Sunday October 18th, 2020 Roundtable

This is the day that the Lord has made. In it I will rejoice and be glad. No man taketh my joy from me. Just for today I will know that I am God’s child under His protection and, that no plague can come nigh my dwelling. Just for today I will know that God is good, and that God is Love, and that He knoweth them that trust Him. Just for today I will know that I have strength to meet and conquer every claim of error, and that under the guidance of divine Principle I will be led to throw open the door for the entrance of Truth; and know that through that same door error is cast forth. Then with a sweet sense of God’s nearness I will know that yesterday has gone, and left no bitterness, and that today is big with blessings, that tomorrow belongs to God; and to realize this today eliminates all worry and pain and trouble, and brings us peace and happiness.

— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 158-159

461 — WATCH lest you accept the suggestion that there is an impersonal power apart from God operating personally, that can thwart the mighty action of good. It is such an abnormal and impossible claim — it is such an insult to God — that we should find it easy to deny and silence it. In the early days of Science this claim manifested itself in the malpractice of renegade students attempting to thwart the work of Mrs. Eddy and of her students. Later she directed her students to meet this claim impersonally, stating that the time had passed in which to handle it personally. Once she said, “Handle the thought of reversal. You can do it. Is there a devil that can reverse God’s government? No!”

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Golden Text — “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” — Matthew 5 : 8

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Link to Articles — The Psychologist and The Magician by Herbert W. Eustace

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My dear Students: Guard your tongues. When you see sin in others, know that you have it in yourselves, and become repentant. If you think you are not mortal, you are mistaken. I find my students either in an apathy or a frenzy. I am astonished at your ignorance of the methods of animal magnetism. Your enemies are working incessantly, while you are not working as you should. They do not knock, they come with a rush. They do not take me unawares. I know before they come. Would that my head were a fountain of waters, and my eyes rivers of tears that I might weep, because of the apathy of the students and the little that they have accomplished. You have never seen me in my real home, but you may sometime. Come with me into it

— from Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Footsteps by Gilbert Carpenter, Preface

When the elders wished to stone Mary Magdalene, Jesus said in substance, “Let the one who is without sin among you, or whose vision is freed from mesmerism sufficiently to see Goliath hiding behind the woman, cast the first stone of spiritual purity and power. Throw the stone at the Goliath of sensuality, but let the woman go free.” This method of handling animal magnetism was Mrs. Eddy’s crowning gift to humanity in this age. It is embodied in the instruction, “Strike at the error, reduce it to nothingness, but let man go free. Call forth the unclean spirit and impersonalize it. Hate the sin and thereby destroy it; but love the sinner and thereby redeem him.”

— from Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Footsteps by Gilbert Carpenter,
page 500

Let us consider another statement made by Mrs. Eddy to the students: “When I let my thought down, I can hear the mental arguments of error, or the devil (there is no devil); it cannot hide from me when I want to know what it is doing. I can lift my thought right above it and shut it all out, or I can find out what it is doing. If there was an assassin which could overpower you, it would be better for you to know what he was doing, so as to be better prepared to meet it.”.

— from Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Footsteps by Gilbert Carpenter, Chapter 48

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Forum post — “What manner of persons ought ye to be.” by Joanne from FL

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Forum post — “The pure in heart” and “the law of divine Love.” by Betty from CA

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Forum post — “Look for new heavens and a new earth.” by Susan from MA

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Forum post — “Sinless Sense” by Parthens

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Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. The more difficult seems the material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love. The Apostle John says: “There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casteth out fear.”

— from Science and Health, 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 410

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I am grateful to be learning not to be so attached to having things done my way. This has often caused friction in my home. I often felt like I had to do everything myself and, of course, this led to feeling resentful.

A practitioner from the Plainfield Church mentioned this to me some time ago and I took this to heart. I began to work on this and also worked on seeing my husband correctly, the way God made him and to see the “beautiful, good, and pure” in him and others. Another thing the practitioner mentioned was to listen to what my husband was trying to say and to speak to him in a kind and respectful way.

I also worked to catch myself when he would want to do something differently from the way I would do it and realize that it doesn’t matter how it (whatever “it” is at the moment) is done – for example, loading and running the dishwasher. This helped me not to over-react to things and to let him help me more.

Now, at this point, I still have a ways to go … but isn’t it interesting how it looks like my husband has started to change? … like being more understanding when I do need to speak up about something and his being more willing to work it out.

And on a side note, the other week when I had a dental procedure coming up the next day, I was feeling a bit nervous. As I was getting ready for bed I noticed the nervousness just left. The next morning he told me he had prayed for me. To me, this is a really big deal!

I am very grateful for Mary Baker Eddy’s pure Christian Science as taught and practiced in the Plainfield Christian Science Church , Independent and for the help of my practitioner.

— by Betty Simpson

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Old theology is part of the mental equipment of every human being, no matter if he has never had any religion. I had none myself, and yet I found out when I be- came a Christian Scientist, that I was full of old theology, as everything that that religion meant, had that “old stuff” in it. That is, the belief of a distant power, the longing to understand something, and the reaching out for it. Now, as a matter of fact, some of the best workers in Christian Science are still held back by this “stuff.” Truth is not something to contemplate. Truth is the only intelligence there is. You don’t contemplate it, you are it. Stop this contemplation. Do not rest under the belief that you must be a channel for good. Get rid of that “channel.” Good doesn’t require a channel, – good is all. The only reason you and I possess intelli- gence is that we may show forth the nature of true being. You don’t show it forth by thinking about it, or by contemplating it, or by becoming a channel for it.

— Association Addresss 1927 by Bicknell Young, page 1-2

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Final Readings

Forum post — “The only Church in the United States Built by Children” from The Christian Science Journal, February 1899

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