Addressing Opioid addiction with Christian Science

These articles in The Christian Science Monitor, highlighting the need for compassion and practical solutions in the opioid crisis, led the way for these readings.

https://www.csmonitor.com/content/search?SearchText=opioids

Hymn 8

Henry Francis Lyte

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death’s sting? where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

 Hymn 447

Satisfied

Mary Baker Eddy

It matters not what be thy lot,
So Love doth guide;
For storm or shine, pure peace is thine,
Whate’er betide.

And of these stones, or tyrants’ thrones,
God able is
To raise up seed—in thought and deed—To faithful His.
Aye, darkling sense, arise, go hence!
Our God is good.
False fears are foes—truth tatters those,When understood.

Love looseth thee, and lifteth me,
Ayont hate’s thrall:
There Life is light, and wisdom might, And God is All.
The centuries break, the earth-bound wake,
God’s glorified!
Who doth His will—His likeness still—Is satisfied.

Hymn 10

Frederic W. Root

Based on hymn by Martin Luther

All power is given unto our Lord,
On Him we place reliance;
With truth from out His sacred word
We bid our foes defiance.
With Him we shall prevail,
Whatever may assail;
He is our shield and tower,
Almighty is His power;
His kingdom is forever.

Rejoice, ye people, praise His name,
His care doth e’er surround us.
His love to error’s thralldom came,
And from its chains unbound us.
Our Lord is God alone,
No other power we own;
No other voice we heed,
No other help we need;
His kingdom is forever.

O then give thanks to God on high,
Who life to all is giving;
The hosts of death before Him fly,
In Him we all are living.
Then let us know no fear,
Our King is ever near;
Our stay and fortress strong,
Our strength, our hope, our song;
His kingdom is forever.

The Bible

Jer. 8:22 (to 2nd ?)

Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Jer. 46:11

Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; for thou shalt not be cured.

II Chron. 16:12, 13

And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.

¶?And Asa slept with his fathers, and died in the one and fortieth year of his reign.

Jer. 30:13

There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines.

Ps. 30:10

Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me: Lord, be thou my helper.

Ps. 25:16-18, 20-22 (to 1st .)

Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O bring thou me out of my distresses. Look upon mine affliction and my pain; and forgive all my sins. … O keep my soul, and deliver me: let me not be ashamed; for I put my trust in thee. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me; for I wait on thee. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

Ps. 30:2, 3

O Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed me. O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave: thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

Ps. 41:4 (to :), 11

I said, Lord, be merciful unto me: … By this I know that thou favourest me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.

Jer. 30:10, 11 (to 1st 🙂

¶?Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the Lord; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid. For I am with thee, saith the Lord, to save thee:

Jer. 30:16, 17 (to 😉

Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that spoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey. For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord;

Mark 5:25-29, 32-34

And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. … And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

Rev. 21:3, 4

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

Jer. 17:14

Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

From Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy
SH 142:26-8, 10

Which was first, Mind or medicine? If Mind was first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have been the first medicine. God being All-in-all, He made medicine; but that medicine was Mind. It could not have been matter, which departs from the nature and character of Mind, God. Truth is God’s remedy for error of every kind, and Truth destroys only what is untrue. Hence the fact that, to-day, as yesterday, Christ casts out evils and heals the sick.

It is plain that God does not employ drugs or hygiene, nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have recommended and employed them in his healing. The divine Mind never called matter medicine, and matter required a material and human belief before it could be considered as medicine.

SH 146:13-14

Material medicine substitutes drugs for the power of God?—?even the might of Mind?—?to heal the body.

SH 155:28

Vegetarianism, homœopathy, and hydropathy have diminished drugging; but if drugs are an antidote to disease, why lessen the antidote? If drugs are good things, is it safe to say that the less in quantity you have of them the better? If drugs possess intrinsic virtues or intelligent curative qualities, these qualities must be mental. Who named drugs, and what made them good or bad for mortals, beneficial or injurious?

SH 157:16-22, 23 Erring

If drugs are part of God’s creation, which (according to the narrative in Genesis) He pronounced good, then drugs cannot be poisonous. If He could create drugs intrinsically bad, then they should never be used. If He creates drugs at all and designs them for medical use, why did Jesus not employ them and recommend them for the treatment of disease? … Erring mortal mind confers the power which the drug seems to possess.

SH 169:20

There can be no healing except by this Mind, however much we trust a drug or any other means towards which human faith or endeavor is directed. It is mortal mind, not matter, which brings to the sick whatever good they may seem to receive from materiality. But the sick are never really healed except by means of the divine power. Only the action of Truth, Life, and Love can give harmony.

SH 158:16

Drugs, cataplasms, and whiskey are stupid substitutes for the dignity and potency of divine Mind and its efficacy to heal. It is pitiful to lead men into temptation through the byways of this wilderness world,?—?to victimize the race with intoxicating prescriptions for the sick, until mortal mind acquires an educated appetite for strong drink, and men and women become loathsome sots.

SH 157:26

Narcotics quiet mortal mind, and so relieve the body; but they leave both mind and body worse for this submission. Christian Science impresses the entire corporeality,?—?namely, mind and body,?—?and brings out the proof that Life is continuous and harmonious. Science both neutralizes error and destroys it. Mankind is the better for this spiritual and profound pathology.

SH 149:3-9

Mind as far outweighs drugs in the cure of disease as in the cure of sin. The more excellent way is divine Science in every case. Is materia medica a science or a bundle of speculative human theories? The prescription which succeeds in one instance fails in another, and this is owing to the different mental states of the patient.

SH 164:9

It is just to say that generally the cultured class of medical practitioners are grand men and women, therefore they are more scientific than are false claimants to Christian Science. But all human systems based on material premises are minus the unction of divine Science. Much yet remains to be said and done before all mankind is saved and all the mental microbes of sin and all diseased thought-germs are exterminated.

SH 394:22-29

Will you tell the sick that their condition is hopeless, unless it can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material means the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony, with Truth and Love?

We should remember that Life is God, and that God is omnipotent.

SH 463:27-28

There is a law of God applicable to healing, and it is a spiritual law instead of material.

SH 482:27-29 Christian

Christian Science is the law of Truth, which heals the sick on the basis of the one Mind or God.

SH 162:4-13

Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.

Experiments have favored the fact that Mind governs the body, not in one instance, but in every instance.

SH 160:4

When mortals forsake the material for the spiritual basis of action, drugs lose their healing force, for they have no innate power. Unsupported by the faith reposed in it, the inanimate drug becomes powerless.

SH 420:10-13, 17-27

Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims, for if they will only accept Truth, they can resist disease and ward it off, as positively as they can the temptation to sin. … The fact that Truth overcomes both disease and sin reassures depressed hope. It imparts a healthy stimulus to the body, and regulates the system. It increases or diminishes the action, as the case may require, better than any drug, alterative, or tonic.

Mind is the natural stimulus of the body, but erroneous belief, taken at its best, is not promotive of health or happiness. Tell the sick that they can meet disease fearlessly, if they only realize that divine Love gives them all power over every physical action and condition.

SH 421:15-18 (to 2nd .)

Insist vehemently on the great fact which covers the whole ground, that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside Him. There is no disease.

SH 143:26-31

Mind is the grand creator, and there can be no power except that which is derived from Mind. If Mind was first chronologically, is first potentially, and must be first eternally, then give to Mind the glory, honor, dominion, and power everlastingly due its holy name.

SH 379:6

The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind.

 

 

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