Sunday, August 20th, 2023 Roundtable
The Stability of Thy Times
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Mind
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Morning Prayers
The Science of omnipotence demonstrates but one power, and this power is good, not evil; not matter, but Mind. This virtually destroys matter and evil, including sin and disease. If God is All, and God is good, it follows that all must be good; and no other power, law, or intelligence can exist. On this proof rest premise and conclusion in Science, and the facts that disprove the evidence of the senses. God is individual Mind.
— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 63
Discussion points
101 — WATCH lest you strive to put into operation the power of demonstration without seeking to spiritualize your motive. For instance, if you sought the power of God to help you to win a case at law, it would be part of the demonstration to purify your motive, so that you could say, “not my will, but Thine be done.”
You cannot call your thought scientific until you do not care which way the verdict is rendered, so long as it is the Mind of God that governs and directs it, rather than the will of mortal man.
The right application of divine Mind is an effort to expose and destroy all belief in a mind apart from God. The harmony that results from this effort will not be a deterrent to spiritual growth, but rather an indication thereof, provided that right thinking is one’s goal, and the harmony is added unto him, as the Master said in Matt. 6:33. Attempting to apply God’s power with a selfish or human motive tends to perpetuate error, and is unscientific mental practice.
— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
GOLDEN TEXT: Isaiah 33 : 6
“Wisdom and knowledge shall be the stability of thy times, and strength of salvation.”
I was reading in “Got Questions” (copyright protected website) about the Queen of Sheba and it indicated that Jesus referred to the Queen of Sheba as “The queen of the south” in Matthew 12: 42 to illustrate a point – “despite being originally pagan in belief and Gentile in race, the Queen of Sheba recognized the truth and reality of God, unlike the religious leaders who opposed Jesus”.
“The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.” – Matthew 12:42
— from Kerry
“Never fear the mental malpractitioner, the mental assassin, who, in attempting to rule mankind, tramples upon the divine Principle of metaphysics, for God is the only power.”
From Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,
by Mary Baker Eddy, page 419
“For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;”
— Colossians 1:9 from the Bible King’s James Bible
“‘Happy is the man that findeth wisdom.’ The man who found the pearl was happy. How much more happy is the man who finds wisdom! The world looks on the man of wealth as the man who is to be envied, but the world is mistaken. It is the man with wisdom who is to be envied. Wisdom brings happiness because of the greater work one is enabled to do. Solomon asked for wisdom that he might do his work better. The ability to do things well brings a satisfaction that nothing else will bring. The possession of wisdom also brings happiness, because we know we have something that cannot be taken away from us. The man of wealth has something to-day that may be gone tomorrow. But the man with wisdom has something that will always be his. It also brings happiness, because if we have the true wisdom we are brought nearer to God. We know God better, and that can bring a happiness that nothing else can bring. . . . But wisdom will always be priceless.”
— from Christian Science Sentinel, December 2, 1922, [Rev. E. C. Mitchell, in the Christian Nation, New York, N. Y.]
Final Readings
Throughout the ages mankind has been daily and hourly choosing, and acting upon the choice made; and throughout the ages, whether men realized it or not, this choice has always been between thoughts and desires which led toward spirituality — true happiness, life, and harmony — and those which led away from it into materiality, error, and discord. Moses said to the Israelites, “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” Whenever the choice of this people was governed by willing obedience to divine Principle and the rule of the divine law which Moses so patiently taught them, they were, without fully realizing it, choosing life, peace, and abundant supply of all good.
When Solomon was asked what God should give him, he chose wisdom, — a higher understanding of God; and, in consequence, he was granted not only a wise and understanding heart, but “both riches, and honour;” and, added to this, the promise of long life. … Mrs. Eddy says in “The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany” (p. 165), “Of two things fate cannot rob us; namely, of choosing the best, and of helping others thus to choose.”
…We choose the best when we follow our Leader’s instruction and example given in these inspiring words in “Miscellaneous Writings” (p. 154): “Strive for self-abnegation, justice, meekness, mercy, purity, love. Let your light reflect Light. Have no ambition, affection, nor aim apart from holiness;” and farther on she says: “Sacrifice self to bless one another, even as God has blessed you. Forget self in laboring for mankind; then will you woo the weary wanderer to your door, win the pilgrim and stranger to your church, and find access to the heart of humanity.” We help others to make their choice between matter and Spirit as we embody in our own lives the spiritual qualities herein outlined by our Leader, and strive to purify our thinking to such a degree that all who are looking for the light, or longing for relief from material bondage, may find inspiration and encouragement through our example to forget “those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, . . . press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
“Choose The Best” from Christian Science Journal, June 1923 by Bertha V. Zereg