Sunday November 28th, 2021 Roundtable

Abide in the 91st Psalm and know that such abiding is treatmentand protection. There is nothing than can make laws or influence you. There is but one Mind and that is Love. Do not give life to evil by attaching it to a person or thing. It cannot live without a body. Man is immortal, one. There is but one infinite manifestation. No error can attach itself to man and why deceive ourselves by thinking it can do so? Every manifestation of life is ever-present and omnipresent good and this carries within itself all healing, sustaining. Know that the kingdom of heaven is within you and this is your armor.

— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 222

260 — WATCH lest you accept mortal mind’s conception of attainment, and believe that an understanding of Christian Science is something that can be attained by study alone. Science and Health says that we walk in the direction toward which we look. We have to study in order to learn what the right direction is, but demonstration alone will enable us to walk in it, a demonstration that handles the mesmerism of lethargy and inactivity.

This watching point is necessary to correct the prevalent belief that, when one fails to demonstrate Christian Science, it is more consecrated study that he needs. Failure to demonstrate simply means that one has not succeeded in breaking the mesmerism of mortal belief, under which one believes in the reality and truth of that which God never created.

Through the study of the textbook one can learn how to rouse himself mentally, by rising into a mental altitude that is above the mist of animal magnetism; but the usual student’s attitude of mind toward acquiring a knowledge of any subject, will never enable one to be a Christian Scientist. There are many students who have gained a profound knowledge of Mrs. Eddy’s writings, who have done very little to free themselves from the influence of animal magnetism. One must practice what he learns. He must rise above the mist of mesmerism. He must rouse himself mentally until he is thoroughly awake, and keep that way. He must learn to listen for God’s voice, and refuse to acknowledge that mortal belief in any form can rule God out of his heart.

— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter

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GOLDEN TEXT: Romans 13 : 1

“There is no power but of God.”

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In this issue of the Sentinel we publish the proclamation of the President of the United States, naming Thursday, Nov. 28, as the annual day of thanksgiving. This observation of a day when all should return thanks to God for the blessings received throughout the year, is the outgrowth of that deep trust in Him, and love of Him, which nearly three centuries ago inspired brave and devout men and women to set sail for the new world, in the hope that they might there find “freedom to worship God.”

This national custom of setting apart a day for the special observance of public thanksgiving and praise to God, comes down to us from these Pilgrims of the seventeenth century, who in the midst of the hardships and dangers of their new home forgot not to give public thanks to the giver of all good when with the coming of the ensuing autumn a bounteous harvest reassured them against the scarcity of provisions which had attended their first winter in the new land. From New England the custom has extended throughout North America; not, however, in the purity of its religious aspect, but, like some other commemorative days whose original significance has been forgotten, more as a holiday of general recreation. Whereas it was formerly the custom for all churches to observe the day with largely attended services, now many churches are not opened at all, and even those where a service is held are but lightly attended.

Just what is the reason for this decadence we shall not attempt to explain here, but simply note, as an exception to the general rule, the churches of the Christian Science denomination which are springing up all over the world. In these churches the congregations assembled on Thanksgiving day are much the same in numbers as those assembled each Sunday and Wednesday, and the services held on this holiday are simple and spontaneous outpourings of gratitude for blessings received. No doubt Mrs. Eddy, in making these services a part of the regular order of worship in the Christian Science churches, intended not only to check the material trend of present-day religion, but also to encourage the spirit of fellowship, hospitality, and benevolence which bore so significant a part in the first New England Thanksgiving day. These qualities are indeed inseparable from true gratitude, and should likewise be inseparable from the outward manifestations of Christianity.

A typical incident of such hospitality on the part of our Leader was recently related by one who was of her household for a time at Pleasant View. It seems that a neighbor and his family had been away from their home for several months, and returned on the day before Thanksgiving. Upon noticing that the house was open Mrs. Eddy made inquiry as to whether the family had returned, or someone was in the house without authority. Upon being informed that the family had returned that day, she immediately became solicitous for their comfort and said, “They will not have anything for their Thanksgiving dinner! What can we do for them?” When some one remarked that in all probability the family had made provision for dinner, Mrs. Eddy said, “We do not dare take any chances upon that; it would never do for people not to have a good dinner on Thanksgiving day, and how could they have a Thanksgiving dinner when they have just returned to a house which has been closed up for months? I wonder what we have that we could them.” She then gave instructions to send to these neighbors everything necessary for the preparation of an old-fashioned Thanksgiving dinner.

Such was Mrs. Eddy’s interpretation of the spirit of this oldtime custom, her exemplification of the gratitude to God which is “much more than a verbal expression of thanks” (Science and Health, p. 3); and this simple, spontaneous act of neighborly kindness was typical of the love for her fellow men which ever found its greatest happiness in service to others, in meeting not alone their temporal needs, but lightening for them, whether rich or poor in this world’s goods, the burden of sorrow, sickness, and sin, If as Christian Scientists we too faithfully do out part, each day and all the days, to throw off for ourselves and others the fetters with which error would bind us, soon there will dawn for mankind that glad Thanksgiving day when the listening ear shall hear that “louder song, sweeter than has ever before reached high heaven,” rising “clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain” (Science and Health, p. 568).

— from Christian Science Sentinel, November 16th, 1912, by Archibald McLellan

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The breezes at dawn have secrets to tell you.

— Rumi

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301 — WATCH lest, when you are sick, you ask, “Oh, God! Why have you done this to me?” Rather should you ask, “Oh, God! Why have I done this to you?” There are times when we need a rude awakening from our mental lethargy. Perhaps we have become indifferent to God and to our obligations to Him. Perhaps we have put effect ahead of cause in our procession, put matter at the head of it, where only God, Spirit, belongs. Perhaps we have been sailing along so smoothly that we have thrown our skipper overboard. Divine guidance is so essential that we must have experiences that convince us that, if we let go of it, we are liable to go on the rocks. Once a boy stumbled over a stone as he walked along with uplifted eyes, thinking about God. He was thinking about God, but he was not using His guidance, since he did not see a pit that lay in his path. Stumbling over the stone so shocked him out of his reverie, that he was saved a plunge into the pit. When he realized what had happened, he was grateful for the very stone at which he was at first angry.

Once Mrs. Eddy directed her maid to work for the weather. When she found the latter dwelling on God’s allness, she rebuked her, saying, “Now come down from sailing around up there. It’s rain we need. Let’s have rain.” Then she said, “Beliefs about the weather are easier healed than sickness.” She rebuked the effort to realize God’s allness that did not include its application to the present need. Why? Because it would be like going to a spring for water without a pail.

— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter

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from “No Malpractice” in Addresses by Martha Wilcox, page

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“In reality there is no mortal mind, and consequently no transference of mortal thought and will-power. Life and being are of God. In Christian Science, man can do no harm, for scientific thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God to man.” (Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, page 103) This is such a powerful thought to remember as we gather together this season with friends and family. Our life is in God and the only thoughts we can receive are His peaceful, good and loving thoughts. Our contact with others can never be harmful and can only bring about God’s blessings, care and comfort to all involved. As we know these truths consistently it will counteract and destroy any erroneous suggestions being falsely broadcast by the media and any other misled sources. God does reign supreme and we have the right to prove this daily in our lives and to send forth His uncompromising Love throughout the land! Always,and in every moment remember, – “There is no power but of God.”! (Romans)

— Forum post By Mary Singleterry

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We know indeed that there are those who exclaim that contemporary events only prove that Christianity is a failure and that a new gospel is wanted. They seek for comfort in occultism, and think they have found hope in spiritualism. Secret mysteries, without moral responsibility and without corporate duties, have a special attraction for those who regard the church as obsolete and unsympathetic. Endor is often the refuge of those who shun the thought of Calvary. Men seek for any vision but that of a God who forgives sin and who asks for self-surrender of will. Those who have no wish for the vision of God will not find it. On the whole, men get what they seek, — it may be pleasure, self-indulgence, or self-satisfaction, or it may be the very drug of spiritual life, the deadly narcotic which seeks to stifle pain in self-absorbed expedients. But it is not so much a revised gospel that we need as a purer and more humble spirit to receive and welcome the old one, Jesus Christ, “the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”[Bishop Ryle in The Guardian]

— from “From Our Exchanges” in Christian Science Sentinel, May 27th, 1916

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Final Readings