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The First Commandment
CHRIST JESUS, the greatest ethical teacher of all time, in answer to the question, "Which is the great commandment in the law?" said: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment." In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 340) Mrs. Eddy has said: "The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the triunity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal."
Only careful, honest, and grateful study can reveal to us something of the scope, something of the sustaining, controlling, and unerring guiding power of this wonderful commandment; and it may be some time before even the first faint dawnings of what it will ultimately mean to him come to the student who is beginning the study of the truth of God as revealed in Christian Science. As quoted above, Mrs. Eddy has said that this is her favorite commandment: and who can wonder; for it is the very foundation of Christian Science. It is like unto the great, strong roots of the mighty forest tree, from which trunk, branches, leaves, blossoms, all spring and flourish.
Mrs. Eddy's words of explanation are a great help. She points out that God is good. Just pause a moment and consider what a light this sheds on the work of God. Nothing is too small, nothing too great for His kind care. One can trace the working of divine Principle, God, from the first impulse of the infant offering its cake to mother or nurse, to the supreme sacrifice of him who, in belief, yields his earthly all for cause or friend. When one vows to love good first, one surrenders self-interest; and as God sends His rain alike on the evil and on the good, we also, working not for human gratitude, have, in consequence, no grievance or cause of complaint or reason to feel unhappy, if we do not receive any expression of gratitude for service rendered. Our purpose is to keep our solemn vow to God, good; for "him only" will we serve.
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January 19, 1924 issue
View Issue-
Sanctuary
KATE E. ANDREAE
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Organization
MARTIN F. JACKSON
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Poise
ALGERNON HERVEY BATHURST
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The First Commandment
LILIAN ALICE GREENING
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The Trees of the Garden
CHRISTINE BEALS
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Rejoice Evermore
GEORGIA CLAAR
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Love
VERA E. ADAMS
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My attention has been drawn to your editorial headed...
Clifford P. Smith, Committee on Publication for The Mother Church,
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To think that the future life is of less concern to those...
Theodore Burkhart, Committee on Publication for the State of Oregon,
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Christian Scientists believe in the divinity of Christ, for...
Hugh Stuart Campbell, Committee on Publication for the State of Illinois,
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An article in a recent issue of the Times describing a...
Douglas L. Edmonds, Committee on Publication for Southern California,
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An honest reading of the Christian Science textbook,...
Willard Joseph Welch, Committee on Publication for Iowa,
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The five physical senses, or the carnal mind, cognize...
Charles W. J. Tennant, District Manager of Committees on Publication for Great Britain and Ireland,
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There is nothing in Christian Science teaching and practice...
W. Stuart Booth, Committee on Publication for the State of Colorado,
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Letters from the Field
with contributions from M. Fannie Whitney, James W. Lee, Laura A. Griffith
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Affirmation versus Denial
Albert F. Gilmore
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"All is Mind"
Duncan Sinclair
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A Sure Reward
Ella W. Hoag
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The Lectures
with contributions from Michael Oelschlaeger, Mary Elizabeth Carey, Gustav Ihlefeld, Henry Francis Ross Greatwood, S. Britton R. Foster, Arthur Charles Williams, Minnie H. Mundt
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In the early part of 1918 I was rejected by the army authorities...
Thomas Lancaster
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Early in my experience in Christian Science, while suffering...
Sarah A. Hughes
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I wish to express my gratitude for Christian Science and...
Lucille F. Ensign with contributions from Walter C. Ensign
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About two years ago while I was camping, the container...
Anna Swenson with contributions from Carl G. Swenson
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My first physical healing in Christian Science was of...
Mary Adah Hyde
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Ever since September 1, 1923, when the disaster of earthquake...
Anna A. Mallory
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In the six years I have been studying Christian Science...
Madie G. Allmon
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I have had many beautiful healings in Christian Science,...
Isabelle M. H. Kieserling
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Love's Daily Miracle
KATHERINE ENGLISH
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Signs of the Times
with contributions from L. E. Tranter, M. A. Matthews, J. A. Stevenson, Frederick Vining Fisher, Royal S. Copeland, E. B. Chappell, L. M. Zimmerman