Bridge to understanding Christian Science

Lancaster Covered Bridge 2 by Jim Hammer

Note: Walk across the bridge with me to discover the Christian Science pastor and the 26 Sunday Bible Lesson-Sermons of all the churches of the Christian Science denomination.

While it is novel, rather than having pastors giving sermons as is the case in most places of worship, two books, the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures are the pastor of The First Church of Christ Scientist, Boston, Massachusetts all Churches of Christ, Scientist worldwide.

Mary Baker Eddy, the author of the Science and Health as well as the discoverer and founder of Christian Science, called the books the “dual and impersonal pastor”, and she said “the Life these give, the Truth they illustrate, the Love they demonstrate, is the great Shepherd that feedeth my flock, and leadeth them “beside the still waters (Miscellaneous Writings, page 322).”

Mrs. Eddy designated that Readers elected by the church membership conduct the Sunday services following the  The Christian Science Bible Lesson. The First Reader reads from Science and Health, and the Second Reader reads from the Bible. They read one of 26 weekly subjects from The Christian Science Quarterly that were provided by Eddy. She said “these subjects were given of God-they are sufficient and they will remain” (Irving C. Tomlinson reminiscence, pp. 205-207, The Mary Baker Eddy Collection).

Citations from the Bible and Science and Health differ each time a subject is read as selected by the Bible Lesson Committee of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, The Mother Church, in Boston, Massachusetts making each lesson fresh and new.  These lessons are put together with the motive to inspire, educate, and heal.

The 26 Lessons are:

• God
• Sacrament
• Life
• Truth
• Love
• Spirit
• Soul
• Mind
• Christ Jesus
• Man
• Substance
• Matter
• Reality
• Unreality
• Are Sin, Disease, and Death Real?
• Doctrine of Atonement
• Probation After Death
• Everlasting Punishment
• Adam and Fallen Man
• Mortals and Immortals
• Soul and Body
• Ancient and Modern Necromancy, alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism, Denounced
• God the Only Cause and Creator
• God the Preserver of Man
• Is the Universe, Including Man, Evolved by Atomic Force?
• Christian Science

The subject of this week’s Bible Lesson is “Mind”, and if you’d like to hear it please listen to the online service or join an Indiana service near you.