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Being "present with the Lord"
In an Epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul makes a statement which is of great significance to the student of Christian Science. It reads: "We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." II Cor. 5:8;
Since, as Christian Science teaches, we are the spiritual children of God, we are in reality always "present with the Lord." There is nowhere else for us to be, for Spirit is omnipresent. What does this fact mean to us in terms of practical Christianity? In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes: "To be 'present with the Lord' is to have, not mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demonstration and understanding of Life as revealed in Christian Science. To be 'with the Lord' is to be in obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed by divine Love,—by Spirit, not by matter." Science and Health, p. 14;
Humanly speaking, we do not always feel that we are "present with the Lord," nor do we always give the impression that we are. On the contrary we often seem to be present with a finite and material sense of being, looking for small and personal pleasures in matter, for satisfaction in possessions and position, and trying to be competitively at least as good as our neighbor. Of this mean sense of soul, which is not our true sense of self at all, we must at some time rid ourselves. It is a false sense, which, if not denied, seems to shut us out from a great deal of good.
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December 16, 1967 issue
View Issue-
What Is Work?
STELLA DENISE COUSINS
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Memorizing the Nativity of Jesus
MARGARET G. S. TIDEY
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Being "present with the Lord"
HERBERT F. BIRTWISTLE
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THE COMING OF THE CHRIST
Iolani Ingalls
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The Law of Love Brings Order
DIANE L. DAVIS
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Tim Makes the Team
MARTHA SWANSON BRUCK
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Demonstrating the Christ
JOHN LEE
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HIGHER ATTAINMENT
Gerald Stanwell
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Theology and Its Proof
Helen Wood Bauman
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Indestructible Identity
William Milford Correll
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An almost instantaneous healing of grief at the passing of a...
Grace Horn Reddy
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Although I was reared in Christian Science, it was not until I...
Dean Tyler Jenks with contributions from Ruth Elizabeth Miller Jenks
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As a member of the third generation in our family to have had...
Lucy M. Stevens with contributions from Ward S. Stevens, Irene L. Harris, Jack H. Harris
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Signs of the Times
Louis Cassels