Sunday May 2nd, 2021 Roundtable

Study the Bible constantly, daily, and, dear one, pray. Ask the divine Love every day to give you all that the Lord’s Prayer inculcates. Go alone by yourself one half hour every morning and ask God, good, ‘Thy kingdom come’- ask to establish the reign of honesty, peace and purity in your consciousness and to overthrow and cast out all that is unlike the Christ, Love. Ask to forgive those that wrong you even as God forgives you, and see how this must be for you to reflect God. Ask for deliverance from temptation, ask for patience, meekness, peace, and so may the grace of God be with you.

— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 62

6 — WATCH lest the old theological teaching and training as to what constitutes sin, prevent you from realizing that fundamentally sin is cause, rather than effect, wrong thinking rather than wrong acting. The primary sin is sin against the Holy Ghost, or against that which unites man to his Maker. What the world calls sin is the outward result of this fundamental belief, or error of yielding to mesmerism.

What the world calls sin does not shut man off from God as effectually as what the world calls goodness, which is largely self-righteousness. When a mortal finds that his actions are sinful, he is apt to become dissatisfied with himself and with material existence, so that he yearns for God; whereas the self-satisfied follower of creeds and doctrines feels very little spiritual hunger, or dissatisfaction with matter. We conclude, therefore, that self-righteousness is the more dangerous state of thought as far as spiritual growth is concerned. No one eats until he is hungry. Hence the attitude of the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees of today precludes any definite spiritual hunger, which causes mortal man to reach out for the divine.

Self-righteousness may be called the sin against the Holy Ghost, since it is a sin against man’s spiritual nature, and is far more serious than those sins against society, for which mortal mind has decreed punishment. The most dangerous sin from God’s standpoint must be that which tempts man the most to be satisfied, and to feel secure apart from God.

— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter

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GOLDEN TEXT: Isaiah 43 : 1

“But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.”

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Audio and text — “Chapter 12 — Christian Science Practice” from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures given by Mary Baker Eddy

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Do Christian Scientists seek Truth as Simon sought the Saviour, through material conservatism and for personal homage? Jesus told Simon that such seekers as he gave small reward in return for the spiritual purgation which came through the Messiah. If Christian Scientists are like Simon, then it must be said of them also that they love little.

On the other hand, do they show their regard for Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their broken hearts, expressed by meekness and human affection, as did this woman? If so, then it may be said of them, as Jesus said of the unwelcome visitor, that they indeed love much, because much is forgiven them.

— from Science and Health, 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 364

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Conservatism: Resistant to change.

It is the fear of letting go of the material.

An outward sense of goodness that makes you think you are okay.

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Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized.

— from Science and Health, 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 167

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Who Are the Pharisees?

In “Miscellaneous Writings,” page 234, our Leader tells us that “what hinders man’s progress is his vain conceit, the Phariseeism of the times.” On page 356 she gives us this rule: “One can never go up, until one has gone down in his own esteem.” I heard a Christian Science student make the remark that it took her three years to find out that she was a Pharisee. This impressed me so forcibly that I began to wonder if I were a Pharisee and did not know it. It has taken me nearly nine years to learn that I am a Pharisee. What are Pharisees? In Jesus’ time they were personalities of self-righteousness, egotism, vanity, pride, and hypocrisy. Jesus was constantly rebuking them and pronouncing woes upon them. They were ever on the watch to catch him in his words that they might accuse him. They were very ready to criticise his keeping of the Sabbath. To them eating with publicans and sinners, or with unwashen hands, was very defiling. They were strict in keeping of forms and paying tithes, while they “omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith” (Matthew, 23 : 23).

While I studied this thought I kept watch to see if I could discover the Pharisee within. I must confess I was humiliated. The Pharisee appeared on every hand. I had the form without the life, the letter without the spirit. I preached far more than I practised. I could see the faults of others more keenly than my own. I was straining out gnats in some directions, while swallowing camels in others. I possessed a zeal in many ways “not according to knowledge,” which had to be rebuked. I was trying to be so Scientific that I was in danger of losing my humanity. Yes; I was a Pharisee.

But I was thankful for this awakening. I began to talk Science less and to strive to live it more. I felt a sympathy for every other human being that I had never known before. I saw that the Pharisee represented the human, fleshly nature which was to be put off for the new, true manhood in Christ Jesus.

I also caught a little glimpse of the individual man, to each and every one of whom “Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals” (Science and Health, p. 318). I could see that as each consciousness grasped the fact that man was God’s own image and likeness he would have the true conception of himself and of every other fellow being, and never until then. Herein the divine command to “love thy neighbor as thyself” will be fulfilled. Surely in Christian Science there is no room for a Pharisee, no place for the thought, “I am better than thou.”This uncovering of error has made me forcibly aware of how very slowly the spiritual idea has dawned upon my consciousness. I now see how dense and tenacious was the error in my thought when Christian Science found me.

Claims of heredity and unfavorable environment have tried to hold me in bondage, but they are slowly and surely yielding to the understanding of the one Creator and one creation. Christian Science teaches that time and progress are not measured by years, but by the good unfolded.

— from The Christian Science Journal, June 1899, by M. Fannie Whitney

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Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher recognition of Deity. The mounting sense gathers fresh forms and strange fire from the ashes of dissolving self, and drops the world.

— from Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, page 1

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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

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Article — “The Fruit of Right Thinking” from Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Precepts by Gilbert Carpenter

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Forum post — “If I Were a Prophet” by nice.neighborhood

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Forum post — “After God’s Own Heart” by Parthens

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Forum post — “Came to himself” – Come to ourselves” by Louise

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This I well know: that which is most esteemed by men, — by the world, — is an abomination with God! “I will arise and go to my Father; and I will say, Father! Source of all life, light, and love, — seduced by the false opinions of men, the false statements of matter, — I forgot that I was created in Thine own likeness and image. My soul is born again into the knowledge of the dominion of Spirit over matter; into knowledge that the body is but the expression of Spirit, and subject to its dictation. Therefore, Good, My Father, I approach Thee, not with the wisdom of men, nor in the belief of musty traditions, but as a trusting child approaches his father, I approach Thee, Thou source of my life.”

— from Christian Science Journal, October 1885, By E.

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Final Readings