal seemed to be. “Immortal man, in God’s likeness” defines our spirituality. Man’s genuine spirituality is the bases for all thought and action. Safety and health are in proportion to our spirituality because they are related states of thought. The more spiritually minded we are, the safer and healthier we are even in our earthly experience. In our understanding of things spiritual, we become masters of things physical. In order to benefit from the divine law of Love and harmony, we have to be spiritually-minded enough to discern it and to benefit from its authority. Moses was spiritually minded enough to see the omnipotence of spiritual force and the waters divided for the Israelites to walk over the Red Sea on dry ground. The Egyptians who were pursuing them were not spiritually minded enough to understand this law or spiritual force so they were consumed when the waters rolled back. The indisputable law of divine Love cements our indestructible relationship to God and this brings into view man’s spirituality as the likeness of Spirit “...safe in divine Science.”

I spoke with a former guest of Morning Light about her recent stay at the Lodge and she couldn’t say enough about the warmth, the love, the spiritual support of the nurses and staff. Although she was not completely healed of the condition that brought her there, she was able to progress to the point of returning home quickly and assuming her normal duties. The affections expressed certainly were conducive to promote progress and commence healing. The nurses helped to establish an atmosphere of hope, confidence, and encouragement, an atmosphere of Love, where the patient felt safe. Nurses are representatives of God’s love to humanity -- angel thoughts of strength, courage, tenderness, and compassion. Guests of Care Facilities and practitioners work together metaphysically by spiritual means alone, so they need that fearless, clear mental support of those around them. The practitioner is not trying to change bad mortal thought into good mortal thought anymore than he is trying to change bad matter into good matter. Knowing that man is immortal and spiritual, the practitioner sees the whole material existence as a dream having no bases in the Science of being. The patient awakens from the dream only to realize the false testimony of the material senses had nothing to do with the scientific fact that God is the center and circumference of all real being. Physical healing takes place when realization of the truth about man’s real existence is unfolded to the awakened consciousness. Healing is divinely natural and leads us to the threshold of the greater purpose of Christian Science, that is to overcome sin through spiritual regeneration and reformation of character. “For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.” [Ps 91:11]

When we practice the Principle of Christian healing, what is it that would try to penetrate our defenses and break through the panoply of Love, infiltrate or turn topsy-turvy the very presence and power of Love? Fear claims to be such a power. No matter how alarming the condition or symptoms may seem to be we can trust infinite Love to keep us safe in our trials. John says that “...perfect love casteth out fear:” [I John 4] If God is All then His perfect Love is omnipotent. God holds every spiritual idea, the manifestation of Mind, in His perfect Love. There is no element of materiality in perfect Love and this truth removes any fear concerning our well-being. When it comes right down to it, fear is not a power and perfect Love casts out the belief of fear causing it to vanish into nothingness. Fear is no more real than sickness or sin to the thought enlightened by Truth and Love. We must let go of material sense and accept the demands of Science.

Reluctance to let go of hurtful memories of the past, dread or apathy in the present, and anxiety about the future will impede our progress. Willingness to learn new things is an admirable quality of little children. Eager to learn more about spiritual things and to be more childlike in our expectancy of good forces us to let go of these old beliefs. Childlike thought is innocent because it has not yet been falsely educated in worldly ways which would cause a fearful reaction. Childlike thought epitomizes receptivity accepting everything you tell him as the way it really is. The child even trusts the fabrication parents perpetuate about the existence of Santa Claus until he finds out that it is a lie. Error should seem as ridiculous and unreal to us as the lie is about the existence of Santa Claus. We should learn something from the example of these little children since the Gospels tell us they will assuredly enter into the kingdom of heaven. We find safety through the humble obedience to God’s commands resulting in health and holiness. Holding thought firmly to the heavenly or divine idea of what the material senses behold, brings us into perfect agreement with Truth, the absolute state of reality. “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.”

[Ps 91:10]

We read in Miscellaneous Writings, “...divine Love holds its substance safe in the certainty of immortality,.” [My. p 295] In the early editions of Science and Health, substance was capitalized indicating a name for God. Can substance that is in matter be “safe in the certainty of immortality?” How can that which doesn’t even exist find safety anywhere? It is our true substance which is uniquely spiritual and immortal that is eternally safe. The essence of every idea in Mind is imperishable. Spirit is the laboratory where the substance of ideas and laws governing these ideas are discovered, tested, and proved infallible. Life, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, is substance but this substance is not matter. God maintains “all that was made” in harmony, completeness, and perfect working order. God created everything good but mortal man’s sense of it was evil. Oh, if Eve had only rejected the lying serpent’s temptation to eat the forbidden fruit of fear, doubt, blame, materiality, uncertainty, then error would be seen as mythological in contrast to reality. The real substance of Mind and its ideas is Spirit and the embodiment of ideas is our spiritual identity secure in immortality. Substance that is held in Mind is safe from accident, corruption, decay, deterioration, sickness and disease. This substance that is good reflects the light of Life. Evil being contrary to good is darkness and darkness can’t reflect anything. God’s reflection is expressed in man’s individuality and has inestimable worth.

How do we know the spiritual identity of man has worth? Because the first chapter of Genesis tells us that God created man very, very good and righteous. In many languages good and God mean the same thing. One dictionary defines good as; “that which contributes to diminish or remove pain, or to increase happiness or prosperity, that which is opposed to evil or misery.” [American Dictionary Of The English Language] Only that which is good is worthy of perpetuity. We declare through the science of music that notes have tone, in the science of mathematics that numbers have value, and in the Science of Christianity that man as the image and likeness of God has worth. With respect to man, good indicates excellence of workmanship, excellence of condition. Isn’t good man’s normal state of being? Wouldn’t that which is not good be abnormal? God’s manifestation cannot be separated from worth if that worth is the goodness and excellence of the Christ. Remember in Revelation it was the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Lamb that had been slain, that was found worthy to open the book by removing the seven seals revealing the obscure message of the Scriptures for all to prove. If we bear witness to those Scriptural truths taught and exemplified by Jesus, and express them daily in our Christly character, we will be moral, good, honest, virtuous, incorruptible, and right-minded. Then we too will be found worthy to demonstrate immortality as we understand the spiritual nature of the Christ which is man’s real selfhood. All things worthy of immortality must have perfection and harmony to be lasting and eternal. All things unworthy, that is imperfect and discordant, fall away in proportion to our apprehension of the scientific fact that man’s true character and his purity are from above not from beneath. Animal magnetism tries to enter at the weakest point of ones character where there is little resistance. Armored with the “panoply of Love” [S&H p 571] thought is fortified to detect and deter the claims of animal magnetism allowing no point of entry.

What else do we need to know about this substance that is safe “in the certainty of immortality?” There is a belief that there is more than one substance – one substance that lives and another that makes a living. The divine Mind is the only substance that lives and also the substance that makes the living. Can this substance wear out or be confined to measurements? This substance expressed in ideas is inexhaustible and has no boundaries. Is there a need for this spiritual substance? If God, who is Life itself, expresses Himself in life, He had to create a purpose, place, and opportunity for this life to have kinetic activity. Everyone needs unimpeded right activity. Anyone, or any organization, can get all the supply it needs by taking the ideas God gives them and put them into action. Ideas conceived in Mind are observed outwardly as the substance of spiritual qualities. Our real need is not to have more matter but it is to understand more completely God’s love and care for all that He created and our relationship to the Creator. Our daily bread is the grace that meets every human need. The need for more supply is met through God’s law. The stability of the universe lies in the scientific fact that every idea must be in perfect agreement with God’s law of harmony and order. It’s a law. Every legitimate demand is supplied by God and that which is supplied by God must have a demand for it. It’s a law. This is practicing the Principle and rules we have been taught in Christian Science.

The saying that “practice makes perfect” might be interpreted this way, “practice proves that which is already perfect.” If we do not practice what we know to be true, we have no proof that it is the truth. Let me tell you one of Aesop’s fables.

A Miser sold all that he had and bought a lump of gold, which he buried in a hole in the ground by the side of an old wall and went to look at it daily. One of his workman observed his frequent visits to the spot and decided to watch his movements. He soon discovered the secret of the hidden treasure, and digging down, came to the lump of gold, and stole it. The Miser, on his next visit, found the hole empty and began to tear his hair and to make loud lamentations. A neighbor, seeing him overcome with grief and learning the cause, said, “Pray do not grieve so; but go and take a stone, and place it in the hole and fancy that the gold is still lying there. It will do you quite the same service; for when the gold was there, you had it not, as you did not make the slightest use of it. . .”

The moral of the story is that the true value of money is not in its possession but in its use. Let’s say the gold that the Miser buried in a hole in the ground is Christian Science. If we allow our understanding of Christian Science to become buried in the routine of every day living and we go to look at it once in a while by just reading our lesson or going to church on Sunday, then it might just as well be a nice theory or it could be any religious belief. I think the moral of the story and its meaning is this, “the true value of Christian Science is not in its possession but in its practice.” Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health, “The question, What is Truth, is answered by demonstration, – by healing both disease and sin; and this demonstration shows that Christian healing confers the most health and makes the best men.” [S&H p viii] We must practice what we do know of Christian healing on a daily basis to make consciousness ready to receive more.

Are we really safe? Can we expect health right here and now? Do we have to wait for some future event to take place before we can be saved from mortality? We are forever safe in the panoply of Love because we can never be excluded from Love’s infinite expression of itself. This panoply or armor of protection is seen as a preventative as well as a curative art in Christian Science. When ignorance and fear are replaced with understanding and Love, we discern our original spirituality as God’s own likeness and mortal man is redeemed on this divine Principle. This is putting off the old concept for the new concept. We practice Christian healing on the bases that all substance is spiritual and immortal. Matter has neither life, intelligence, nor substance. Healing is permanent when the demonstration is made on the realization that Mind, God being All matter is nothing. Concert musicians are not born, they develop through practice - so too are Christian Scientists. We are not born into it but we do become a Christian Scientist through study and practice. You wouldn’t ask your piano teacher to practice your recital piece for you, would you? No one else can practice for you. It is up to each and every one of us to know and practice the Truth.

Immortal man, one with God, dwells forever safe and sound within the panoply of infinite Love. “I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. [Ps 91:2]

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