Sunday, August 23rd, 2020 Roundtable

As a Man Thinketh, So is He

This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Mind

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Morning Prayers

Oh, may the light that is never dim so encompass you, that no night is there. May His angels hold thee in their power, and Songs of Science be heard in the intuitions of thought, till your life is in tune with the rhythm of God.

— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, the “Blue Book,” by Mary Baker Eddy, page 224

Discussion points

175 — WATCH against a claim of inflexibility of thought. What could a potter do with clay that suddenly hardened under his molding? How can God guide man, unless man remains flexible under the divine will?

Any predetermined decisions constitute inflexibility, just as outlining in advance what you desire the divine Mind to accomplish in demonstration, is steadying the ark. The difference between formulating a problem correctly, and outlining, is one of motive, perception and trust. One would not use demonstration to get an automobile. Yet he could strive to realize that in doing God’s work, he could not lack any proper expression of activity and abundance. Such a demonstration might be expressed in one’s having an automobile.

We must be strong and unmovable in our understanding of Truth, but flexible in demonstration, in being guided by the Father’s hand.

— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter




Golden Text — “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” — Proverbs 23 : 7




Your actions speak so loudly, I can not hear what you are saying.”

— Ralph Waldo




Understanding: This is substance. True substantiality is effulgent, translucent, non-resistant. This non-resistance of Spirit constitutes its irresistibility.

— From Class Notes by Laura Sargent




Article — Glorifying God by Blanche Hersey Hogue




Phillip Keller Visited A Potter In Pakistan A… Contributed by Sermoncentral on Mar. 13, 2009, Scripture: Matthew 6:10

Phillip Keller visited a potter in Pakistan and gained the most understanding ever of the meaning found in “Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.”

The words of the prophet came to mind: “Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear my words” (Jer. 18:2). He led Keller to a dark, closed shed back of his shop. A repulsive stench of decaying matter engulfed him.

“I add special kinds of grass to the mud. As it rots and decays, its organic content increased the colloidal quality of the clay. Then it sticks together better.” Keller was reminded of this: “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, And heard my cry. He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay” (Ps. 40:1-2 NKJV).

With meticulous precision the old man placed the lump exactly in the center of his wheel. Even so God exercises very particular care in centering my life in Christ. A fascinating look crept across his face. There was in this crude clay enormous possibilities. He wanted it to become a useful and beautiful article.

God’s Spirit said, “Don’t you see how much anticipation and excitement fills your Father’s heart as he holds you in his hands? A bit of heaven can be produced in your life.”

On either side of the potter’s stool stood a basin of water. Not once did he touch the spinning clay without first dipping his hands in the water. Our Father’s will is transmitted to us through the water of his own Word.

Suddenly the potter stopped and removed a small particle of grit from the goblet. The stone stopped again as he removed another tiny grain of sand. Would the clay have other things that would resist his hands and wreck his work?

He pointed sadly to a deep, ragged gouge that cut and scarred the goblet’s side. It was ruined beyond repair. In dismay he crushed it down beneath his hands. Again from Jeremiah: “And the vessel that he made of clay was married in the hand of the potter” (Jer. 18:4).

Why was this masterpiece in the making ruined in the master’s hands? Because he had run into resistance. Similarly, that’s why the heavenly Father’s will is brought to naught again and again — because of hardness and resistance. Those tender, gentle, skilled hands of the Father are thwarted by our stubborn wills.

At that point the potter, with a sorrowful shrug, said he would just make a crude finger bowl from the same lump. What might have been a gorgeous goblet would become a vessel second best. It was not the craftsman’s first or finest intention. “So [the potter — our God] made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it” (Jer. 18:4).

Am I going to become a piece of fine china or just a finger bowl? “Father, your will be done in earth [in clay], in me, as sit is down in heaven. Do I really mean this? Do I really want it? Would I really enjoy having it done to me?”

The craftsman put the new piece onto a shelf to cure. After that it would be fired in the furnace to put the finishing touches on it. “It all takes time, much time, but it is worth it. My name and reputation as a master potter are at stake.”

Do you see the implication clearly? At times God finds putting us onto the shelf to be necessary. We go through the fiery furnace of hardship for beautification and God’s reputation. The key to the success or failure of our being fashioned in the Master’s hands lies in how we respond to his touch.

(Source: A Layman Looks at the Lord’s Prayer by W. Phillip Keller; and Sermon by Bobby Scobey, “Essentials #3-When You Pray-Part 1” 2/25/2009)




At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity.

— from Science and Health, 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 571




Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error, — self-will, self-justification, and self-love, — which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death.

— from Science and Health, 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 242




In Science, all being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmonious in every action. Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness.

— from Science and Health, 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 407




Forum post — Like Attracts Like – Externalization of Thought by Parthens




Poem — Body, unabridged, Attributed to Mary Baker G. Eddy, copyrighted January 19th, 1886, available at the Congressional Library in Washington, D. C.




Acertain apothegm of a Talmudical philosopher suits my sense of doing good. It reads thus: “The noblest charity is to prevent a man from accepting charity; and the best alms are to show and to enable a man to dispense with alms.”

— from Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, Preface




Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love — be it song, sermon, or Science — blesses the human family with crumbs of comfort from Christ’s table, feeding the hungry and giving living waters to the thirsty

— from Science and Health, 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 234




A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

— Proverbs 17: 22




Final Readings

History shows that every epoch has its spiritual values, and happy are we who discern the spiritual values of this present time.

We closed last year’s Association Meeting with this statement, “This is the close of an era,” and this morning allow me to make this statement, “We are now in the beginning of a new era.” And this new era demands that each individual must see and hear with new distinctive- ness and understanding. Jesus said, “Let him that readeth understand,” and the prophet Jeremiah said, “What seest thou?” If we read and see from the material sense of things, there will be “discord and dismay,” but if we read and see from the spiritual vision, then there will be “science and peace.” We make our own choice.

More than 2000 years ago, Jesus prophesied this present event or this present war, but he did not prophesy it as calamitous to those who “look up” above the sense testi- mony, or to those who “lift up their heads;” that is, lift up their thought to approximate Truth. True enough, he saw that all material human concepts would vanish from the human mind; he saw that even the powers of heaven would be shaken; that is, all mortal mind’s established methods and customs and traditions and values would be shaken, and give place to a new and higher order of things.

In this prophecy, Jesus stated definitely and without question that, at that present time, there would appear the supremacy and reality of Good, and there would be the disappearance of evil from the world. According to Jesus’ prophecy, this event is to be a triumph for Truth. Reality will be recognized, and there will be the perception of the nothingness of nothing.

Jesus said, “And they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.” (Matt. 24:30) The coming of the Son of man signifies that the demonstration of Christian Science is at hand. The Son of God is Reality, or is all creation as it is; the Son of man is the human proof that all these Realities are at hand. And the human proof, or manifestation, will approximate the perfection of these Realities according to the degree that our individual thought individualizes Divine Science.

The coming of the Son of man is not the coming of a person, or the coming of something visible or spectacular, something outside of ourselves. No, the Son of man ap- pears as higher, truer qualities of thought within our- selves. It is a great spiritual evaluation of the Good that makes up our consciousness. We can in no way discon- nect or disassociate the coming of the Son of man from God. The coming of the Son of man is God’s presence, appearing humanly, and is man and the universe seen and known according to our highest comprehension of their reality.

Referring to our present time, our textbook says, “As material knowledge diminishes and spiritual understand- ing increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally instead of materially.” (S&H 96:27) Jesus set forth clearly and definitely what should be our attitude of thought in these “latter days,” and why we should have this attitude of thought. He said, “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads.” Why? “For your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28) Our redemption from what? Our redemption from the false concepts, the veil which has darkened man’s vision, and which is done away in Christ. Christ, the Truth about all things, is our Redeemer, and our redemption is at hand. We do not look at the destruction of matter as the destruction of some- thing, but as the passing away of the false material con- cept of substance. This false concept of Substance hides the omnipresence of man and the universe of Reality. How readest thou? How seest thou? Instead of viewing the present time with dismay, Christian Scientists should assume their divine responsibilities. These may present themselves as human responsibilities, but since we know that they are divine and mental, they should be joyous responsibilities.

Each of us can, and should, assume the responsibility of handling the errors in his own thinking. We should do just this, as if we were the only one upon whom rested the responsibility for the correction to be made. In this way, only, do we work out our own salvation, and at the same time aid in working out the salvation of the world.

— from Addresses by Martha Wilcox, page 390-392







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