Sunday, May 31st, 2026 Roundtable

All we have to do is one thing; keep the First Commandment, ‘thou shalt have none other gods before (beside) me’ — infinite Mind and that is infinite Love. There is no evil mind; that sweeps away error; there is infinite Mind — good. Infinity is all. There is no other intelligence, life or love. Now work out your problem from this standpoint. If we do not keep the First we cannot keep the Second — ‘to love one another.’ If ye love not man (your brother) whom you have seen how can you love God whom you have not seen? You only love God as far as you love man.

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, pages 19 and 63

(Signed, Author of S. & H.)

245 — WATCH lest you fail to heed the admonition: “…that thou doest, do quickly,” as the Master said to Judas. If you pick up a live coal and drop it quickly enough, it will not burn your fingers. Thus recognize animal magnetism both for what it is and for what it is not; but do it so quickly that you do not dwell on it long enough to yield to the suggestion that you are fighting something; realize that there is no reality in any claim of evil opposing God and His children; know that no devilish power exists which persistently prevents man from being interested in that which would free him from delusion and restore him to perfect freedom and harmony — which scientifically experienced is the kingdom of heaven. In meeting the claim of animal magnetism, touch it only lightly and as quickly as possible, lest the contemplation of the apparent universality of this falsity cause you to build it up in your thought, instead of tear it down. When skating over thin ice, skate as fast as possible, so that you will not break through.

500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter

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.

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8. 449
…you will then advance in proportion to your honesty and and fidelity…

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Truth Is Formidable, from the Christian Science Sentinel, February 9, 1918, by William P. McKenzie

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Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress.

from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 57

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I have chosen the way of truth; I have set Your ordinances before me.

This phrase reflects a deliberate decision to follow a path aligned with God’s truth. In biblical context, “the way of truth” signifies a life lived according to God’s commandments and teachings. The psalmist’s choice echoes the call to choose life and obedience found in Deuteronomy 30:19-20, where Moses urges the Israelites to choose life by loving and obeying God. The concept of “the way” is also significant in the New Testament, where Jesus refers to Himself as “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), indicating that choosing the way of truth is ultimately choosing to follow Christ. This decision is not merely intellectual but involves a commitment to live according to divine principles, rejecting falsehood and deception.

I have set Your ordinances before me.

Setting God’s ordinances before oneself implies a conscious effort to prioritize and adhere to God’s laws and decrees. In the historical and cultural context of ancient Israel, the ordinances were the laws given by God through Moses, which were central to the covenant relationship between God and His people. This act of setting them before oneself suggests a continual focus and meditation on God’s Word, similar to the exhortation in Joshua 1:8 to meditate on the Book of the Law day and night. It reflects a heart posture of submission and reverence towards God’s authority…

Teaching Points

Setting God’s Ordinances Before Us

Keeping God’s laws and teachings at the forefront of our minds helps guide our decisions and actions. This involves regular study and meditation on Scripture.

The Importance of Truth in a Believer’s Life

Truth is foundational to the Christian faith. Believers are called to live by God’s truth, which provides clarity and direction in a world of confusion.

Commitment to God’s Word

The psalmist’s commitment to God’s ordinances challenges us to prioritize Scripture in our daily lives, ensuring it shapes our worldview and actions.

Living Out Our Faith

Choosing the way of truth is not just a mental assent but involves practical obedience to God’s commands, impacting how we live and interact with others.

from Bible Hub

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Christian Science provides a far better defense against mesmerism than the repetition of the multiplication table. Its sure defense is the realization of the scientific fact that God is the one everywhere-present Mind; that in God’s kingdom there is no mortal mind or its materially-thinking puppets, some called mesmerists and some the mesmerized, to do its bidding. Every individual has God as his Life, his Mind. Mortal mind, with all its mesmeric suggestions, is an impotent liar, unknown, unheard, unfeared by God or any of His children. It can be, and do, nothing Evil, in all its modes and phases, is mesmeric in nature. It would substitute in your thinking its false material concept of cause and effect. Mrs. Eddy writes, “All mesmerism is of one of three kinds; namely, the ignorant, the fraudulent, or the malicious workings of error or mortal mind.” (Mis. Wr.)

The most important point to recognize is that all mesmerism operates as self-mesmerism. This means that no individual can come under the influence of any phase of mesmerism, except with his own consent. He must believe that he is open to, and can receive, the mesmeric suggestions presented. Says Mrs. Eddy, “If the error which knocks at the door of your own thought originated in another’s mind, you are a free moral agent to reject or to accept this error.”

(Mis. Wr.) A mesmerist’s only hope of controlling another, is to gain the latter’s consent to the erroneous suggestions presented to his thought.

Since God is the only Mind, He is the only power. He shares it with no other. He exercises it fearlessly, uninterruptedly, to constitute and govern His universe and man, to govern every instant the thoughts and thought-processes of you and me. In this thinking there is no human will or evil-minded impulsion. It is the constant, conscious, expression of the Mind that is God, untouched by any mesmeric influence.

Excerpts from the article “The Impotence of Mesmerism” by Paul Stark Seeley

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For there are many rebellious men who are empty talkers [just windbags] and deceivers; especially those of the circumcision [those Jews who insist that Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the Law in order to be saved].

Bible Hub

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Responsive Reading: Titus 2 : 1 • Titus 1 : 10 • Titus 2 : 11-14
1. Speak thou the things which become sound doctrine:
10. For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers,
11. For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12. Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
13. Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
14. Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

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8. II Corinthians 10 : 3-5
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

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The Wanderings Of Abraham by F. E. Mason

[Part of a sermon delivered in Chickering Hall, September 4, 1887, and now published by request.]

From the October 1887 issue of The Christian Science Journal

In calling Abraham the Lord said unto him, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from, thy father’s house, into a land that I will show thee.”

What were Abraham’s country, his kindred, and his father’s house? His country was mortal mind; his kindred, the thoughts that are akin to mortal mind, the aggregate of which compose mortal mind, such as envy, jealousy, malice, hate, selfishness, and the desire for worldly things.

His father’s house was the false belief in material existence, belief that his origin was material instead of spiritual. These were the things God called Abraham to forsake; and God calls us to do likewise, and come into the land He will show us.

According to Science and Health, the word Abraham signifies fidelity,—faith in the Divine Life and Eternal Principle of Being. The Hebrew word signifies elevation. This shows that faith in the Divine Principle of Being, which is an elevated thought, led him to follow the voice of Truth; consequently, a like exalted thought today will lead in the same direction.

How well Abraham journeyed in the way the Lord directed we shall see as we advance, and we may profit by his experience.

We must bear in mind that Abraham had no Moses to open the way across the sea of error for him. He went alone. Alone? Man is never alone. God is ever present with him, and his only guide; but from a material standpoint, the experience of others makes it easier for those who follow. We have the footsteps of our blessed Master to follow. His words of courage and love echo from every hill of Palestine, and summon us to our heavenly home.

We also have our beloved Teacher among us, to remove the stumbling-blocks from our path; so we must not censure the grand old Patriarch, if we find he did fall out occasionally, but thank God again and again for the example of perseverance, patience, and courage which Abraham has left for an everlasting example, to guide us on. Let us learn a lesson from his deviations, and invigorate our thought with the inspiration of Truth, which will guard us from his stumbling-blocks, and so fortify us that we shall never stray.

In answer to God’s command, we find that Abraham immediately departed,—observing all the divine commands but one, as we shall presently see.

He took Sarah his wife and Lot his brother’s son with him, and departed from Haran, where his father (according to the flesh) died. Passing through the land of Canaan, he went up into the Plains, where he builded an altar unto the Lord, after which God appeared to him. Thence he removed into a mountain near Bethel, where a grievous famine arose.

Now let us return, and look at this section of the narrative from its spiritual standpoint. Since there is no matter, the locations and events recorded in this narrative must be conditions of mind.

Haran means parched, or dry. Hence we are to understand that Abraham, in leaving Haran, left the dry and parched conditions of mortal mind (his country). In that mental condition—that is, Haran—he buried his earthly father, which would show that in his upward march in Truth he had lost or buried the belief of a material existence. In other words, by leaving mortal mind (Haran) he rose to the understanding that God was his Father, and the only Father he ever had. He saw through the illusion of mortal mind, and realized that his material father was a belief, and not a reality. He saw that God, the infinite and limitless Creator, could not be expressed through the finite and limited,—that there was but one source of Life, and that one Eternal; so he buried the false belief of Life in matter, and left it to its native nothingness.

Like the rock Hellgate, which obstructs the entrance to the largest harbor in America, so the rock of Animal Magnetism, or the belief of intelligent matter, obstructs the harbor of Divine Truth. On this rock, for ages, the tides of heathen mythology, empty conjecture, and superstition have rushed, and split into swirling pools and twisting eddies, bringing incessant havoc. Abraham removed this obstruction, in his discovery that matter is lifeless, and thereby he safely opened the channel which leads into the harbor of God. This obstructive rock must be removed by all of us, before we can anchor in God’s harbor of peaceful rest. This rock, on which so many are wrecked, can only be removed by spiritual discernment; for nothing but the power of God can dislodge it from its stronghold in the human mind.

We find this unfolding of Truth, and the removal of this obstacle, have given Abraham an upward impetus, and he passes from Haran through Canaan, and ascends into the Plains. According to Science and Health, the word Canaan means “the testimony of what is termed material sense.” The Hebrew word signifies low. So in passing through Canaan, and going up into the Plains, Abraham passes through, and leaves behind, the low, false testimony of the material senses, and ascends into the region of supernal sense, the Plains above Canaan, where he builds an altar unto God; that is, he sacrifices some of the false claims of error. Here the Lord appears to him, as He will reveal Himself to all when they sacrifice their worldly desires. It is only the pure in heart who see God; consequently our vision must be made pure by sacrifice.

From this altitude of thought Abraham goes still higher, into a mountain near Bethel, where he builds another altar, and sacrifices more of his earthly desires,—thereby learning more of God’s creation. This advance into the Mountains of Truth has carried him almost to the very House of God,— which is the meaning of the word Bethel. Thus from Haran we find Abraham steadily rising higher and higher, as one pure thought unfolds, and evolves another thought still higher, till he reaches the Mount of Spiritual Assurance.

But while here a grievous famine arises, and he goes down into Egypt for food. From almost the very House of God (Bethel) he went down into Egypt,—from the clear, pure atmosphere of the Mountains of Truth, down into the murky and foul air of error. Turning from the light of God’s eternal day, he sought, in the midnight darkness of Egypt, that sustaining food which can be found only on the Mountains of God’s Holiness.

While on his way into Egypt, Abraham says to his wife: “When the Egyptians shall see thee, tell them not, I pray thee, thou art my wife; for they will surely kill me. Say thou art my sister!” What does all this mean? What can have happened so suddenly to turn Light into darkness, and Truth into falsehood? Let us ferret out the cause of this sudden retreat of Abraham, so that we may avoid a like calamity; for the same cause is sure to turn us out of the way, as it did Abraham, four thousand years ago.

The famine signifies bareness of spiritual thought, unconsciousness of God’s presence. The Hebrew name Sarah, signifies high, love, princess. Why should Abraham want the Egyptians to think her his sister, and not his wife? Simply for this reason. The remembrance that “all is Mind” unfolds to us the fact that, in going down to Egypt (error), Abraham was afraid to acknowledge that he was wedded to that high thought of Love of which Sarah was the type,— that thought of Love which is the highest reflection in the ascending order of divine creation, and is of the feminine gender. He wanted to make this a more distant relative than a wedded thought. Abraham feared the Egyptians would kill him; so fear shut out the light of Truth, and all was darkness.

Turning our backs upon Truth, and going down to Egypt, makes cowards of us all. It is going upward into the Mountains of Spiritual Discernment that weds us to high thoughts of Truth and Love; but when we go downward, we realize that the relationship becomes more distant, and is only a sister, instead of a wedded thought. We are self-divorced from Truth, when we abandon and cease to support it, as a faithless husband ceases to support his wife; and our steps then are always in the direction of Egypt.

After a sojourn there of about two years, Abraham, his wife, and Lot leave Egypt, and once more take their way toward Bethel, travelling over the very same ground they had traversed before the famine. Finally they reach the same position they had formerly occupied, near Bethel, and stop at the place where Abraham had built the altar. Here, for the first time since he went into Egypt, Abraham calls on the name of Jehovah. Ascending the Mountains of Truth, we feel God’s ever-present care and omnipotence, and as we near Bethel (His habitation) we call upon His name.

From this position Abraham strives to go still higher, into the elevation of God’s holy habitation. He strives to enter Bethel, where God reigns supreme; but he strives in vain. He cannot advance further. Once before he had reached this very elevation; but instead of going higher, he had allowed the famine to drive him into Egypt. Something at this point again hinders his further advancement, in spite of his desires. So we can imagine the grand old man, after many futile attempts, seeking for the cause of his vain effort to press on to the land God had promised him. Suddenly he finds the cause; and the weight which hung about his neck becomes a stone of David in his hand. With the sling of Truth he goes forth to meet the giant looming before him and obstructing his progress. This giant was the thought of Lot, whom Abraham had taken with him, notwithstanding God had warned the patriarch to leave his kindred behind.

Lot signifies veil, or covering; and Lot was a veil and a covering indeed to Abraham,—covering up the spiritual realities of God’s creation, veiling from his spiritual vision the Promised Land. This veil, like the veil of the Holy of Holies, must be rent, before the ever-burning lamp, the light of Truth, could give forth unceasingly its unbroken rays.

When Abraham saw the cause of the famine, and of his past detour into Egypt, he went out, like David of old, to meet the enemy before his camp. With these words of Truth he overthrew this enemy: “We must separate. Let there be no strife between us.” What a world of thought is in this speech of Abraham to Lot, “We must separate.”

This is the well-directed thought which stuns the giant; but this is not sufficient. When David had overthrown his giant, Goliath, he drew his sword and decapitated him. Simply stunning a giant is not enough; we must destroy him. Simply saying we must separate from these seemingly powerful evils that impede our progress, is only stunning the giant. When we put our resolution into execution, then the victory is ours, and the giant lies at our feet, overthrown forever. We must cast out error with the still small voice of Truth, that there be no strife between us. Let us remember this point. If we have taken Lot with us, and find that our progress in Truth is checked, we must at once separate from him. We shall then find that God will appear to us as He did to Abraham, and lead us higher up, into the firmament of Truth.

After the separation, Lot chose all the Plains of Jordan, because they were pleasant to the material eye, and fertile in the production of worldly riches. He journeyed eastward. Now we find Lot’s true character, in this longing for worldly things, for what is pleasant to the senses,—in the lusts of the flesh, which Paul said were at enmity with the Spirit, and warring against it. This was the thought which blocked the wheels of Abraham’s advance, and showed that although he had built two altars, and had sacrificed unto God, he had sacrificed only enough to allow him to reach a certain point, beyond which he could not go.

Even Lot journeyed East,—that is, toward the light; but where did he land? Upon the mountains where Abraham went? Oh no! but in Sodom,—that city subsequently destroyed on account of it excessive wickedness, that city which God promised to spare if ten righteous ones could be found within its walls; but which, alas! was so given over to worldly worship that it was consumed by its own burning fires of error. In this city of Sodom we find Lot made his abode, and this shows where worldly desires will carry us.

How many there are who, to outward appearance, are still travelling East, toward the light, but whose inward thought, like Lot’s, will carry them eventually into Sodom .

After separating from Lot, Abraham finds no difficulty in advancing higher; for he immediately removes to Mamre. Mamre signifies stoutness. This shows that his thoughts are growing stronger in Truth. Here we find three angels appearing to him, as he sits in his tent-door in the heat of the day,—that is, at noonday, under the blazing eye of Truth.

Here we leave Abraham, not intending at present to give a further spiritual interpretation of this narrative; although realizing that every point in his career would be profitable and interesting. The one dark spot of Lot hid from Abraham the strait and narrow way which led to Bethel, the House of God.

Several years ago a lighthouse stood on the coast of Florida. A pane of glass in the lantern was accidentally broken just at nightfall, too late to have it replaced. The wind was blowing strong. To keep it from putting out the light, the keeper inserted a piece of tin in place of the missing glass. The light shone over the deep, except where the tin cast a dark shadow, widening as it lay upon the distant sea, until that shadow covered many a mile. Vessels within this shadow could see no light where one ought to be; and several were wrecked upon the rocks. Though the light was burning as brightly as ever, it did not shine where it should.

Thus a single fault, or impure thought, often hides part of the light of Truth, and mankind, coming into that shadow, are wrecked. Christian Scientists, who stand as lighthouses on the shores of the Sea of Mortal Mind, should inspect their lanterns, and see that no dark screen obstructs the rays of light, so that they can not be seen by the weary, wave-tossed mariner.

The deadliest enemy in the Spanish American War in 1898 was yellow fever. Longfellow’s soldiers “in dreary hospitals of pain” were some of the sick and hungry hearts calling out for help, and the Lady of Healing was helping them. The poet saw this lady with a lamp flit from room to room, but she was probably unseen by the soldiers she healed. These were some of the hundreds of healings never recorded and largely unrecognized. But one of the Woman’s disciples did recognize the work and demonstrations of her Leader.

Lida Fitzpatrick wrote to Mrs. Eddy a letter which the Leader had read at Christian Science Hall on Wednesday, September 14,1898.

Beloved Mother and Teacher:

I want to thank you, dear mother, for what to me has been a very great demonstration of Truth during the time of the recent war, and finally over the war; while I know that loyal Scientists have been at work upon the thought, to me it was your demonstration.

It has given me a greater sense of the power of Truth and Love than I could before comprehend, and I feel I can catch a glimpse of what the disciples saw after some of Jesus’ great
demonstrations.

According to report, out of four hundred yellow fever cases every one recovered and were afterward placed at the front because they were better than before the illness. All cases which the physicians thought could not recover gained their normal condition right before them, much to the surprise of the physicians. The number of cases of so-called loss of life has been so small as to call for wonderment from all. …

In Science and Health, page 235, in your interpretation of the commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” it reads, “it ends wars,” and the recent demonstration proves
the truth of that statement.

Again allow me to thank you for the uplifting I have experienced and also the great good the world has received through the great demonstration.

With much love.
Your sincere student,
Lida W. Fitzpatrick

Found in The Individual Christian Scientist, March, 2002, Number 3