Sunday, May 17th, 2026 Roundtable
How to Stay Young Forever
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Mortals And Immortals
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
God made man immortal and in His image, the image of His own eternity, and to this end he gave him dominion over all the earth, over all the works of His hands.
This is the Truth of being, and nothing can change the Truth into a lie. Nothing can wrest man out of the Father’s hand, for ‘It is He who hath made us, and not we ourselves,’ and hath given us life everlasting. Therefore health, harmony and immortality are the everlasting facts of being. It is so.
When we detect error as unreal, and God as All, we will be immortal.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 283 and 8
Daily Watch
80 — WATCH lest you continue to accept the world’s belief in good and bad matter, or mortal mind, instead of perceiving that whenever or wherever matter or mortal mind appear to be more harmonious or desirable to the advancing student, it is either mesmerism putting forth its claims to hinder one’s growth, or belief melting into such thinness that more of truth is shining through.
Bottled soda is all made of the same ingredients; yet we like some flavors and dislike others. Mortals are fundamentally the same, and differ only in flavor. How inconsistent for a student of Christian Science to continue to admit that he likes mortal mind or matter when flavored in certain ways, when he has pledged with himself and before God to deny the existence of all mortal mind or matter, and work for the elimination of the belief in its existence, in order that Truth and its desirability may appear!
Discussion points
Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immortal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 277
A new name for an ailment affects people like a Parisian name for a novel garment. Every one hastens to get it. A minutely described disease costs many a man his earthly days of comfort.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 197
Emerge gently from matter into Spirit.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 485
The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank. — Erma Bombeck
“Now, every religion and philosophy on earth, except for Christian Science, teaches that you and I — everyone — live in a state of mortality. They teach that everyone is born into matter or mortality on a certain day of a certain month of a certain year. The world has accepted this lie as though it were true and has paid the taxes of suffering as a consequence.
Then Christian Science came along and exclaimed: “No, folks, this is all a lie. You are not mortals living in a state of mortality. You are all immortal living in a state of immortality, subject only to the laws and rules of immortality which produce health, holiness, and life eternal.” Is it any wonder that we are all profoundly grateful for this Comforter that has awakened us to the fact that we do not have to pay the taxes of suffering?
On page 492 of the textbook our Leader says: “For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its unlikeness, mortality.”
Don’t be a mortal living in a state of mortality. Be an immortal living in this glorious state of immortality, enjoying everything immortal, beautiful, good, and true. Live in that eternal Mind that knows no beginning and no end, no birth and no death. Live in that perfect Life that exists through all time. It is eternity itself. In no other way can you demonstrate the infinite capacities of healing in Christian Science.
“Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.” (S&H Page 246)
Excerpts from “Immortality “— 1949 Association Address by Herbert E. Rieke
1. Psalm 92 : 1, 2, 10 (my), 12-14
1 It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
2 To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,
10 …my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
12 The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13 Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
You remember how many times he said to his patients, “Be of good cheer.” On one occasion he encouraged them, “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full” (John 15:11); and admonished them to see to it that “… your joy no man taketh from you.” (John 16:22) In order to have perfect results in Christian Science we must make certain that nothing takes the Christ joy away from us. A burdened, joyless Christian Science practitioner cannot heal. When you are bubbling over with joy, you will heal with very little effort.
If you should discover one day that your automobile did not have much power, it was getting hot and beginning to smoke; and if you also heard a noise in the engine, you would take it to a garage or filling station. What is the first thing the mechanic would do? Undoubtedly, he would lift the hood and pull out the little measuring rod to see how much oil you have. Ten chances to one he would show that you need lubricating oil. It is said if you will use a good grade of oil, change it regularly, and always keep it up to the mark designated “full,” you can drive a modern car at least one hundred thousand miles without taking the head off the motor.
It might also be said if you will use a good quality of “the oil of gladness” in your thinking, if you will freshen it up regularly, and if you will maintain a good quantity, way up tothe “full” mark, you can live at least a hundred years without an ache or a pain and with no slowing down of normal activity.
Trying to have demonstrations in Christian Science without “the oil of gladness” is like trying to run your car without oil. It just cannot be done.
No Big Power Veto — 1948 Association Address by Herbert E. Rieke
Oil. Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 592
Let Love come into his bones like oil by Mary Beth Singleterry
I shall never forget the illumination and the joy which flooded my consciousness when it was first revealed to me that I was an immortal child of God, and not a mortal, material creature. This revelation took place during a Christian Science lecture when I was a very new student. Allow me to share with you the story which first brought immortality to light in my experience.
The story is told of a young prince who, when a very small child, became separated from his nurse and wandered into some woods where roamed a gypsy band. The gypsies carried the little fellow away with them, and brought him up as one of their own. Living in the great outdoors with his captors, before many years he became nearly as swarthy and brown as his gypsies. He wore gypsy clothes, spoke the gypsy tongue, and was given a gypsy name. To all intents and purposes, he was a gypsy. He certainly looked like one, and thought he was one.
When he arrived at manhood’s estate, the gypsy band again roved the woods near the palace. A dear friend of the king, who had never ceased seeking for the prince, saw him. He was struck by the youth’s strong resemblance to the king. And in spite of the gypsy appearance, the old courtier was immediately convinced that there was the king’s son. Knowing some of the gypsy tongue, he asked the young man, “Do you know who you are?”
The other regarded him with a puzzled look. “Do I know who I am?” he answered, “Of course I do.” And he gave a gypsy name.
“Ah,” said the friend, “but that is not your real name. For the truth about you is that you are the son of the king.”
The young man shook his head. “You are mistaken,” said he. “I am not the king’s son. I am a gypsy.”
“I know that you seem to be,” said the friend, “but the fact is you are not. You are really the son of the king.”
“If that is true,” replied the other, “there must be two of me, this gypsy here and the son of the king. I don’t know where the son of the king is.”
“No,” persisted the friend, “there is only one of you, and I am telling you about that one. That one is the son of the king.”
“Then,” said the young man, and he confidently expected that his question would settle the matter, “if I really am the son of the king, where did the gypsy come from?”
The friend replied that there really was no gypsy — there only appeared to be. He further explained that all the evidence that the young man was a gypsy, was a lie about him, and could never change the fact that he was truly the son of the king. In fact, the only place the gypsy seemed to exist was in his ignorance, his misconception as to his origin, for all the time he had been the son of the king.
At this point the lecturer rejoiced, “Isn’t it wonderful that all the time this boy never really was a gypsy, but was always the son of the king?” He emphasized that regardless of all the lying, material sense evidence, the speech, clothes, mannerisms, swarthy complexion, and so on — the boy was not a gypsy, but actually the king’s son. And he pointed to the audience and said, “You too are the sons and daughters of the king. You are the children of God. It makes no difference that the lying material sense piles up the evidence that you are a mortal, material creature, a child of material parents, with aches and pains, lacks and limitations — you are really the immortal children of God, and that is what you have been all the time.”
Immortality Brought to Light by Dorothy Rieke
Longyear’s past and current newsletters
The Divine Energies by Luther K. Bell
Nehemiah 8:10
…the joy of the LORD is your strength.
2. Psalm 139 : 1-4, 13-18
1 O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.
13 For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
Science and Health, by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 390 to 394, by Mary Baker Eddy
Matthew 18:3
And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Responsive Reading: … Job 11 : 17
17. And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.
Golden Text: Psalm 31 : 14, 15
“I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God. My times are in thy hand.”
4. 281 : 14-17, 20-24
The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is infinite individuality, which supplies all form and comeliness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual spiritual man and things.
When we put off the false sense for the true, and see that sin and mortality have neither Principle nor permanency, we shall learn that sin and mortality are without actual origin or rightful existence.
Final Readings
An Interesting Letter
from the July 18, 1901 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel by Editor with contributions from Henry Robinson
Early in June the Hon. Henry Robinson, postmaster of Concord, received a letter from a lady in Seattle, Washington, asking whether he had ever declared that the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science does not exist.
Mr. Robinson’s reply was of much interest and value, especially in view of sensational statements which have been circulated through the country to the effect that the Rev. Mrs. Eddy is a myth, so far as present existence is concerned. The letter was as follows:—
United States Post-Office.
Concord, New Hampshire.
Henry Robinson, P. M.
June 8, 1900.
Mrs. J. J. Post, Hotel Vendome, Seattle, Washington.
Dear Madam:—Oh, no! The postmaster at this city never said, even in the sheerest jest, that Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, does not exist.
He, of all men, has tangible proof of her positive verity. She gave her own signature, in petition to the President of the United States, for his reappointment as postmaster. He has in many ways been a beneficiary of her good favor and grace. She is a noble, beautiful woman, the most remarkable of the century, a radiant spirit indeed, and, moreover, a veritable, highly respected, public-spirited, patriotic, and charitable citizen of this, my native city.
As former mayor, and as postmaster, past and present, I have had audience at her home, Pleasant View (only a mile away from the city proper), and have had the honor and inspiration of personal interviews with her. She has kindly entrusted to my keeping certain biographical data as to herself, and I am proud to say that I have been otherwise appreciably recognized by her. I have all her books, given me by herself, and I have contributed to the newspaper press, and to various periodicals, favorable articles upon her. When she appeared in our own Christian Science Hall, in this city, I attended in behalf of the newspaper press, writing the article on her matchless discourse there, which went the rounds of the newspapers of the country.
To have it said that I doubt her existence, is, however, no more absurd and ridiculous than many of the stories told of her, but such is my personal respect and regard and official relations, that it touches my sensibilities, for a moment, and I am grieved; otherwise, I would not so seriously answer your apparently candid enquiry.
Within fifty feet of where I am now dictating this letter, in plain sight of everybody, Mrs. Eddy, with great punctuality, rides by in her carriage, every day, bowing graciously to the townspeople whom she knows, and, although they are not all Christian Scientists, I dare say there is not one of them who would not contend for her, and resent the slightest indignity or imputation upon her. She frequently stops near the front of my own home, to smile and speak to my little children playing there, and that anybody of ordinary intelligence should, for a moment, doubt her existence, strikes us, who know her well, as startlingly absurd.
Hundreds of Christian Scientists have been here, during this very week, to see her, her home, and the city in which she resides. One might as well ask if there really is such a man as President McKinley, or ever was such a woman as Queen Victoria. Mrs. Eddy is not only a president and a queen, but one of our own fellow-citizens, a good neighbor, and a very valuable friend, one of us in many senses. While I am not myself an avowed disciple of Christian Science, I am, nevertheless, much interested in it and its achievements. I have had much to do with Christian Scientists, and have found them invariably upright and intellectual, as well as spiritual, people, and they have been very courteous and considerate toward me, and I have never let fall any remark such as might have given rise to the annoying error on somebody’s part, to which you have kindly called my attention.
I have the honor to be.
Yours very respectfully,
Henry Robinson, Postmaster.
With deep pleasure we republish from the Patriot the above graphic letter of Postmaster Robinson. One would think the perusal of it, by the persons who have been silly enough to circulate the falsehood, would cause their cheeks to tinge with the blush of shame and humiliation.