“My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction: For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.” (Proverbs)
This is how divine Principle works. It has no tolerance for error. It has no knowledge of error. And He (Principle) is all. If we are suffering under a wrong concept of life, if we are misled in any way, divine Principle, in its love for us, rebukes the error, and wakes us up out of our bad dream
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So, when I feel the sting of a rebuke, the only correct response is “Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes…” (Psalm 26) The most healthy state of thought is one that seeks God’s guidance and correction. Mrs. Eddy spoke highly of merited rebuke. “Who is telling of the foe in ambush?” (S&H) When a rebuke is given out of love, it is God (divine Love) chastening us, and we should be grateful for it, take it, and if there is merit to it, change.
This can be quite a challenge, for it requires humility. When I can’t do this, it shows that pride has got me.
Edited by Gary - 12/31/2014 18:59
MaryBeth
795 posts
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Location: n.a.
Editor
12/31/2014 09:28
Re: Chastening of the Lord
I found this in the book "Lessons of the 7th Day" page 149 - "if, when error is uncovered to us, we see our mistake, accept the rebuke, and condemn the error in ourselves or to someone else, then we are governed by the Truth, and rise and have overcome error, and become more spiritually minded. We have gained a step in Christian Science..
You will be condemned until you refuse to see condemnation."
Mary Baker Eddy
It is only when we see error personally - as attached to someone even to ourselves, only then do we become incapacited to handle it. Mrs. Eddy says in S&H "Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense." So it is this illusion that must be rebuked and cast out in order to set the captive free - and how liberating the action of Divine Love is!
JPalmer
134 posts
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Location: Plainfield United States
01/01/2015 09:29
Re: Chastening of the Lord
Thank you for these posts. While reading them, I was reminded of this:
I was greatly impressed by this demand on her part to watch that everything in her experience was the result of demonstration. In this particular instance, when she detected in it the presence of God’s loving hand, she accepted the horses without even having seen them or tried them. This incident furnished me with the keynote of the whole spiritual mode of her thought. I consider this one of the most educational experiences I ever had in Christian Science; for I realized that Mrs. Eddy would accept anything that was done by her students, provided it was the result of demonstration. That always satisfied her. I saw her rebukes were never personal, but were always aimed at a lack of demonstration. There was nothing too drastic for her to say in condemnation of the use of the human mind, human opinion, and human will when substituted for the divine Mind and the divine wisdom. On the other hand, when she found a student willing to strip himself of all human aid, in order to let the Spirit of God animate and work through him, she commended that, because she recognized in it the extension of the very revelation that she was establishing.
—from Chapter 86 of Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Footsteps, by Gilbert Carpenter
This chapter—and most of Carpenter’s writing—has helped me have a clearer sense of both how to demonstrate and why a rebuke would be deserved. What a blessing it is to have these writings to study and use as we work.
