Sunday, September 21st, 2025 Roundtable
True Protection
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Matter
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
PRAYER FOR YOURSELF — I am the child of God. His care and love surround me. Animal magnetism cannot reach me to make me fear or be afraid. …
THE CHRISTIAN SCIENTIST’S PRAYER — There is no matter and no mortal mind. God is All-in-all. All is harmony, health, holiness. This is the prayer ‘unceasing’ to be used on all occasions and at all times. It lays the axe at the root of unreality, materiality (that forbidden tree) and cuts it down. Preserve a sacred silence on this subject of prayer.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 63
Daily Watch
32 — WATCH lest, in your denial of the existence of matter, you accept the impression that you are denying something that exists externally to you. The term matter covers not what you see, but the way you see it. In denying matter you are really denying the way mortal mind sees the true heaven and earth, that already exist here and now in all their perfection. You will surely see this perfection the moment your dull eyes are opened — the moment you rise out of the mesmerism of mortal belief. A picture of great beauty may appear a daub to an unenlightened novice. Once the veil of ignorance is lifted, however, by study and practice, the beauty of the picture is appreciated.
God, as the great master Painter, created the universe in all its perfection. Mortals fail to see it only because of their standpoint of ignorance and materiality. All things appear to be blue to the one wearing blue glasses.
Discussion points
Not a single blade of grass, a leaf, or a flower, is material, when viewed correctly. It is Spirit, Mind, which conceives, outlines and forms these ideas, which multiply and replenish the earth.
Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 191:21), “By its own volition, not a blade of grass springs up, not a spray buds within the vale, not a leaf unfolds its fair outlines, not a flower starts from its cloistered cell.” All natural beauty and grandeur, from the freshness of the morning, to the calm of the evening and the starry heavens at night, are the presence of the one Spirit, and are, therefore, spiritual.
All natural activities, such as eating, and walking and resting, and hearing, and seeing, and thinking, and feeling, ARE NOT IN NOR OF MATTER, but are the conscious functionings of the one Spirit, and are therefore spiritual. All natural love, and affection, and gladness, and happiness, and joy, and peace, and harmony are not in nor of person, but are the one conscious Life or Spirit in Being, and are therefore spiritual and unceasing. All things pertaining to, and essential to, our normal state of living, from a pin to a palace, when rightly viewed, are not matter, but are spiritual ideas at hand.
from Scientific Translations in Addresses by Martha Wilcox
We have it only as we live it.
from Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 126
THOUGHTS
Not what we do or say, but what we think
Determines what we are.
Within the realm of high and noble thought
Soars mankind’s highest star.
There is no deed of valor, might, or right
Without the thought behind.
No work of love was ever wrought or taught
But started in the mind.
No king, dictator, or president defines
What thoughts we choose to think.
No prison bars can hold or stay the thought
That is with God a link.
Would you rule over all that life can bring,
Be joyous, strong, and free?
Guard, then, the thoughts of every hour, for these
Are life and destiny.
Triumph and Other Poems by Max Dunaway
3. II Kings 6
15 And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?
16 And he answered, Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.
17 And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
“Open His Eyes, That He May See” by Mary Beth Singleterry
Protection By William H. M. Adams
The Spirit and The Letter by Gilbert Carpenter
God’s Law Of Adjustment, from the January 1916 Christian Science Journal by Adam H. Dickey
When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explanation which destroys error. 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
Quiet Realization by Bicknell Young
Virtue Medicine: Silence
God’s preparations for the sick are potions of His own qualities.
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 268
Study to be quiet. In quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.
from Collectanea, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 176
Mrs. Eddy — The Woman, from the March 1910 issue of the Christian Science Journal by Annie M. Knott
Final Readings
If mortal mind and body are myths, what is the connection between them and real identity, and why are there as many identities as mortal bodies?
Evil in the beginning claimed the power, wisdom, and utility of good; and every creation or idea of Spirit has its counterfeit in some matter belief. Every material belief hints the existence of spiritual reality; and if mortals are instructed in spiritual things, it will be seen that material belief, in all its manifestations, reversed, will be found the type and representative of verities priceless, eternal, and just at hand.
The education of the future will be instruction, in spiritual Science, against the material symbolic counterfeit sciences. All the knowledge and vain strivings of mortal mind, that lead to death, — even when aping the wisdom and magnitude of immortal Mind, — will be swallowed up by the reality and omnipotence of Truth over error, and of Life over death.
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 60 to 61