O tender, loving Shepherd, We long to follow thee, To follow where thou leadest, Though rough the path may be; Though dark and heavy shadows Enshroud the way with gloom, We know that Love will guide us, And safely lead us home.
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We know, beloved Shepherd, The path that thou hast trod Leads ever out of darkness, And on and up to God. If from that path we wander, And far astray we roam, O, call us, faithful Shepherd, And bring us safely home.
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Throughout the way, dear Shepherd, Thy strong hand doth uphold; The weary ones, at nightfall, Thou gently dost enfold. And when to Truth’s green pastures With joy at length we come, There shall we find, O Shepherd, Our blest, eternal home.
When asked how she was praying about the war in the Middle East Bethany Taylor responded by penning this letter to a young mother:
I was watching the news about Israel and Hamas. You came on talking about trying to keep your baby quiet so you wouldn’t be detected by the attackers and how your husband had been taken as a hostage. My heart went out to you, and in a sincere desire to help, I humbly reached out to God and asked how I could help, how I could pray right then. The answer came in the form of a hymn written by the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy.
I began singing and praying the words: “O gentle presence, peace and joy and power; / O Life divine, that owns each waiting hour” (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 207). I felt assured of God’s ever-present peace, joy, and omnipotent power right then and there for you and all who are feeling alone and afraid, even when in the midst of terror and war.
As a young mother, I was widowed and found myself raising my three-year-old son on my own. I leaned on God’s mothering and fathering my son and me, and I know we can confidently rely on that same love here and now. As a recent Sentinel Watch podcast put it, “Love hasn’t left this home” (Tony Lobl, “Love hasn’t left this home,” cssentinel.com, September 11, 2023).
Love hasn’t left Israel, or Gaza, or Ukraine, or any other area experiencing war and conflict. Even though I am just one individual in a country far removed from these places, I actively pray to know that God’s love is always present, dependable, steadfast, all-powerful. “Thou Love that guards the nestling’s faltering flight! / Keep Thou my child on upward wing tonight,” that hymn says. We are each God’s nestlings, whether struggling with a small problem or the horror of war. We can feel and reflect God’s mothering love here and now.
Another line in this hymn, which I have known and loved for decades, is “Love is our refuge; only with mine eye / Can I behold the snare, the pit, the fall.” But as long as I have been singing this hymn, this was the first time I understood that Mrs. Eddy was saying that we can stay conscious of the spiritual fact that divine Love, God, is our—and everyone’s—ever-present refuge. When, instead, we begin to examine the snares, pits, falls, or material circumstances, that is when we feel immobilized by fear, and illness, conflict, hatred, and evil seem so much larger than Love’s ability to handle them. But that isn’t so. As we learn in Christian Science, God is All-in-all.
“His habitation high is here, and nigh, / His arm encircles me, and mine, and all,” the hymn assures. And I am thinking, in quiet prayer, just how it embraces you and all the mothers in the region.
Love, Bethany Taylor
This response to the war was originally published in the October 19, 2023 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel.
A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra was recently interviewed for a Sentinel Watch podcast titled Listening to God.Click here to listen to this podcasts.
How do you listen to God? And what can you expect to hear when you do? This week’s guest shares ideas from her own journey of learning how to listen—and the healings that have resulted.
A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra offered this account:
Last year, my husband and I went on a road trip to visit our children and grandchildren, who live in various parts of the greater Sydney area. While we were visiting one of our daughters on the Northern beaches, we decided to go out and walk wherever our inclination took us, leaving our daughter at home to work.
It was a beautifully sunny day and we had walked, probably for a couple of hours – through the golf course, along the beach, up to the headland, and we were walking back into town for lunch when, quite suddenly, my husband seemed to collapse. He was shaking uncontrollably and didn’t seem able to stand on his own.
We stopped still, and immediately I planted my feet physically and mentally, and supported him – declaring aloud, while absolutely knowing and feeling, that all he could be was an expression of God, an expression of Spirit; that God was his life, the only Life there is; that he didn’t live in a physical body, but in God. I know he was also praying because he was declaring aloud truths about himself that he had learned in a Christian Science Sunday School.
In an instanthe stopped shaking and stood upright, and we walked on. We still had quite a walk ahead of us but we never mentioned the incident again, just felt immensely grateful and awed at the power and presence of God.
Strangely enough, when this occurred, we were walking through the grounds of the local hospital, but there was never any suggestion of calling for human help or needing any other assistance. God’s presence is always with us and his help is always close at hand.
I have given this experience a lot of thought since then and it has impelled in me an ever-greater desire to understand, trust and be more constantly aware of God, infinite good – to really know God as Love; to strive, as Paul says in II Corinthians (5: 8), to be ‘absent from the body and present with the Lord’ and (II Corinthians 10:5) to bring ‘into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’
A member of the Christian Science community in Canberra submitted this testimony of healing:
I would like to share a healing that I had some years ago that has continued to bless me.
On this particular night, I had washed the removable covers from my lounge suite and spent about three hours ironing the damp fabric before refitting them to the lounge. I had the iron on the hottest setting in an effort to smooth the creases out of the heavy damp linen. By midnight I still had the covers from one chair to do so I decided to leave the ironing board set up so I could finish in the morning. I turned the iron off and then the overhead light nearest to me. This, however, was the only light that was on and I needed to walk back across the dark room. I put my hand out to make sure I didn’t knock the ironing board over but instead put the full palm of my hand on the hot plate of the iron. The pain was immediate and intense.
I had been brought up in Christian Science and had learnt that not looking at an injury helped to allay the fear. I readied for bed without turning lights on and without using that hand. I lay in bed with my hand hanging over the side of the bed unable to sleep and feeling overcome with the pain. Although I thought of myself as a Christian Scientist at this time, I really didn’t live a Christian Science life. I didn’t study and I really didn’t know how to pray. I lay in bed feeling totally miserable. I had taken on this task of washing the covers to distract myself from the sadness and loneliness that seemed to pervade my life at that time. I was recently divorced, I had started a new job which I was finding extremely difficult and stressful, and I was living a couple of hours drive from my parents and friends in a part of the city that socially was very foreign to me. Now I was in pain and feeling totally miserable.
I had been taught that God was Love and that this Love was a law that I could rely on. I didn’t really understand this at this time but in my desperation I turned to this God with a simple: Please help! Almost immediately I felt calm. Somehow I felt a sense of being loved and that all was well. This warm gentle feeling enveloped me and I fell peacefully asleep. When I woke in the morning there was not a single trace of the burn – no pain and not a mark on my hand. I was very grateful and a little surprised. God’s help was so immediate; I felt looked after.
After this, two things happened. The sadness and loneliness dissipated. I learned to rely more on God and came to think of Him/Her as my constant companion – as a guide when things seemed tough. Also since then there have been several occasions when I have inadvertently handled hot things like baking dishes coming out of the oven. Each time I have remembered this first healing and the fear of the burn has left and I have had no pain and no blistering or hurt. Nowadays, although I am not foolish around hot things, if I do come into contact with a hot surface I tell myself: ‘I don’t do burns!’ and that is the end of the matter. I am so grateful for what I am learning in Christian Science.
This recording is of the readings on the topic:God – Parent, Shepherd, Friend
God is Love (The Bible – I John 4: 8)
DIVINE LOVE ] is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures: [LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.
[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [LOVE] leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE’S] rod and [LOVE’S] staff they comfort me.
[LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: [LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [LOVE] for ever.
This recording is of the readings on the topic:Secure Amid the Storm.
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For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(The Bible KJV – Romans 8: 38, 39)
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Every Wednesday at 6.15pm a Testimony Meeting is held at the Christian Science church in Canberra (corner of Macquarie and Bligh Streets, Barton). At these meetings short readings on a particular topic are followed by time for members of the congregation to share how they have been helped and healed through prayer.
My flesh and my heart fail; God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.
(The Bible NKJV – Psalms 73: 26)
God. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy p587)
Christian Science Canberra 