Absolutely Yours

A few weeks ago, I had a joyful conversation with one of our readers from Sweden (or was it Switzerland). Although it was our first conversation, it was like talking to an old friend. The conversation jumped all over the place, but we landed on a mutual love and admiration for Clarence Steves. Mr. Steves was a well-respected Christian Science Practitioner and Teacher and the author of one book, Selected Addresses of Clarence Steves. It’s available at Amazon.com. Below are excerpts from that book.

Never Come Into The Problem

In any problem, immediately see the impossibility of it from the standpoint of the allness and oneness of the divine Principle, Love. If possible, never come into the problem, but see the truth so vividly that the aggressive mental suggestion as the problem is dissolved.

All You Have To Do Is Let Go

A lecturer recently told of a group of hunters, hunting for live monkeys. They found that monkeys like wild rice. They obtained some coconuts, cut small holes in them and filled them with rice. In the morning, they found a group of forlorn looking monkeys, each with a tightly closed hand full of rice inside the coconut, unable to get them out.

They had only to let go of the handful of rice, and would have had instantaneous liberation, or what our movement calls healing. Are we hanging on to the handful of rice in our own little coconut? Does material existence mean more to us than spiritual existence? How are we identifying ourselves?

Your Senses Are God’s Senses

Make the declaration, “My senses cannot be perverted and see persons, places and things, for my senses are God’s senses and see only as God sees.”

Don’t Talk Christ, Live Christ!

Live the ascension. It’s so simple. It simply means the acknowledgement that Mind, God, is present, expressing itself; it simply means that there’s one Life present, identifying itself. That’s all there is to the ascension. You don’t have to die to get there. Paul said, “I die daily.” So if we would live this Christ, we would never have discordant things that seem to happen in our lives. Live it, but don’t talk it.

Don’t Forget To Shut The Door

Prayer is shutting the door on the possibility of the problem. Become so conscious of the oneness, the allness of divine Love that the problem, the patient, the practitioner, all disappear, and leave only the Love of God experiencing its own loveliness.

What Kind Of Body Will Knowing Give You?

“Take no thought for your life,” because Jesus permitted the Christ to be so real, so tangible, that he had no temptation to believe in a personal body with a finite, temporal sense of life. Has he not said, “I am come that ye might have life, and have it more abundantly”? Not simply a hundred years; but life eternal — life that has nothing to do with birth, forever untouched by death. If eating is supposed to give forth body, then stop and see what kind of body we must have from our knowing? Knowing constructs the only body there is. Body is not a human fabrication. Body is not material. There is no material body to be sick or to grow old. There is a belief that body is material, that it needs to be healed. If you believe that matter is substance, and holds within itself the ability to give life or take it, then you are in a hopeless situation. It becomes a tyrant, a dictator; it says it is thirsty, give me a drink; hungry, give me some food. It says give me glasses so I can see better; give me a car to haul me around; give me money so I can do what I want. Have you such a tyrant hanging around, calling itself you?

If It’s Real, It’s Love

Divine Mind is All-in-all, and we must make every experience, every situation, every happening declare for God, divine Love. When we look it straight in the face, we can say to any happening, “If you are real, if you are true, then you have the magnificence of Love; if you have any action, then it is Love-action; if you have any life, then it is Love-Life.” In other words, make every experience declare God, Love — divine Principle!

Conclusion

Someone once wrote, “Certain things catch your eye, but pursue only those that catch your heart.” Did any of the above citations catch your heart? Consider prayerfully “pursuing” them. Pick the line or phrase that caught your heart and spend time with it. Contemplate the many ideas contained in it. Sit in silence and let new insights flood your Consciousness. They will.