Sunday, December 1st, 2019 Roundtable

May each day unfold to you the manifold treasures of Christian Science, and may you become the rich partakers thereof. Remember that the power to heal is gained through peace, wisdom, Love, dominion over self, and good-will toward men. You possess these graces of Spirit, or Christ-power, only by loving God – good – supremely. After this cometh the recognition of but one Mind, which enables you to know that there is no power or presence that can resist good, or prevent your prayers being effectual. While you remain in this attitude of mind, you are obedient to the Principle of your being, and naught can hinder your healing the sick and the sinner.

— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, the “Blue Book,” by Mary Baker Eddy, page 275

34 — WATCH that you be consistent in your handling of error, not overlooking an error in yourself, or claiming immunity from it, while you continue to hold it as real in another. In the habit of criticism, it is well to remember that that which does the criticizing is no more real or part of man than what is criticized.

When someone in a family is ill, he suffers with “feelsickness” in contrast to the others, who suffer with “seesickness.” When error appears real to you, even though it may be manifested by another, it becomes part of your problem, which is to unsee and to make nothing of error, whenever and wherever it presents itself.

One burned-out bulb in a string of Christmas tree lights that are connected in series, will cause them all to go out. As God’s children we are all banded together in the bonds of love. To see one of God’s little ones as a burnedout bulb, or as cut off from God, and hence under the control of error, shuts off your current, and robs you of your spiritual light. This attitude constitutes malpractice on your brother. It does not help him, and harms you.

In Matthew 5:23 we read, “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee ; . . . first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.”

— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter

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Golden Text — “The government shall be upon his shoulder.” — I Isaiah 9 : 6

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Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opinions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to morals and health when it is opposed promptly and persistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain existence.

— Citation 8 from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 273 : 29-3

Denounce: : to pronounce especially publicly to be blameworthy or evil

— from Webster’s Online Dictionary

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Forum post — Man’s Rights Cannot Be Invaded by Chardelle from PA

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Article — Faith-cure by Mary Baker Eddy

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MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775. According to the American Cyclopædia, he regarded this so-called force, which he said could be exerted by one living organism over another, as a means of alleviating disease.

— Citation 3 from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 100 : 1-6

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Animal magnetism has no scientific foundation, for God governs all that is real, harmonious, and eternal, and His power is neither animal nor human. Its basis being a belief and this belief animal, in Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power, nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so-called mortal mind.

The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. The looms of crime, hidden in the dark recesses of mortal thought, are every hour weaving webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on the subject which the criminal desires. Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so-called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore in the community.

— Citation 5 from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 102 : 1-8, 16-23, 30-2

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My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart.

— Psalm 7 : 10 from citation 1 in the Bible portion of this week’s Lesson.

Defense: Any thing that opposes attack, violence, danger or injury; any thing that secures the person, the rights or the possessions of men; fortification; guard; protection; security.

— from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

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Forum post — New Research on the Nature of Mesmerism by Parthens

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Article — One with God Is a Majority, and You Are that One From Association Address of 1912 by William R. Rathvon

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9. Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah.

10. Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.

1. Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the Lord.

2. Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people; Ye have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them: behold, I will visit upon you the evil of your doings, saith the Lord.

3. And I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all countries whither I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

4. And I will set up shepherds over them which shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord.

5. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.

— Isaiah 1 : 9, 10; Jeremiah 23 : 1-5 from the Responsve Reading portion of this week’s Lesson.

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Forum post — Jeremiah 23 by Jeremy from NJ

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Bible Study for May 11, 2019 — “O Daughter of Zion”

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Mrs. Eddy gave copies of a card to her household workers sometime between 1906 and 1910, entitled “The Quiet Room,” the one side of the card reads:

And so I find it well to come
For deeper rest to this still room;
For here the habit of the soul
Feels less the outer world’s control.
And from the silence, multiplied
By these still forms on every side,
The world that time and sense has known
Falls off and leaves us God alone.

— Ecerpt from The Meeting written by John Greenleaf Whittier in 1868

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Forum post — “In league with the stones…” by Joanne from FL

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Flint: In Isaiah 50:7 and Ezekiel 3:9 the expressions, where the word is used, means that the ‘Messiah would be firm and resolute amidst all contempt and scorn which he would meet; that he had made up his mind to endure it, and would not shrink from any kind or degree of suffering which would be necessary to accomplish the great work in which he was engaged.

— from Easton’s Bible Dictionary

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And they entered into a covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul.

— II Chronicles 15 from citation 4 in the Bible portion of this week’s Lesson.

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Covenant: A binding contract; the promise of God to man, that man’s perfect obedience should entitle him to happiness.

— from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary

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Forum post — Truth brings the elements of liberty. by Lynda from PA

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He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

— Job 5 from citation 2 in the Bible portion of this week’s Lesson.

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You may know when first Truth leads by the fewness and faithfulness of its followers. Thus it is that the march of time bears onward freedom’s banner. The powers of this world will fight, and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass the guard until it subscribes to their systems; but Science, heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on. There is always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth’s standard.

— Citation 10 from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 225 : 5-22

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(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

— II Corinthians 10 : 4, 5 from citation 7 in the Bible portion of this week’s Lesson.

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This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.

As this consummation draws nearer, he who has shaped his course in accordance with divine Science will endure to the end.

During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.

— Citation 11 from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 96 : 12-20, 25-27, 31-4

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Final Readings