Sunday, November 3rd, 2024 Roundtable
The Healing Mind
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Everlasting Punishment
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayers
The government of divine Love is supreme. Love rules the universe, and its edict hath gone forth: “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” and “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Let us have the molecule of faith that removes mountains, — faith armed with the understanding of Love, as in divine Science, where right reigneth.
Let the voice of Truth and Love be heard above the dire din of mortal nothingness, and the majestic march of Christian Science go on ad infinitum, praising God, doing the works of primitive Christianity, and enlightening the world.
God is Father, infinite, and this great truth, when understood in its divine metaphysics, will establish the brotherhood of man, end wars, and demonstrate “on earth peace, good will toward men.”
from Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 278, 245, and 279
Daily Watch
41 — WATCH lest you believe that in certain directions Christian Science does not condemn what the world calls sin, because it encourages that dissatisfaction with mortal existence which often leads mortals to sin. Jesus said, “I am come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Evidently he felt that the consciousness in which the seeds of sin had developed and borne the fruit of suffering, was more receptive to truth than the one that contained in embryo seeds — as every mortal consciousness does — where because they had not ripened into action, mortal man believed that he was more or less free from sin, and hence righteous. No one seeks truth until he feels that he needs it. One cannot declare that he is righteous until he has cleansed his thought of all materiality. The self-satisfied, or self-righteous, mentality is not open to the approach of Christ, Truth.
Discussion points
The self-righteous individual is convinced he is always right. He may even take a martyred attitude that his role in life is “to straighten everyone out.” He can never admit to being wrong or making a mistake. He can be narrow-minded in what he considers to be right, intolerant of any differing views, and even belligerent with those who hold them.
When a person has this false trait, his mind is impervious to divine ideas, for the purpose of spiritual unfoldment is to correct wrong thinking, and one who is “always right” cannot even admit that such correction is needed.
from The Law of Love by Ann Beals
Divine severity
Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before he cast it out. Of a sick woman he said that Satan had bound her, and to Peter he said, “Thou art an offence unto me.” He came teaching and showing men how to destroy sin, sickness, and death. He said of the fruitless tree, “[It] is hewn down.”
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 6
The scribes and Pharisees were asleep in error, satisfied to remain as they were. Jesus loved them and would save them. He loved not the sin of hypocrisy, nor the dream of materiality; but he loved the individual. They did not know the terribleness of their condition. They did not realize how far they were away from truth. Jesus had for them something better, but they must see their need of it before they would accept it; hence he must first cause them to see they were in error. For this he said: “Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.” He showed them the errors they indulged and the terrible consequences that must inevitably follow. Then he adds: “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?” (Matt, xxiii. 33.) Were these the words of Love? Yes; and given in the spirit of Love that knows no hate. They were Truth’s denunciation of error. While Jesus possessed undying love for the sinner he was unrelenting toward sin. The purity of his thought made his rebuke all the more terrible; but, “The design of Love is to reform the sinner.”* As the drowning man suffers when being brought back to life, so the sinner suffers under Truth’s denunciation of error. The suffering of mortal thought, when rebuked by Love, serves to destroy the sin, but saves the individual; revealing him as the image and likeness of God.
from “Sin and Sinner” by W. F. G. from the October 1890 issue of the Christian Science Journal
6. Psalm 51
2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
The pains of sense are salutary, if they wrench away false pleasurable beliefs…
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 265
My views of a future and eternal punishment take in a poignant present sense of sin and its suffering, punishing itself here and hereafter till the sin is destroyed.
The present self-inflicted sufferings of mortals from sin, disease, and death should suffice so to awaken the suf ferer from the mortal sense of sin and mind in matter as to cause him to return to the Father’s house penitent and saved; yea, quickly to return to divine Love, the author and finisher of our faith, who so loves even the repentant prodigal – departed from his better self and struggling to return – as to meet the sad sinner on his way and to welcome him home.
from Message for 1901, by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 16 and 17
Responsive Reading: Isaiah 55 : 7
7. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Golden Text: Psalm 139 : 23, 24
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
The first thing in the morning, call on God to deliver you from temptation and help you to be awake. Then do your chores, not as a dreamy hashish eater, but with a clear sense of what to do and just how to do it. Then sit down, and first get yourself into a consciousness of your power with God, and then take up the outside watch. Sit until this is clear, — if two hours.
I want you to take up the Watch every two hours, as long as you live, or until you can make the right side real to your consciousness.
“Things to handle daily” from Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, given by Mary Baker Eddy
Three Rules for Treatment by Bicknell Young
Mrs. Eddy tells us that “sick humanity … looks for relief in all ways except the right one” (Science and Health, p. 371). Mortals examine the material body, watch its action, regulate its food, and so on, instead of looking into mortal thought for their enemy and putting out what has no business there. It is obvious that trouble of any kind could not occur in human experience unless human thought had first made it possible; nor could suffering result from any circumstance apart from mental action. Therefore the potent remedy in sickness as in other errors is to obey the Scriptural injunction of Isaiah, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
…To quote Mrs. Eddy again, “The divine Mind produces in man health, harmony, and immortality” (Science and Health, p. 380)
from “The Healing Mind” by Samuel Greenwood from the March 10, 1917 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
1939 Association Address by Mildred LeBlond
I agree with Rev. Dr. Talmage, that “there are wit, humor, and enduring vivacity among God’s people.”
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 117
from “Home” by Ella W. Hoag from the October 25, 1919 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Final Readings
Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there is no power but from God: the powers that are, are ordained by God. — Romans 13:1
Whatever the circumstances of your life or the decisions made in the global corridors of earthly rule, God is firmly and eternally in control, both of your life and over the governments of the world, and He has scheduled a time when He will put all principalities and powers under His feet. Despite the polices of politicians, the regulations of religious leaders, and the dictates of both national and international dignitaries under whom we are currently placed, we have an assurance from the authoritative Word of God, that He is in control and has authorised every authority to carry out His eternal plan and purpose. He does this so that CHRIST is ALL, and CHRIST will be ALL and in ALL.
…down through history, we see that basest of men are often those the Lord sets in positions of authority. Let us never forget that it is the Lord Most High Who remains ruler over the realm of mankind, and He uses each one to forward His perfect purpose and plan.
And no matter what righteous or ungodly decisions are made in the elected establishment or any unelected shadow administration, God remains in sovereign control, and will only permit men to achieve their objectives when they forward His perfect plans and purposes in His redemptive programme.
Paul’s instruction to: “Let every soul be subject to the higher powers”, can often be resisted by those who recognise the problems and corruption that is often lurking in the corridors of power, but even in those difficult times, we must never forget: “There is no power except that which comes from God and the powers that are, are ordained by God.” However difficult we find the circumstances of life, within our family unit, or our national boundaries, we must never forget that God uses the difficulties of life to hone and strengthen our faith, and to draw us into closer fellowship with and dependence on Him.