Sunday June 27th, 2021 Roundtable
Truth is the Universal Panacea
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Christian Science
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Morning Prayers
May this little sanctum be preserved sacred to the memory of this pure purpose, and subserve it. Let the Bible and the Christian Science textbook preach the gospel which heals the sick and enlightens the people’s sense of Christian Science. This ministry, reaching the physical, moral, and spiritual needs of humanity, will, in the name of Almighty God, speak the truth that to-day, as in olden time, is found able to heal both sin and disease.
— from Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 147
Discussion points
10 — WATCH lest, in your effort to educate your thought along spiritual lines, you forget that you are not trying to learn something new to you, since, as a child of God, you already have access to the precious gems of truth hidden in divine consciousness, and are only working to dig up the spiritual thought through which you may reflect all true knowledge. The only thing the advancing student has to learn that is new to God’s child is a knowledge of the operation of evil, and this should be a disappearing knowledge, since, when one has disposed of evil, he should no longer carry along a knowledge of its operation.
A man suffering from amnesia, or loss of memory, is not trying to learn something. He does not need an education. He needs to have his memory restored. A veil of belief has been drawn across his consciousness, which temporarily shuts off his recollection of his real self. This describes man’s dilemma from the spiritual standpoint. Man has not really lost his spiritual selfhood and its relation to God; he has merely lost sight of it. Thus the work of Christian Science is to restore man’s soul, which in turn brings to light his unity with God.
— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
GOLDEN TEXT: Jeremiah 8 : 22
“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?”
If God knows I know.
— Elsie from AL.
A woman—God-inspired—twenty years ago, planted a thought in the minds of the people that will grow until it reaches all nations. The “Tree of Life” will yet shelter “the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” She learned from our Master’s teachings and her constant communion with Christ. “Lo, I am with you alway,” was to her spiritualized sense of things a recognized fact. “The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen,” was to her the enduring substance of Life. Her feet touched the mountains, her understanding attained the heights we none of us yet have reached. Her reward will not be the praise of men, but the eternal glory of God.
Who of us will help this woman? Who of us will stand shoulder to shoulder amid the musketry of error, and guard the standard that she has planted? Be not afraid. The marching-song is one of victory, more inspiriting than the Marseillaise of France, and it reaches Heaven. Peace generally comes after the battle, but we have peace through it. Join our ranks, ye that are good and true. Sometimes they get broken, but it is only when the unworthy fall out, and we gain strength by their departure.
—”Recruit” from Christian Science Journal, August 1885 by X.
The seed sown twenty years ago has taken root, and has now become a tree. Already birds of ill-omen, as well as of promise, seek to lodge in its branches, and clamor for its fruit. It is the “Tree of Life,” and no flaming sword is there to destroy those who seek its shelter and support. Angels, however, guard tree and fruit. There is no night there, and the atmosphere is pure and elevating. There is but one of its kind, and it cannot be robbed of its seed to plant another. Every effort in that direction is unholy, and will never succeed.
It stands no holy heights, and those who approach take off their shoes in reverence and awe. Self must be immolated, and material burdens laid aside in order to attain the summit of the Mount. It is a strait and narrow way, and the slightest deviation into the by-ways of error, which are many at the base, prolongs the ascent. The mighty atmosphere of personal sense departs in this upward journey, and the bright effulgence of eternal Light breaks upon the vision of the approaching traveller.
—”Choose Ye” from Christian Science Journal, December 1885 by X.
Forum post — “Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord,” by Louise from MO.
Forum post — “And shall not be careful in the year of drought” by Louise from MO.
EDUCATION: Education is not teaching something to ignorance. It is bringing to light the intelligence that is omnipresent. It is the sun unfolding the flower in loveliness and beauty. It is the constant joy of anticipation. “Inferiority complex” is the lie that God, as the one infinite Mind, or intelligence, is not infinite. Could this be? Is there a single spot where there is less than all intelligence? Ignorance can never be enlightenment. The ignorance that says that two times two makes five always remains the same ignorance. Enlightenment, otherwise called education, leaves ignorance to itself, and goes forward with what is, thus “swallowing up” what is not. The teacher imbued with this understanding of education reaches the end of his teaching year rested, not wearied, by his work.
— Excerpt from hristian Science, Its Clear, Correct Teaching by Herbert Eustace, page 334
Forum post — “God’s Remedy” by Lynda from NJ
Forum post — In the Press Yet Not Of It by Parthens
Article — “Metaphysical Notes to use while working and watching for our Church and the world” from In Defense of Mary Baker Eddy and the Remnant of Her Seed by Paul Smillie
Final Readings
Christ Jesus’ Mission
Twenty-one years ago, I was in this city of Edinburgh. I had been sent over here by my physicians, who could not cure me, in the hope that I might find some physician in Europe who could. I went around from place to place, and in the course of time I came to a halt here in Edinburgh, disconsolate, wretched, and in agony. This was the last place before my return. I had given up all hope in Europe when I turned from Edinburgh one day to Liverpool, and then on to a steamer to go home to die. That is of no consequence to you, and it is of but little when I tell you that after having tried everything else in the world, in a state of despair I turned to Christian Science and was healed. That is of no consequence to you; but when I tell you that there have been over a million other people, equally sick and equally desperate, who likewise have been healed and delivered from grief, then I submit to you that it is evidence of some mighty transforming influence that is working on behalf of this race; and the people themselves, a million of them, rise up insistent to declare that they have been delivered from unspeakable depths of misery.
Christian Science does not offer the healing of the sick as its only effect. The primary object of Christian Science is to effect the moral reformation of this race, the regeneration, the uplifting of this whole race; and its whole teaching is in this direction. We are taught to obey the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, the moral law. We are taught to become more honest, more upright, loving, kind, charitable, and compassionate. We are taught to live in imitation of the life that is Christ’s, without reproach before God and man. We are taught to live according to a highly moral standard of being. We are taught to love our neighbor as ourselves, to do justly, and in every conceivable way to become better men and women. You may say, “Wherein are you distinctive?” We are distinctive on this point — God has not imposed disease upon the race; Christ is not only the saviour from sin, but the saviour from disease. His way is the way of recovery from all evil, and each one of us has a right to learn how to accomplish it.
— from Lectures and Articles on Christian Sciences by Edward kimball, page 335