Sunday, April 7th, 2024 Roundtable
How to Determine the Real From the Unreal
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Unreality
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Morning Prayers
Make supplication to God daily, that you may be delivered from all beliefs of sin or of sickness, and after doing this, then turn to, and demand of, yourself to realize their unreality, and recognize your power over the temptation to yield to any such an illusion.
— from Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, given by Mary Baker Eddy, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 38
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST’S PRAYER – There is no matter and no mortal mind. God is All-in-all. All is harmony, health, holiness. This is the prayer ‘unceasing’ to be used on all occasions and at all times. It lays the axe at the root of unreality, materiality (that forbidden tree) and cuts it down. Preserve a sacred silence on this subject of prayer.
— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 63
Discussion points
285 — WATCH … In one of her classes Mrs. Eddy taught as follows: “…Error is the talking serpent that talks to you against Mother and Jesus and yourself and your brethren, and cannot talk at all. Truth is. Let God talk all the time; there is nothing else. Serpent is mere belief — explained by the words, ‘A belief of personal sense that is governed by the Truth is a harmonious belief. A harmonious belief governed by the Truth is spiritual sense — understanding.’
“God told Moses to handle the serpent, but Moses tried to run away from it. God told him to go back and handle it. Moses said, ‘Where is the serpent? God did not make one.’ God said, ‘Handle the serpent,’ and he did, and it became a rod. The rod of Moses was malicious mesmerism, and when he handled it, it was a power, for he had power over lords many and gods many, and it was a staff to lean upon.
“The rod that Moses threw down, became through God, the power of good. The rod Moses had, God did not give him, but God commanded him to throw it down, and it became a serpent, his enemy.
“Then God spoke to Moses (who fled in fear) and commanded him to pick up the serpent (demonstrate the nothingness) and it became a rod.
“He could not expect to throw away the rod power at once, but must take it up as a staff, — let it become the power of God, — see it (sickness, error) work in us unto salvation.”
— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
GOLDEN TEXT: ISAIAH 53 : 1
“Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?”
Article — “This Place Has Changed Hands” by Mary Beth Singleterry
Article — “The Word Made Flesh” from Addresses by Martha Wilcox
Is it possible to know why we are put into this condition of mortality?
It is quite as possible to know wherefore man is thus conditioned, as to be certain that he is in a state of mortality. The only evidence of the existence of a mortal man, or of a material state and universe, is gathered from the five personal senses. This delusive evidence, Science has dethroned by repeated proofs of its falsity.
“We have no more proof of human discord, — sin, sickness, disease, or death, — than we have that the earth’s surface is flat, and her motions imaginary. If man’s ipse dixit as to the stellar system is correct, this is because Science is true, and the evidence of the senses is false. Then why not submit to the affirmations of Science concerning the greater subject of human weal and woe? Every question between Truth and error, Science must and will decide. Left to the decision of Science, your query concerns a negative which the positive Truth destroys; for God’s universe and man are immortal. We must not consider the false side of existence in order to gain the true solution of Life and its great realities.
“Who hath believed? Knots of women here and there, — enough in some places to form a church, — who have first had the curiosity to inquire into the new revelation; who, second, have been healed; who, third, have had the courage of their convictions, and proclaimed their faith in the parlor, on the housetop, in the street, in the papers, in the prayer-meeting.”
From Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, page 64-65
Lord, who hath believed our report? John xii. 38.
The writer of the Fourth Gospel quotes from Isaiah the Prophet, to show that in Jesus’ day, as in the elder era, Truth was not always received by those to whom God ordained its proclamation.
The words apply to the cause of Christian Science today. Who hath believed the report of the teachers of this old yet new Science, this new yet old form of healing? Up and down the land are circulated stories about cures without medicine, without hands. Who believes them? The multitude? No! The Scribes and Pharisees of the day, — that is, the Doctors of Divinity and Law, the church-leaders? No! Anybody? Yes, a great many bodies, — or rather, a great many minds, who find health through this curative method.
Who hath believed? Knots of women here and there, — enough in some places to form a church, — who have first had the curiosity to inquire into the new revelation; who, second, have been healed; who, third, have had the courage of their convictions, and proclaimed their faith in the parlor, on the housetop, in the street, in the papers, in the prayer-meeting.
“Report and Belief” from The Christian Science Journal July 1888, by S.C.R.
Article — The Christian Science Sentinel, July 18, 1901 by Judge Septimus J. Hanna, C.S.D,
“Reading: The question where or how did evil originate, is only a humanly wise way of implying that error is something instead of nothing. Night asks about the origin and existence of its delirium-created world. Light answers, I find no such world, or even a speck of the inquiring darkness. A true understanding of Science divinely dispels sense; it does not humanly account for it.”
(This is found in the “Third Day”)
From Class Notes, by Joseph Mann, C.S.D.
Final Readings
“March 5, 1889
My dear Student:
When I have a class I want you to bring the Constitution to my house 385 Com. Av. and I will attend to getting the names of applicants for the membership of the C. S. A.
Hoping you are blessed and blessing others,
I am,
Most truly Your Leader,
M. B. G. Eddy
There is always the temptation in Science to believe that we are accomplishing a great deal because we are engaged in a lot of active work. Yet in Miscellaneous Writings, on page 230, Mrs. Eddy writes, ‘Rushing around smartly is no proof of accomplishing much.” Students are under the temptation to believe that even though they may be busy just doing material labor for the Cause, they are automatically blessed by doing it merely because it is intended for a worthy cause. Theoretically that might be true, but it is not true practically. It is really a notion that is a hangover from old theology.
There is a thought that men constructing a Christian Science edifice are protected more than they would be building some other kind of building. But such a proposition holds good only when the students are doing their mental work rightly. There will be a protection attending the construction of a Science church if it is being built according to demonstration, and alert students know that they are obligated to protect those who build their structures.
A superstition exists that one man at least will be killed during the construction of a large building or church. This superstitious fear and expectancy must be overthrown by mental work, as it can be. Thus, if others receive healing and protection by coming in contact with a Christian Scientist, it is because his thought is alert in challenging mortal belief, not because they are coming in contact with a good man.
There are those who might believe that because they are going on an automobile trip with a Christian Scientist, there is less liability of an accident merely because he is a Scientist; but such a proposition does not hold good unless he has a demonstrating thought and uses it to keep a protective thought alive and active. When he does that, others are safer in his company than anywhere else on earth.
The officials of Mrs. Eddy’s church from its inception were busy people — as they still are. No doubt they were tempted to believe — and still are — that they were and are privileged to fulfill the highest demands of Christian Science on them. From the beginning their duties increased. Mr. Johnson’s son relates of times when his home was a beehive of activity. There were times when he and his father worked into the small hours of the morning.
In the letter in question, however, Mrs. Eddy introduced a keynote that was valuable to Mr. Johnson, as well as to all busy students. She knew how busy he was about the work of the organization, and she hoped to help him all she could to resist the temptation described above to believe that the work of itself carries a blessing. So, she ended her letter to him, ‘Hoping you are blessed and blessing others.” In this she does not imply that the blessing came automatically through the work he had to do. She hoped, therefore, that he would see this as a call for mental alertness, knowing that he would get the blessing and be able to bless others if he handled the error.
One does not bless others unless he handles the error so that his desire to bless others is accompanied by the work that will accomplish it. Mrs. Eddy did not want any student ever to believe that activity without demonstration, — even though it is activity in behalf of God’s Cause, — is different from any other activity as far as our growth and blessing are concerned, unless we make it so. We grow in Science and bless others, because we know how to grow and to use that knowledge to produce growth and give out a blessing.
Mrs. Eddy desired Mr. Johnson to realize that his spiritual growth, his usefulness to God, and God’s appreciation of him because of the blessings he was bestowing upon others, was wholly a matter of the demonstration that he must make, in spite of being a busy official in the Church, and not because of it. It is a rule that when you have a position in which a great deal of work is expected of you, you have a greater demonstration to make to be able to remember your obligation to God, which must be done in spite of your obligation to man humanly. Thus, to one who understands metaphysics, such positions represent taking up the cross. One who desired to be a Director for instance, would thereby expose his unfitness for the position at the outset. The real Scientist would consider such posts a cross because they make it difficult for him to pursue his real work as a student, namely, being blessed and blessing others. In order to do this, he would have to demonstrate over the constant demands on his time and thought.
In latter years it would appear as if the Directors were seeking to take on more and more responsibility. Perhaps they want to feel that they are earning their money, and to show the Field that there is such a demand on them for constant activity that they are worth the salary they get. Yet the most valuable servants in Christian Science, those who are the best servants of God, are those who are making the demonstration to be blessed and so blessing others. They receive the greatest reward spiritually, even if their reward humanly is small.
It was very important for Mrs. Eddy to impress this vital yet simple point on Mr. Johnson, as well as on other students who were busy in the church; and this letter gave her the opportunity, because it was part of his activities in behalf of the work to bring the Constitution to her home when she held a class, so that she might do with it as she had to. She knew that any little service he did for her would cause him to feel blessed, and that he was accomplishing great service. She knew this was true in a measure, because to relieve her of responsibility so that she might be of the highest service, was a great demonstration, one that always blessed those who made it. But she did not want him to believe that that necessarily released him from making a definite and specific effort to bless the world — and he had to be taught how to bless the world, as all students have to be. They have to learn how to be able to send out a wave of spiritual truth to humanity that goes out with power, because it is backed up by expectancy and spiritual optimism.
Mrs. Eddy set the great example in her own home. The daily life there was of such a nature, that no matter how busy the students and their Leader were, no matter how much work piled up, the work of blessing others and so being blessed had to go on. Out of each working day, five hours were given over entirely to this work of blessing others. Then when that was taken care of, the rest of the time was given over to the material side of the work. But the important side was the work of blessing and being blessed.
In sending Mr. Johnson a note asking him to do a favor, it might seem strange for Mrs. Eddy to hope that he is blessed and blessing others, unless we realize that Mrs. Eddy knew so well that there was a constant temptation to substitute work for service, when in Science both must go hand in hand, with service taking the lead and work following after. Thus, she never lost an opportunity to impress upon students the fact that human obligations in relation to the organization must never encroach on the demonstration of being blessed and blessing others through spiritual means, — the demonstration of infinite Mind as supreme. “
— by Gilbert Carpenter