Sunday September 12th, 2021 Roundtable

The Biblical Laws of Finance

This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Substance

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Morning Prayers

Beloved Father-Mother, God, give me wisdom to meet the problems I may have to meet today; give me understanding to deny error and to proclaim the truth. Give me grace to keep silent when speech is unnecessary. There is no strife, for Truth, risen Truth will destroy error of every sort. And heaven is right here. God gives abundance of intelligence and opportunity. I cannot be impoverished mentally, physically, spiritually, or financiaily. God is substance and I reflect that substance.

— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 60

Discussion Points

129 — WATCH lest you misunderstand the scientific process of eliminating matter, and destroying the objects of sense. Realize that things appear to be material only because we have mistaken effect for cause, and placed life, substance and intelligence outside of ourselves as something apart from mind. When we learn the error of matter, we are liable to believe that God calls upon us to despise it. Thus we find students hating their bodies, hating money, hating their food, feeling that it is a mockery to have to fuss with matter so much.

As a matter of fact we should love money, love food, love our bodies as channels for God’s spiritual ideas, and realize that it is only a lie that tells us that they are material, or channels for mortal mind. It is this lie that we are to hate and to destroy. When we love money, for instance, we are never to admit that it has passed from the realm of cause as an idea of substance, down into effect, or shadow.

Our task is to withdraw from the objects of sense all belief of life, truth, intelligence and substance, in order to give these qualities back to Mind, where they belong. Then, we can see all things in creation as symbols pointing to God, with God back of them. The objects of sense will then disappear as matter, and God’s spiritual ideas will appear.

— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter

Golden Text — “Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase.” — Proverbs 3 : 9

Forum post — Substance correcting a sense of “Lack” by Imogene

Forum post — “Worldliness” by Chardelle

It all starts with God. God is the Owner of All. God gives/loans to man abundantly: health, freedom, wisdom, love, Science, dominion, protection, perfection, and daily needs.

Ps. 37: 26 God lendeth. Man borrows/reflects … gives back / returns the loan abundantly in kind. Man acknowledges that God is the true Owner. Man is always indebted to / grateful for Life’s great gift, because God is always giving.

Conditions of borrowing the loan: Do that which is good. Be perfect. Be righteous. Be honest. Keep the Commandments. Be humble. Know that neither you, nor any material thing, are the Source. Give thanks to the Source. Love Love. Teach/heal/share. Pay back.

— Forum Post by Patricia from Canada

You may hide your ignorance of spiritual things from the eyes of the world, but can never gain the understanding and demonstration of the science of Life, without an honest, high, and God-given purpose. Sin is thought before it is deed, and you must master it in the first, or it conquers you in the second instance. Jesus said, to look with foul desire on forbidden objects, breaks a moral precept; hence, the stress he laid on the character of a man that is hidden from our perception. Evil thoughts reach farther, and do more harm than individual crimes, for they impregnate other minds and fashion your body. The atmosphere of impure desires, like the atmosphere of earth, is restless, ever in motion, and calling on some object; this atmosphere is laden with mental poison, and contaminates all it touches.

— from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures , 1875, First Edition, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 192-193

Click here to listen to “God’s Blessings Manifold”:

“Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee.”—Abram.

Abram was preaching the gospel of peace, which is always preaching scientifically, when he declared his determination to follow in the footsteps of a harmony in opposition to the discord and dissensions existing among the herdsmen.

It may be possible, and is quite probable that, in his interview with Lot and the keepers of the flocks, the events of the future were not clearly defined in his consciousness; but of one thing he seems to have been fully cognizant: that, whereas God had communicated to him a line of conduct, or a plan of life for himself and his descendants to observe and follow, it was his natural conviction to trust God; thereby demonstrating that faith in the promises of God is of vital importance in each individual life, at all times, in all places and under all circumstances.

— “Abram’s Faith” from The Christian Science Journal, September 1894 by S. Lednum Meyers

If we do not control our possessions with the understanding that they are spiritual, they will control us with the belief that they are material.

— from Collectanea, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 117

Final Readings

Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. — Jeremiah, 9:23, 24.

Some years ago I read two stories, in a book of biographies, that made a deep impression upon my mind; but in the light of Christian Science, they seem to have a fuller and more significant meaning than ever before. The first was the life history of Wynne Stanley, the builder of the second of the three lighthouses erected on the Eddystone Rock, on the coast of Cornwall, in the English Channel. After the first lighthouse had been destroyed, he came forward with plans which he confidently submitted for approval. He declared that he could erect a building proof against the most extreme tests from wind and wave. Ultimately the contract was awarded to him. Operations were thereupon commenced at once, and with all possible speed the structure was brought to completion. To prove to the world his full confidence in his own work, Mr. Stanley volunteered to stay in the lighthouse for the first two weeks in October, during the equinoctial gales, which is considered the most severe season of the year. The proposal was agreed to, and Wynne Stanley was safely housed with ample stores, when the winds began to blow, and the waves rose higher and higher. Soon the night came on, the people on the shore saw the beacon light shining brightly out at sea, but it lasted only for a short season. In the morning they looked towards the rock for the lighthouse, but it was not there. Some wreckage on the shore told the tale,—beams and timbers were washed up upon the beach; but nothing was ever heard of the man whose work had been tested and found wanting. Wynne Stanley has been forgotten, except when cited as an example of the folly of boastfulness.

The second story is an account of the work of Thomas Telford, the builder and designer of the beautiful suspension bridge that crosses the Menai Straits in North Wales. At that time this great engineering achievement was looked upon as one of the seven wonders of the world. It was then by far the greatest span in existence. Mr. Telford, unlike our former acquaintance, was a man of retirement. His great industry, skill, and engineering ability were known by their results. After having met and overcome all the many problems incident to this vast undertaking, the work was ill last brought to a successful termination. A day was fixed for the opening ceremony, and representative this most of the countries Europe were present to witness this triumph of modern construction. At the banquet following the opening of the bridge a vote of congratulation was passed to the man whose untiring perseverance had broken down so many human limitations, and had risen above all precedent in the history of his profession. Mr. Telford, however, could not be found. A messenger was at last dispatched to his house. Receiving no answer he entered the half-open door, but seeing no one within, he went back to the of the house, and there found the hero of our store on his knees in prayer, thanking God from the fulness of his heart for the wisdom and strength that had been given to him during the accomplishment of his work.

Mr. Telford’s name will go down to posterity in the many evidences of industry that lie left behind him. This bridge has done service for nearly a century, and when passing over it a few years ago, I saw no signs of decay or deterioration.

Mrs. Eddy’s powerful words on page 184 of her new publication. “Miscellaneous Writings,” connect these two stories, and teach the true import of their lesson, namely, — “If man should say of the power to be perfect which he possesses, ‘I am the power,’ he would trespass upon Divine Science, yield to material sense, and lose his power.”

— “Boastfulness and Humility” from The Christian Science Journal, August 1898 by by Richard P. Verrall