Sunday, January 11th, 2026 Roundtable
We Ought to Obey God Rather than Men
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Sacrament
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
Once more I write, Set your affections on things above; love one another; commune at the table of our Lord in one spirit; worship in spirit and in truth; and if daily adoring, imploring, and living the divine Life, Truth, Love, thou shalt partake of the bread that cometh down from heaven, drink of the cup of salvation, and be baptized in Spirit.
from Christian Science versus Pantheism, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 14
Daily Watch
191 — WATCH lest you fail to follow St. Paul’s admonition to rejoice in infirmity. Wood choppers cut down trees during the winter. Then they rejoice when the spring freshets come, because they furnish the motive power to sweep the logs down to the mills.
Our study of the letter of Science and our effort to establish its truths in consciousness correspond to cutting down the trees. Then through the compelling nature of affliction and infirmity, we are forced to seek the divine remedy, to translate our understanding into demonstration, so that it becomes practical and established.
On page 254 of Science and Health (link) Mrs. Eddy says to fear not the mighty floods and storms which we encounter when we launch our bark upon the ever-agitated but healthful waters of truth, but the quiet surface of error, where in human harmony we are lulled into the sleep of stagnation and death.
Rightly understood, the storms which come to overflow the placid waters of human harmony, help to sweep our understanding down the rivers of demonstration to the ocean of divine Love, where spiritualized thought mingles and unites with God. Hence we should rejoice in such storms.
Discussion points
Trials are proofs of God’s care.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 66
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Romans 8:28
4. Acts 5 : 29
We ought to obey God rather than men.
1. 183 : 21-25
Divine Mind rightly demands man’s entire obedience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty. Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength. Submission to error superinduces loss of power.
Philippians 2:12
…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
“The unseen, silent forces of God are standing sentinel over me and mine and all, silencing, destroying, and annihilating the unseen, silent arguments of the serpent, material sense. … Jesus taught, and I teach, that there is in mortal mind a perpetual force, impelling wrongly … constant watching is required in order to see it, and then be able to put it down. … How unspeakably blessed is the deliverance from the fiction of error that has deceived mortals! Just think of it! Within the entire range of all that is or ever was, you are now, and are included in the infinity of consciousness, imperishable, undisturbed, and you will be satisfied when you awake in that likeness. …
Joy! Joy! Joy! Praise the Lord!
I am whole. The darkness disappears.
The bright light shineth.
Joy! Joy! Joy! God is my Life.
My soul doth stand revealed.
And I know, know, know, I am whole.”
from Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, as given by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 145, 146, 149
1. Deuteronomy 11 : 13-21
13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
15 And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full.
16 Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
17 And then the Lord’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the Lord giveth you.
18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.
20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:
21 That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.
The habitual struggle to be always good is unceasing prayer.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 4
“Heaven on Earth” (Deuteronomy 11: 19-21) by Charles Spurgeon
Deuteronomy 11:19-21
And you shall teach them your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, when you lie down…
It was said of an old Puritan, that heaven was in him before he was in heaven. That is necessary for all of us — we must have heaven in us before we get into heaven. If we do not get to heaven before we die, we shall never get there afterwards. An old Scotchman was asked whether he ever expected to get to heaven. “Why, man, I live there,” was his quaint reply. Let us all live in those spiritual things which are the essential features of heaven. Often go there before yon go to stay there. If you come down tomorrow morning, knowing and realising that heaven is yours, and that you will soon be there, those children will not worry you half so much. When you go out to your business or to your work, you will not be half so discontented when you know that this is not your rest, but that you have a rest on the hills eternal, whither your heart has already gone, and that there your portion is in the everlasting dwellings. “Lay hold on eternal life.” Get a hold of it now. It is a thing of the future, and it is a thing of the present; and even your part of it that is future can be, by faith, so realised and grasped as to be actually enjoyed while you are yet here.
Charles H. Spurgeon (Isaiah 45:22 — Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.)
It was a small gospel meeting – little more than a dozen people were present. A snowstorm raged outside. The scheduled speaker was unable to make it to the meeting. A teenager who was earnestly seeking salvation, and who had intended to go to a different meeting, was tired of fighting the storm and turned in to this meeting instead. Here is a description of that meeting in his own words:
“At last a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach … He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was, ‘Look unto Me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.’ He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus: ‘My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says Look. Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pains. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just Look. Well, a man needn’t go to college to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, Look unto Me. Ay,’ said he, in broad Essex, ‘many of ye are lookin’ to yourselves, but it is no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. … When he had gone to about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said, ‘Young man, you look very miserable.’ Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made on my personal appearance from the pulpit before. However, it was a good blow struck. He continued: ‘And you will always be miserable — miserable in life and miserable in death — if you do not obey my text. But if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.’ Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do, ‘Young man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin’ to do but to look and live.’ I saw at once the way of salvation. Like as when the brazen serpent was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. I had been waiting to do 50 things. But when I heard that word “Look,” what a charming word it seemed to me! Oh! I looked until I could almost have looked my eyes away. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant and sung, with the most enthusiastic of them.”
In this way, 15-year-old Charles Spurgeon found Christ. Eventually, he would preach for almost 40 years, his audiences usually numbering five or six thousand. His first sermon was on the word “Look. The young Spurgeon had thought of 50 things he might need to do to obtain a good life, but the stunning truth he learned that day was that it was obtained by a look. ‘Look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothing to do but to look and live.’”
John 4:35
Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest.
Mary Baker Eddy always told her students to emulate the life and character of Jesus. At one time she told a student, “If you would be a good healer, study the life of Jesus.” Jesus’ life and unparalleled healing work were due to his consummate tenderness and compassion, his reflection of God’s infinite Love.
The Healer by David Keyston, page viii
C.H. Spurgeon: The People’s Preacher
Introduction To Christian Science by Ann Beals, pages 62-63
As you strive to work out your problems through your own metaphysical work, you should remember that you are pioneering in a new approach to healing. When you think about it, how many people are making such an effort? Not many! Spiritual healing belongs to the avant garde of the world thinkers; and therefore, however long it takes to demonstrate over some form of discord or illness, it is a breakthrough into this new method of healing. Each demonstration strengthens you and makes your healing work easier. And if some problems take longer than others to overcome, then you should accept this fact and press on until each demonstration is complete…
I have had many demonstrations that took weeks, months, and even years to finalize. Many of the more demanding problems healed by degrees. But as I worked on them, I found that each trial held a spiritual lesson that was invaluable. In fact, I learned the most from stubborn and prolonged problems.
If you have a problem that resists healing, work on. Never give up. Somewhere, sometime it will yield. When it does, know that each treatment you gave was essential to the victory.
Following the reading of the history of the city of Plainfield, which included a short history of the Plainfield Christian Science Church at today’s service, I looked up the following, (although it is likely the church already has this history). I smiled at seeing such notable lecturers, announced in the Sentinel, who spoke at the Plainfield Church.
Judge Septimus J. Hanna, June 1. (1908)
William McCrackan, January 24, 1911
William R. Rathvon, (as reported in the September 9, 1916 Sentinel)
Miss Lucia C. Coulson (as reported in the August 9, 1924 Sentinel)
John Randall Dunn (as reported in the June 25, 1927 Sentinel)
Dr. Walton Hubbard (as reported in the January 14, 1939 Sentinel)
Peter V. Ross (as reported in the August 16, 1941 Sentinel)
from Kerry in CA