Sunday, August 31st, 2025 Roundtable
The Simple Wisdom of a Little Child
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Christ Jesus
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
Jesus proved that what he knew was the Christ, was the presence and power of God. Love is wisdom, and without wisdom there is no love.
Love is the Way. Love worketh with us. It does not work with hate, hence we must love. Love ‘worketh with us to will and to do,’ that is, to accomplish. ‘Love never faileth;’ hence we cannot fail in our demonstration.
His ways are not made known until He tries our obedience, and then He will reward it. Be of good cheer. It is Love, unquenchable Love, that loves you better than you can love yourself; Love that cares for every moment and will not leave you comfortless; Love that saith, ‘none shall be able to pluck them out of my hands.’
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 93
Daily Watch
244 — WATCH lest you fail to differentiate between statements for instruction, growth and demonstration. Statements of Science that are for instruction, involve the analysis of the operation of the lie, as it claims to hold man in bondage in Egypt. Statements for growth are based on man as approaching perfection, having come to himself, remembering his Father’s house, so that he is ready to return.
Statements for demonstration are based on absolute present perfection, declaring man to be in the Father’s house now, to have been there always, and never to have departed for any suppositional sojourn in Egypt, from which he must return.
Instruction is needed to uncover the mystery of iniquity, to show how the lie operates mesmerically and aggressively to make falsity seem either attractive or fearful, so that mortal man yields to its bondage; yet all the time to have no power other than to whisper its suggestions, but to do it in such a way that the suggestions appear to be either mortal man’s own thoughts, or else to be matter talking.
Statements of growth picture man as a pilgrim walking the road from sense to Soul. It is necessary for a student to consider himself as approaching perfection and “gaining a little each day in the right direction” (Science and Health, page 21 link); otherwise he may not see the necessity for striving.
Demonstration which starts and ends with the realization and declaration of eternal present perfection is needed to silence the lie, or pack of lies of mortal belief. One cannot utilize the healing power of God unless he takes the stand that everything is spiritual and perfect now, that man has never departed from perfection, since God created him perfect; hence there is, in reality, nothing to heal.
Discussion points
If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striving to enter in. He constantly turns away from material sense, and looks towards the imperishable things of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the start, and gain a little each day in the right direction, till at last he finishes his course with joy.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 21
Golden Text: I John 3 : 18
“My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth.”
Humility is lens and prism to the understanding of Mind-healing; it must be had to understand our textbook; it is indispensable to personal growth, and points out the chart of its divine Principle and rule of practice.
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 356
Linkletter: “Why is telling the truth important?”
Child: “Because if you lie, you have to remember the lie, and I can barely remember my homework.”
Linkletter: “What does it mean to be responsible?”
Child: “It’s when you spill something and clean it up before anyone sees it.”
Linkletter: “How do you know someone is your best friend?”
Child: “They give you half their cookie, even the good half with more chocolate chips.”
When we listen to children—really listen—we find not just humor but wisdom:
– Simplicity has power. Children distill complex concepts into plain truths.
– Compassion is natural. Kids instinctively think in terms of fairness, kindness, and inclusion.
– Perspective matters. Every child’s answer widens the lens on what it means to live fully, bravely, and differently.
Perhaps the greatest challenge to adult wisdom is that children remind us we don’t have all the answers. Sometimes the best way to understand responsibility, friendship, or difference is to hear it from a child’s mouth. Their responses are practical, heartfelt, and often more truthful than the carefully constructed answers we give ourselves.
The lesson?
If we slow down and listen deeply to the voices of children, we can stretch the way we perceive the world. We can broaden our perspectives. And maybe, just maybe, we can recover a bit of the honesty, humor, and courage that children so freely offer.
Kids say the darndest and wisest thing
How Do We Know God? As a Little Child by Mary Beth Singleterry
Watching Point 44, from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
Responsive Reading: Ephesians 5 : 1, 2 • Galatians 3 : 26-28
1. Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children;
2. And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.
26. For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
DEFINITION – Animal magnetism is starting a belief and getting others to fear it, until evil is done to those that hold the belief and a law is made, and the error goes on gaining ground until the serpent becomes a dragon.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 103
Our Cause is immortal; it rests on nothing temporal; it is the cause and effect of all that really exists. What more is left us to desire than its acknowledgment and the unfolding of God, infinite Life, Love! I rejoice that the young folks, yea, the children, are its supporters, embrace it, love it, and will learn to live it.
Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 126
“Although my parents were not students of CS they recognised the tremendous value of attending a CS Sunday school when I was growing up. I will always be grateful they enrolled me in the Sunday School. Though my attendance was not very regular, when I did attend I felt a great sense of kindness and love.
One morning when I was eight years old I woke up and found it impossible to move. I was so terrified that all I could do was cry. When my parents came to check on me, they quickly realised that something was wrong. My Dad picked me up, placed me in our car, and drove me to the local hospital. After a thorough examination and X-rays, I was diagnosed as having pneumonia and a collapsed lung. We were told that the collapsed lung had to be removed, so surgery was scheduled for 2 days later.
I cannot tell you how afraid I was, I had to stay in the hospital, and after my parents went home I felt completely alone. The next day my parents visited me and explained to me why I would have to have an operation. Before long, all 3 of us were crying.
As I sat alone, in my bed that night, I remembered this sentence written on the wall of the CS Sunday school I attended: ‘God is Love.’ I quietly prayed. I remembered my teacher telling us that God loves His children very much. So I asked God for help. I knew a loving God would never forget even one of His children. I felt very calm. Suddenly I sat up straight. I realised that the pain was completely gone! I was absolutely thrilled!
The next morning, members of the hospital staff came in to prepare me for surgery. I told them that I felt fine. They smiled and told me everything would be OK. A short while later I looked out the window and saw my Dad drive up. I frantically waved to him to come to my room. When he arrived, some staff members told him that I was not co-operating.
My Dad came over to me and I quietly told him that I felt fine. I will always be grateful that he listened to me. He asked to speak to the physician. The physician didn’t believe my report, and asked my Dad if he could take another set of X-rays, which my Dad agreed to. To the physician’s amazement, the X-ray showed nothing wrong with my lung at all. I was soon released from the hospital and on my way home.
My favourite church work is what I’m doing now – serving as Sunday School superintendent in the Sunday School I attended as a child. The same sentence from the Bible is still on the wall: ‘God is Love’.”
From the book ‘Healing Spiritually’
You don’t stop playing because you get old, you get old because you stop playing.
George Bernard Shaw
3. 52 : 1-2 (to 1st .), 19-28
From early boyhood he was about his “Father’s business.”
The “man of sorrows” best understood the nothingness of material life and intelligence and the mighty actuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or Christian Science, which armed him with Love. The highest earthly representative of God, speaking of human ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;” and “These signs shall follow them that believe.”
Christian Discipleship by Duncan Sinclair
8. I Timothy 4 : 4-6, 10-14 (to 1st ,), 15, 16
4 For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving:
5 For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.
10 For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
11 These things command and teach.
12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
13 Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee,
15 Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all.
16 Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.
Sanctified from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
Minister from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary