Sunday May 30th, 2021 Roundtable
Quenching All the Fiery Darts of the Wicked
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Ancient and Modern Necromancy, Alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism, Denounced
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Morning Prayers
Every pure thought falling silently and gently into human consciousness does its part in cleansing the whole world, just as every falling snowflake does its silent share in transforming the noisomeness of the grimy earth into a soft white blanket of purity. We must remember that the smallest truth is mightier than the greatest lie the world has ever known. The one is as enduring as eternity; the other is as transient as a shadow. Take from a lie its power to deceive and it becomes nothing, for its very being depends upon its ability to mislead. A lie must have two willing accessories – one who is willing to be deceived: one who is willing to deceive – the victimized and the victim; if either is wanting, the lie can do nothing.
— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 233
Discussion points
241 — WATCH lest you believe that you are striving to learn something about error, other than what it is not. All one can know or learn about darkness is that it is the absence of light. The claims of animal magnetism must be exposed and detected, since in the Christian Science Sentinel for May 2, 1936 we find Mrs. Eddy saying that God will answer the prayer only of those who see the errors that they must destroy. Yet our effort to expose error must always lead up to the recognition of its nothingness, which only means that it is the supposititious absence of something.
— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
GOLDEN TEXT: I John 3 : 7
“Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.”
Once let the alertness to Truth be lulled by indolence or self-indulgence, how quickly does the mesmerism of error deafen the ear to the voice of Principle. When error confronts the “man of God” in a more subtle and pleasing form, through the voice of one who might be trusted to be also a man of God, without stopping to weigh the suggestion, to listen for the inward voice, he steps aside from the direct path, easily following the dictates of the senses.
The consequent punishment is swift and tragic in its intensity, and, as a cursory reading may suggest, out of all proportion to the sin; but deeper thought reveals very plainly that in Jesus’ words, “unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required.” The great responsibility to which the man of God was called argued a previous career to which many proofs of God’s power and goodness had been given. The greater the moral height, the greater the fall if that height is not sustained by absolute fidelity to Principle. Again, on the first reading, it would seem as if the chief blame should rest on the “old prophet,” who was the tempter, but, while it is evident that he too had a sudden awakening to the demands of Principle, and suffered his full share of remorse and punishment, nothing can relieve each individual from the full responsibility of his own work, his own place in “the vineyard of the Lord.”
The demands of Principle are absolute, and must be met, or “on whomsoever” this stone “shall fall it will grind him to powder.”
— “The Disobedient Prophet” from Christian Science Journal, January 1906 by Mabel S. Thomson
“Quenching the Fiery Darts of the Wicked” Teaching and Addresses by Edward Kimball
Animal magnetism, I acknowledge your claims, but I denounce your power. When error speaks, nothing is said. Stop justifying yourself in error.
— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 199
Forum post — As God directs. by Palmer from NJ
Forum post — We are created to do more not less! by Lynda from NJ
Forum post — Biblical scholarship – History and Inspired Overlay. by Kerry
Final Readings
There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all-embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind.
— from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 102
I once watched a little boy playing with a magnet. For a while he amused himself by seeing the bits of iron spring to the steel, then he began experimenting. He held a piece of thin paper between the magnet and the iron, and the iron leaped to its attraction just the same. Little by little he increased the thickness of the paper, till at last the iron was no longer affected. If his magnet had been stronger, more resistance would have been overcome, and one can imagine a lodestone so large and powerful that perhaps no obstacle would be able to defeat its action. The parallel is obvious. There are no degrees of power in Truth. It never falls short of omnipotence. One may deny its attraction, may even defy it, may build up between it and one’s self a barrier of prejudice, self love, selfwill, that may seem all but impenetrable, but steadily, calmly, irresistibly, through all phases and vicissitudes, Truth is day by day drawing humanity up and out of its dreamworld; and thus God, Truth, touches the human consciousness through Jesus of Nazareth, the great Teacher, and through the work of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, who walks among us to-day in her gracious womanhood.
This spring, when I planted my nasturtiums, I put the first of them very deep, so that my mother, standing by, said, “Those seeds will never come up, you are planting them much too deep.” I put the rest nearer the surface, and covered them all up, and waited through the pleasant days. When the right time came, the little green bent fingers began to push the soil away, and one by one the tiny plants appeared, those planted last coming first, but after a little the others coming too, till every seed had lifted itself “in newness of life” into the light. Not one failed to obey the call of the springtime. It took longer for some of them, for they had more to overcome, deeper darkness, a heavier weight of the earth but always above was the sun and the rain and the dew, calling, “Come up hither,” and they every one obeyed. So shall each individual consciousness hear Truth say, “Come up hither.” The roads may differ that each must take. Some seem to walk along “primrose paths,” though always there are thorns and briars to beware of and to uproot others have to hew their way through solid granite blocks of educated beliefs, fears, hopes, and hates. But if the roads differ, the goal is the same for all, and sooner or later, through storm and stress, joy and triumph, all things working for good, the child of God will find himself in the image and likeness of his Father-Mother, and God’s will shall “be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”
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— from “The Attraction of Truth” Christian Science Journal, July 1905 by Cyrene Emery