Sunday, November 24th, 2019 Roundtable

Health is not a condition of matter but of Mind

This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Soul and Body

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Morning Prayers

May our Father-Mother God, who in times past hath spread for us a table in the wilderness and “in the midst of our enemies,” establish us in the most holy faith, plant our feet firmly on Truth, the rock of Christ, the “substance of things hoped for” — and fill us with the life and understanding of God, and good will towards men.

— from “Prayer for Country and Church” Christian Science versus Pantheism by Mary Baker Eddy, page 15

Discussion points

120 — WATCH lest, having put your hand to the plough, you look back. The action and effect of Truth is to uncover and destroy error. A plough turns over the topsoil and exposes that which has been hidden. The tendency of the human mind is to desire everything smooth on the surface, even though, underneath, there is hidden latent error.

If a student is not ready to stick to the plough after it has begun to uncover error, and continue the warfare until the error is entirely exposed and destroyed, he is not ready to put his hand to the plough at all, in order that Truth may uncover his hidden errors. He will look back with desire at the time when he enjoyed human harmony, even though there was hidden error in his thought.

Once in a while you meet a student who complains that, after having come into Christian Science, he has a great deal to meet that he never had before. This complaint proves that he is looking back with longing to the time when, before he put his hand to the plough, his human experience was comparatively smooth because error was more or less under cover, or latent. Such a one proves by this attitude that he is not fit for the kingdom of heaven, since he does not possess the necessary determination to press forward.

— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter




Commitment helped me continue on when faced with difficult challenges in Christian Science. Also asking myself, “Where else are you going to go?”

— Plainfield Roundtable




Golden Text — “Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.” — Ephesians 5 : 23




CHRIST. The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.

— from the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 583




Told about some friends calling on Mrs. Eddy one day, and a servant told them she was in the back yard. They went around the house, and seeing Mrs. Eddy seemed to be busy, they started away; but she called to them to come to her, and then asked them if they knew what she was doing. They replied they didn’t, and then she said, ‘I am going back in my memory just as far as I can remember and denying all the error that ever seemed to happen to me.’ It is poor use of memory to review error.

— from 1937 Collegeby Bicknell Young




Only the good and good lessons about the past are true.

— Plainfield Roundtable




Salvation: The act of saving; preservation from destruction, danger or great calamity. Appropriately in theology, the redemption of man from the bondage of sin and liability to eternal death, and the conferring on him everlasting happiness. This is the great salvation. Deliverance from enemies; Remission of sins, or saving graces. The author of man’s salvation. A term of praise or benediction.

— from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary




It is most important that … the church, or body of Christ, be kept pure in your consciousness, for thereby church members may find that the human sense of their own bodies is reciprocally blessed. In this way alone can the church eventually be made to show forth the characteristics of the divine body. The healing work and the church work are bound up together; they are held in one body…. This body is the real church, the united demonstration of Science. Such demonstration all must take part in. It also protects the church building, just in the same way that human bodies are protected by correct metaphysical practice. This protection should extend itself so as to cover our church properties … and our legal rights pertaining to them, so that they may be used perpetually and exclusively for the purpose of Christian Science. There is no way of founding or protecting or perpetuating a Christian Science church except through healing the sick.

— from 1920 Association Address by Bicknell Young




CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle. The Church is that institution, which affords proof of its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the apprehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.

— from the Glossary of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 583




Isaiah “ … mentions ‘the branch of (God’s) planting’ as he begins to speak of the importance of the individuality of man. When Mrs. Eddy founded her church, she founded the concept of the ‘branch church’ which was to be completely individual unto itself, not having to answer to or be governed by a hierarchical church above it. It symbolized individual man answerable only to God.”

— from the Glossary of The Comforter Physics to Metaphysics, Volume 2, by Yvonne Reus, page 238




Each day, read 5 pages of Science and Health, 5 pages of Miscellaneous Writings, 5 pages of the Bible, or whatever you can schedule.

— Plainfield Roundtable




Click here to listen to Bible Study 11/23/19 — Seek ye the LORD while He may be found.




Forum post — “If One is Indestructible, So Is the Other” by Parthens




Menpleaser: One who is solicitous to please men, rather than to please God, by obedience to His commands.

— from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary




The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

— James 5:16 from the King James Bible




It is impossible to enslave, mentally or socially, a bible-reading people. The principles of the Bible are the groundwork of human freedom.”

— Horace Greele




God and Soul are one, and this one never included in a limited mind or a limited body. … Because Soul is immortal, it does not exist in mortality. …Only by losing the false sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as immortality brought to light.

— Citation 2 from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 335




Life is the law of Soul, even the law of the spirit of Truth, and Soul is never without its representative. Man’s individual being can no more die nor disappear in unconsciousness than can Soul, for both are immortal. …The belief that existence is contingent on matter must be met and mastered by Science, before Life can be understood and harmony obtained.

— Citation 3 from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 427




First thing in the morning, “before your feet hit the floor”:

God is Mind. God is my mind. God is the only pure Mind.

God is Life. God is my life. God is the only Life.

— Plainfield Roundtable




Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind;

— Citation 5 from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 120




Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutriment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction, — that food has power to destroy Life, God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-destructive, constituting a “kingdom divided against itself,” which is “brought to desolation.” If food was prepared by Jesus for his disciples, it cannot destroy life.

The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life.

— Citation 6 from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 388




What you are thinking is what is important.

— Plainfield Roundtable




A Prayer before a meal. Know “this food can only bless us” and express gratitude for the food.

— Plainfield Roundtable




Final Readings

Body

The term Mind and body literally means God and man, for man is the expression of Mind and the manifestation of Mind is the embodiment of Mind. Therefore, man is God’s body and there is but one God. Body is therefore the aggregation of spiritual ideas, forever controlled and governed by the law of Life, harmonious and eternal. This understanding of perfect body is the savior of the belief of body and is the law of recovery to any and every claim of error…

Listen to and read the complete article. — Body By Mary Baker Eddy







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