Sunday, May 25th, 2025 Roundtable
Just Say NO to Error
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Soul And Body
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
PRAYER FOR ONESELF — I thank Thee, Father-Mother God, that neither ignorant, fraudulent, nor malicious mortal mind can reach me, affect me mentally, physically, financially, or otherwise; and I know it, for God is the only power; that I am not the victim of aggressive mental suggestion, nor the target of M.A.M. claiming to operate through any channel whatever, but I am the blessed legal child of God, spiritual, immortal, all-harmonious, perfect, happy, healthy, pure, sinless, free, and fearless and diseaseless, and deathless, expressing the substance of all good.
Hold yourself constantly and consciously under God’s eternal law of blessing, of happiness, harmony, health, peace, joy, power, progress, protection, abundance; there is no other law, — only a contrary mortal mind lie which you are awake and alert to, and not under.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 63
Daily Watch
148 — WATCH lest, when you are whipped by your human experiences to speed you up spiritually, as one would whip a sluggish horse to make him go, you complain, and turn around to investigate what it is that is whipping you. Jesus admonishes us, after we have put our hand to the plough, not to look back. When you do, it tends to slow you up and to nullify the good that you should be doing.
Mrs. Eddy once declared, “Error is nothing but erroneous thought, and we must never give in to it or go down before it. We must go ahead of error, and keep ahead of error all the way.” This statement shows that if we look back, error may have a chance to catch up with us.
If a horse should turn around to investigate, every time it was whipped, the whip would lose its wholesome effect. Let us suppose that a sense of lack appears in your experience. Instead of trying to discover the human reasons for this happening, should you not regard it as a whip, the purpose of which is to start you working with more fervor — not for money as matter, but for a higher spiritual consciousness of the fact that, as a child of God, you are not dependent upon, nor do you need, matter, or material money as such, since you are God’s child, cared for in every way? This realization would bring you the supply you needed.
Let us assume that a sense of suffering appears as the whip needed to force you ahead spiritually. Should you not seek to rise into the realm of Spirit, where you lose all consciousness of the body? Then, as Mrs. Eddy tells us, the body will utter no complaints. But to turn back to the body to investigate its condition and to try to heal it as matter, is neither scientific nor progressive. If disease is thought of as the rebellion of the flesh against your malpractice upon it, the remedy is to stop such malpractice. To do this, one must look forward, and not back.
Discussion points
A millstone or a milestone
Memorial Services, from the June 1, 1907 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel, originally from the Concord (N. H.) Daily Patriot
By special invitation of the Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, the Memorial service of the E. E. Sturtevant Post, No. 2, G.A.R., together with the allied organizations, Woman’s Relief Corps, Daughters of Veterans, Sons of Veterans, and the Spanish War Veterans, was held yesterday (Sunday) afternoon at 4.30, in First Church of Christ, Scientist. It is said to be the first time in the history of the Church in this country that such an event has occurred.
The Post, the Sons of Veterans, and the Spanish War Veterans assembled at Grand Army Hall and marched in a body to the church. The Woman’s Relief Corps and the Daughters of Veterans assembled in the Reading Room of the church, and at 4.30 took their places in the auditorium. National tunes were played on the beautiful chimes of the church for half an hour preceding the service. As the Post was marching from headquarters, “Onward, Christian Soldiers” was played, and was continued on the organ as they went to their seats.
Commander George E. Wood was at the head of the Post. President Mrs. Imogene Woodbury commanded the Woman’s Relief Corps. Senior Vice President Elmira Critchett filled the same place with the Daughters of Veterans, Commander Leon Evans was with the Sons of Veterans, and Major Daniel K. Murphy was with the Spanish War Veterans. Among the distinguished and widely known officers present were Past Department Commander D. B. Newhall, Past Department Commander James E. Minot, General Frank Battles, Past Adjutant General of the National Department, and Past National President of the Relief Corps, Mrs. Fannie E. Minot.
The pulpit and chancel were handsomely decorated with palms, ferns, and a profusion of white flowers, which together with an artistic arrangement of the national colors added to the beauty of the noble church interior. Two of the flags in Mrs. Eddy’s room were from the Peace Conference, and were provided for this occasion by one of the delegates.
Mrs. Cora Fuller Straw presided at the organ. The appropriate service consisted of: Organ voluntary; hymn, “Onward, Christian Soldiers;” Scripture reading, Philippians, 2:1–16; silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer, with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science text-book, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” by Mrs. Eddy; hymn, “Saw ye my Saviour?” words by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy; responsive reading, Psalm, 85:1–4, 6–13; remarks by the First Reader, Prof. Hermann S. Hering; reading of the Lesson-Sermon, consisting of selections from the Bible, with their correlative passages from the Christian Science text-book; also the correlative Scripture, according to I John, 3:1–3; benediction (Numbers, 6:24–26); organ voluntary.
The subject of the Lesson-Sermon was in harmony with the occasion, being, “Christian Warfare.” The services were conducted by the First Reader, Prof. Hermann S. Hering, and the Second Reader, Miss Mabel C. Gage. Preceding the sermon, the First Reader gave the following able address:—
It is a pleasure to Mrs. Eddy to invite the esteemed members of the E. E. Sturtevant Post, No. 2, G.A.R., with the affiliated organizations, to hold its Memorial service this year in her church, and we consider it an honor and a privilege to welcome you here to-day and to be permitted to take part in assisting you to perpetuate the memory of your noble cause. We welcome also the auxiliary organizations, whose members have been so helpful to the veterans in the past and will be in the future. The work of the Woman’s Relief Corps has been most noble and praiseworthy. Many were the wives, daughters, sweethearts, and relatives who made great sacrifices during the war to aid in relieving the suffering; and they have since been engaged in continuing this work by providing for the sick and needy and performing loving offices for the veterans and their families. In this noble work they are aided by the Daughters of Veterans, who together with the Sons of Veterans will follow in the footsteps of their ancestors for time to come and carry out these worthy precedents and customs. We also welcome the Spanish War Veterans, who so efficiently aided our Government to free a neighbor from the bondage of oppression.
The cause for which the Civil War veterans fought, and for which so many valiant lives were sacrificed, was indeed a noble cause, a most glorious one and a most vital one, not only in the history of our dear country, but of the entire world,—the cause of individual rights and personal liberty, the foundation or fundamental principle of progress. Personal animus and sectional feeling have so disappeared from the minds of the people that the great principle involved in the Civil War can be referred to without personal feeling, and indeed it is now understood and agreed to by very many who formerly thought differently. So also is the purpose of Memorial Day—a yearly reminder of this great moral struggle and of the faithful ones who sacrificed themselves on its behalf—a noble one, for it tends to emphasize the issue that was involved, educates the world to perceive its import, and gives opportunity for an expression of our deepest feelings, brotherly love, gratitude, and respect.
Mrs. Eddy, well known to us all as a most patriotic citizen, not only of this Commonwealth and city, but of our Nation, in many ways and for many years has shown her interest in this day and her sympathy with its purpose. In honor of this day her loyal heart unfurls the Stars and Stripes over her home, and her loving hands send to the Daughters of Veterans all the flowers in bloom on her estate.
It is most fitting, also, that a Memorial service is held at which the veterans and their friends may congregate for divine worship and lift up their thoughts to the infinite Father, the giver of all good, thanking Him for all His benefits and praying for more of that divine Life which makes them and all of us better soldiers of Christ. Gratitude to God for even a little good perceived is an acknowledgment, though feeble, of Him as the source of all being, and opens the heart to a great influx of that good.
The great struggle of which you beloved veterans are victorious survivors, and of which we all are the beneficiaries, was a struggle for principle and not for personality. The issue was the question of human freedom or human slavery. This country has been the arena of many struggles for liberty, both political and religious, and seemed early destined to become the land of the free. It offered a home to the politically oppressed, and also to the Puritans, Quakers, and Pilgrims from other lands, who desired to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. On its sacred soil were fought the two great issues,—the Revolution, which resulted in national independence, and the Civil War, which preserved our integrity as a Nation and committed us to the cause of universal freedom. The tendency of the Government of our land has steadily been towards greater freedom, and under God’s guidance and protection it will so progress.
Allow me now to turn your attention to the Lesson-Sermon, which tells us of still another conflict, the Christian warfare, in which we all have enlisted under the captain of our salvation, our great peacemaker, Christ Jesus. Mrs. Eddy has translated his orders to us in unmistakable language, showing us how to fight the good fight of faith, how to overcome our adversary, the evil one, how to gain the victory, how to establish peace.
At the conclusion of the impressive service, while the large congregation remained standing, the Post and affiliated organizations marched out, after visiting Mrs. Eddy’s room in the church.
Grateful Praise by Caroline H. Fiske, from the September 26, 1914 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
Some one remarked a while ago that he did not see why the Bible contained so many commands to praise and to magnify God; but in Christian Science how easily and beautifully this is explained! To praise God, to exalt Him, to magnify Him continually, is the earnest desire of its every true representative. As Mrs. Eddy says, “The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God, or good” (Science and Health, p. 450). A Christian Science treatment magnifies God in consciousness until all sense of evil disappears.
The writer is most grateful for the spiritual signification of praise learned in Christian Science. An almost constant feeling of loneliness and depression has been destroyed through the practice of the simple rule to let “all that is within me, bless his holy name.” How grateful we all should be that today it is possible to declare, with understanding, as did Mary centuries ago, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour”!
The early morning hour should be dedicated to praise: do not the birds set us the example? — Charles H. Spurgeon
The Daily Calendar Statement for Wednesday, May 21st, 2025
Verse 20. “Our soul waiteth for the Lord.” Here the godly avow their reliance upon him whom the Psalm extols. To wait is a great lesson. To be quiet in expectation, patient in hope, single in confidence, is one of the bright attainments of a Christian. Our soul, our life, must hang upon God; we are not to trust him with a few gewgaws, but with all we have and are. “He is our help and our shield.” Our help in labour, our shield in danger. The Lord answereth all things to his people. He is their all in all. Note the three “ours” in the text. These holdfast words are precious. Personal possession makes the Christian man; all else is mere talk.”
Verse 21. “For our hearts shall rejoice in him.” The duty commended and commanded in the first verse is here presented to the Lord. We, who trust, cannot but be of a glad heart, our inmost nature must triumph in our faithful God. “Because we have trusted in his holy name.” The root of faith in due time bears the flower of rejoicing. Doubts breed sorrow, confidence creates joy.”
Verse 22. “Let thy mercy, O Lord be upon us” Here is a large and comprehensive prayer to close with. It is an appeal for “mercy,” which even joyful believers need; and it is sought for in a proportion which the Lord has sanctioned. “According to your faith be it unto you,” is the Master’s word, and he will not fall short of the scale which he has himself selected. Yet, the Master, Will do more than this when hope is faint, and bless us far above what we ask or even think.”
from the Spurgeon commentary on Psalm 33:20-22 from The Blue Letter Bible
The True Method Of Healing The Sick By John Carroll Lathrop
9. I Thessalonians 5 : 23
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I Thessalonians 5:23
23 And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah).
from the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition
I never saw so much of kindness manifest
As when I lived the most that other men be blest.
I never saw so much of true nobility
In other men as when I tried to noble be.
I never saw so much of gentleness and grace
On every hand as when I gave to these first place.
I never saw so much of holy harmony
That filled the universe as when it first filled me.
“What thou seest, that thou beest,” said the Greek
It’s true, but I would a reversal of this speak.
“What thou beest, that thou seest,” also is true.
In other men we see ourselves expressed anew.
Poem number 308 from Daily Angels by Max Dunaway
Stand porter at the door of thought.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 392
Never absent from your post, never off guard, never ill-humored, never unready to work for God, — is obedience; being “faithful over a few things.”
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 116
Never breathe an immoral atmosphere, unless in the attempt to purify it.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 452
The Transplanting of the Affections by Ella W. Hoag
Covetousness — A strong or inordinate desire of obtaining and possessing some supposed good; usually in a bad sense, and applied to an inordinate desire of wealth or avarice.
from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary