Subject — God the Preserver of Man

4.     I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

6.     This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

7.     The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

8.     O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

9.     O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him.

15.     The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry.

15.     And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.

1. Proverbs 28 : 20 (to :)

20     A faithful man shall abound with blessings:

2. Hebrews 11 : 1-3, 6, 8-10

1     Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

2     For by it the elders obtained a good report.

3     Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

6     But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

8     By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

9     By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

10     For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

3. Genesis 12 : 1-5, 7

1     Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2     And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

3     And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

4     So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

5     And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother’s son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came.

7     And the Lord appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto him.

4. Genesis 17 : 1-7

1     And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

2     And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

3     And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,

4     As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

5     Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

6     And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.

7     And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

5. Psalm 24 : 3-5

3     Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

4     He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

5     He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

6. Matthew 8 : 5-10, 13

5     And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

6     And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

7     And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

8     The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

9     For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

10     When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

13     And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

7. Matthew 17 : 20 (verily)

20     …verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

8. Matthew 21 : 22

22     And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.

9. Hebrews 11 : 32-35 (to 1st :)

32     And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:

33     Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

34     Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

35     Women received their dead raised to life again:

10. Hebrews 12 : 12, 13

12     Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

13     And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.

1. 387 : 27-32

The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering.

2. 319 : 7-9 (to ;)

Having faith in the divine Principle of health and spiritually understanding God, sustains man under all circumstances;

3. 12 : 1-18

"The prayer of faith shall save the sick," says the Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere request that God will heal the sick has no power to gain more of the divine presence than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of such prayer for the sick is on the human mind, making it act more powerfully on the body through a blind faith in God. This, however, is one belief casting out another, — a belief in the unknown casting out a belief in sickness. 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 con- scientious protests of Truth, — of man's likeness to God and of man's unity with Truth and Love.

Prayer to a corporeal God affects the sick like a drug, which has no efficacy of its own but borrows its power from human faith and belief.

4. 1 : 1-14

The prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the sick is an absolute faith that all things are possible to God, — a spiritual understanding of Him, an unselfed love. Regardless of what another may say or think on this subject, I speak from experience. Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-immolation, are God's gracious means for accomplishing whatever has been successfully done for the Christianization and health of mankind.

Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds.

5. 23 : 21-2

In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the words corresponding thereto have these two definitions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others.

Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how to work out one's "own salvation, with fear and trembling." "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!" expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the injunction, "Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!" demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spiritual understanding and confides all to God.

The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or to be constant. This certainly applies to Truth and Love understood and practised.

6. 146 : 2-12

The ancient Christians were healers. Why has this element of Christianity been lost? Because our systems of religion are governed more or less by our systems of medicine. The first idolatry was faith in matter. The schools have rendered faith in drugs the fashion, rather than faith in Deity. By trusting matter to destroy its own discord, health and harmony have been sacrificed. Such systems are barren of the vitality of spiritual power, by which material sense is made the servant of Science and religion becomes Christlike.

7. 202 : 6-14

If men would bring to bear upon the study of the Science of Mind half the faith they bestow upon the so-called pains and pleasures of material sense, they would not go on from bad to worse, until disciplined by the prison and the scaffold; but the whole human family would be redeemed through the merits of Christ, — through the perception and acceptance of Truth. For this glorious result Christian Science lights the torch of spiritual understanding.

8. 203 : 3-8, 13-16

In the Science of Christianity, Mind — omnipotence — has all-power, assigns sure rewards to righteousness, and shows that matter can neither heal nor make sick, create nor destroy.

If God were understood instead of being merely believed, this understanding would establish health. … Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth.

9. 278 : 32-5

Which ought to be substance to us, — the erring, changing, and dying, the mutable and mortal, or the unerring, immutable, and immortal? A New Testament writer plainly describes faith, a quality of mind, as "the substance of things hoped for."

10. 348 : 14-18, 21-25

Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much power to God, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil, because I desire to have no faith in evil or in any power but God, good. … Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering disease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence, especially when by so doing our own condition can be improved and that of other persons as well?

11. 130 : 26-3

If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the supremacy of good, ought we not, contrariwise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to love sin and unnatural to forsake it, — no longer imagine evil to be ever-present and good absent? Truth should not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem so real as health.

12. 395 : 11-14

When divine Science overcomes faith in a carnal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and in material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death will disappear.

13. 21 : 1-4

If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and conversation, you can finally say, "I have fought a good fight … I have kept the faith," because you are a better man.

14. 368 : 2-6, 14-19

The confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact that Truth is real and error is unreal. Error is a coward before Truth. Divine Science insists that time will prove all this.

When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.