Sunday, April 21st, 2019 Roundtable
The Lost Chord of Truth
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Doctrine of Atonement
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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
Christ cannot come to mortal and material sense, which sees not God. This false sense of substance must yield to His eternal presence, and so dissolve. Rising above the false, to the true evidence of Life, is the resurrection that takes hold of eternal Truth. Coming and going belong to mortal consciousness. God is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”
— from Unity of Good by Mary Baker Eddy, page 60 – 61/p>
Discussion points
354 — WATCH that you know that in reality error has no more power to make deadly thrusts at the Scientist who is destroying it, than a mouse can fight back at a cat. See Science and Health, 458:20. It is helpful to consider that the trickery of animal magnetism is to suggest that we watch at one point, while it works undetected at another, just as the cat might watch one hole, while the mouse escapes through another. The remedy is to declare and realize that there is nothing hidden that shall not be revealed, and that all you need to know and to uncover each day, is uncovered as you do your work for God and man faithfully.
— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
GOD. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.
— from the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
Mrs. Eddy possessed the ability to read unspoken thoughts. For example: Mrs. Helen A. Nixon called at her home for an interview, and was told that Mrs. Eddy would see her in a few minutes. While Mrs. Nixon waited for Mrs. Eddy, she saw an intoxicated man across the street. She began to ponder the case, and asked herself, “Where is that seeming error? Is the error in me or is it in him? Am I drunk or is that man drunk?” Immediately Mrs. Eddy who had entered the room unobserved, said aloud, “No, that error is not in your thought.” She had read the mental query and gave the answer to it before the student was aware of her presence.
— from The Destiny of the Mother Church by Bliss Knapp page 3
Quote — “Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.” ― Rabbi Hyman Schachtel
Golden Text — “Jesus saith, Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works’ sake.” — John 14 : 9, 11
RESPONSIVE READING: Revelation 19 : 11-16
11. And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
12. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.
13. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.
14. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.
15. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
16. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
— Psalm 91: 14 – 16 from citation 1 in the Bible portion of this week’s lesson
And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
— John 17: 11 from citation 2 in the Bible portion of this week’s lesson
When fear comes knocking. Let faith answer the door.
Forum post — The Lost Chord by Parthens
Instead of being bound for the grave, we must know we are on the eternal road of Life that has no sense of death.
— from Essays and Other Footprints, (the “Red Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 74
Article — “There Is No Death”A letter sent to Herbert Eustace from one of his students
After Mrs. Eddy’s return to Concord, New Hampshire, Mr. Knapp was asked to search again for the home which Mrs. Eddy knew God had prepared for her. Early in December, 1891, she herself was led to a beautiful tract of land on the outskirts of Concord, which she purchased. She named her home “Pleasant View”; and in writing to Mr. Knapp about it, she said that she had longed for a home by the seaside, but instead God had prepared it on a hillside. She wrote, “My house here stands upon a very sightly hill, and the _sides remind me of the Galilean slopes where my brother walked, and wept, and prayed.”
— from The Destiny of the Mother Church by Bliss Knapp page 17
Final Readings
The old churches are saying, “He is not here;” and, “Who shall roll away the stone?”
The stone has been rolled away by human suffering. The first rightful desire in the hour of loss, when believing we have lost sight of Truth, is to know where He is laid. This appeal resolves itself into these questions: —
Is our consciousness in matter or in God? Have we any other consciousness than that of good? If we have, He is saying to us to-day, “Adam, where art thou?” We are wrong if our consciousness is in sin, sickness, and death. This is the old consciousness.
In the new religion the teaching is, “He is not here; Truth is not in matter; he is risen; Truth has become more to us, — more true, more spiritual.”
Can we say this to-day? Have we left the consciousness of sickness and sin for that of health and holiness?
What is it that seems a stone between us and the resurrection morning?
It is the belief of mind in matter. We can only come into the spiritual resurrection by quitting the old consciousness of Soul in sense.
These flowers are floral apostles. God does all this through His followers; and He made every flower in Mind before it sprang from the earth: yet we look into matter and the earth to give us these smiles of God!
We must lay aside material consciousness, and then we can perceive Truth, and say with Mary, “Rabboni!” — Master!
In 1866, when God revealed to me this risen Christ, this Life that knows no death, that saith, “Because he lives, I live,” I awoke from the dream of Spirit in the flesh so far as to take the side of Spirit, and strive to cease my warfare.
When, through this consciousness, I was delivered from the dark shadow and portal of death, my friends were frightened at beholding me restored to health.
A dear old lady asked me, “How is it that you are restored to us? Has Christ come again on earth?”
“Christ never left,” I replied; “Christ is Truth, and Truth is always here, — the impersonal Saviour.”
Then another person, more material, met me, and I said, in the words of my Master, “Touch me not.” I shuddered at her material approach; then my heart went out to God, and I found the open door from this sepulchre of matter.
I love the Easter service: it speaks to me of Life, and not of death.
Let us do our work; then we shall have part in his resurrection.
— from Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, page 179:1 – 180: 19