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What would one's comment have to be, for instance, if one recognized that the essential part of a Christian Science church service is done all backwards? In the original Mother Church edifice, on either side of the reader's platform, is a stained glass window. The window on left side shows a representation of Jesus. An inscription has been added above the window which reads: The Bible. The window on the right side shows the woman of the Apocalypse, clothed with the sun, and the inscription above the window reads: Science and Health. One would assume that the reader on the platform who reads the Bible, would read from the side of the platform where the scene is that of Christ Jesus and the superscription points to the Bible. Strangely, the reverse is the case, and this reversal has been copied throughout the entire field.
Are the fine, fundamental details important?
Let us take a look at what happens when the details are ignored.
If the original position of the readers were adopted, the scriptural reading would be from the primary side of the platform, which is the left side when seen from the congregation; followed from left to right by the correlative from the textbook to be read on the right side. This accords with the flow of reading from left to right which is the common practice throughout much of the world. Following this practice the Bible text is thereby established as a foundation that precedes the texts from Science and Health. The Science that Mary Baker Eddy had founded, becomes, then, build onto the foundation so established, much in the manner in which it was discovered. The superstructure, in this case, has a foundation prepared for it. But this is not what is happening throughout the field.
In today's practice the positions are reversed. The textbook is read from the primary side, followed from left to right, by the Bible. Although the books are still read in the correct sequence, the reversed positioning emphasizes the textbook. It makes the superstructure primary, and the foundation secondary. The natural result is that the entire reading becomes less an exercise of establishing scientific facts, and more a process of pontificating doctrine, a method of teaching that one might call mental manipulation, against which Christ Jesus cautioned his followers by urging them to beware of the 'leaven' of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. He had strong words to say about this type of mental manipulation, which is fundamentally oligarchic in nature.
While the present type of services may be useful, the services would most likely be more effective if done correctly. In any scientific process, it is essential to keep the cause to effect relationship clearly in mind.
Now, whether the services are, or are not correctly staged, or by whom the staging was changed, is of little consequence to anyone, individually. One has always the option of working with the lesson sermons correctly, individually. This means, setting up the scriptural foundation as primary, which, then, leads us to the quotations from Science and Health that point to the superstructure in Science that is to be build onto the foundation.
This sequential link between the Bible and the scientific structure for the Key of David, opens the human thought to the super-structure of Truth and divine Spirit to unfold in consciousness. This superstructure of Truth is the resulting awareness in consciousness that may be labeled the Key of David, the excelsior extension above the work of men's hands, even the outcome of their hearts, that gives to the material a spiritual significance. One cannot build a superstructure without a structure beneath it, nor a structure without a foundation to support it, or put the foundation on top of the structure.
This fact brings to light another important interface between the Bible and the structure for the Key of David. The proper names from the Bible that appear in the Glossary, and their definitions that point to a vast array of human interrelationship aspects that were discussed in Volume 3, provide a significant foundation for dealing with the more complex subjects of divine Science. The parables of Jesus, and the many spiritual concepts that are touched upon in the Bible stories, such as those centered around Noah and Jacob, or Moses, cannot be be left out of sight when working with the structure for the Key of David.
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Stories about
Sex
from novels by Rolf A. F. Witzsche
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