Sunday, July 19th, 2026 Roundtable

No one can hurt me nor take from me anything that is good. I know no such thing as sin, suffering, want or disease, for I am a reflection of Life, Truth and Love. I am never disappointed. The harmony of my being cannot be disturbed, because I live in the Infinite.

from Collectanea, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 102

71 — WATCH lest your thought be frightened, discouraged or confused by Mrs. Eddy’s insistence that teachers fit students to guard themselves against the would-be mental assassin, who, she declares, attempts to kill morally and physically (Science and Health, page 445 link). A mental assassin attempts murder in the mental realm, attacking mind rather than body. When you realize that God is Mind, and Mind is the true Life reflected by man, then it becomes plain that Mrs. Eddy must be referring to erroneous suggestions, which tend to darken and depress one’s spontaneous reflection of Life, God, so that he loses his sense of conscious spiritual dominion.

Adam Dickey was directed by Mrs. Eddy to swear before God that he would record that, if she should ever leave here, it would be because she was mentally murdered. Many students have been disturbed by this information; yet the Master called the devil a murderer from the beginning. On page 77 of Miscellaneous Writings (link) we read, “That which has a beginning must have an ending.” If suggestion can persuade a mortal that he had a beginning, or a birth into matter, in that acceptance hides murder, or inevitable death. The suggestion of a beginning is the devil that murders, or ensures an end for mortal man.

Mrs. Eddy knew that murder was always mental, — and never physical. Every mortal that dies is mentally murdered. Only when a student establishes his freedom from human thinking and mesmerism, and seeks refuge in the secret place of the Most High, is he completely protected from the mental assassin.

When the Bible asks, “O grave, where is thy victory?” we can answer that it is to be found in the belief of birth, since the grave wins its victory only as it persuades one to accept the belief of a beginning. The first step, therefore, toward overcoming death is to assail the lie and belief that asserts the reality of birth.

500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter

Exodus 20:12
Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

Our Father which art in heaven,
 Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,

from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 17

Ways That Are Vain, from Miscellany by Mary Baker Eddy

The Law of Right Feeling by Rev. G. A. Kratzer

Don’t depreciate your life — it’s the most glorious thing imaginable. Your Life is God.

Sickness is just shallow thinking about life. Our Leader tells us that “The remedy consists in probing the trouble to the bottom, in finding and casting out by denial the error of belief which produces a mortal disorder. . .” (S&H 184:8) You see, all sickness is found in shallow, mortal beliefs about life, and the remedy is found in digging deep, to appreciate the realities of life.

Poor circulation is a sluggish sense of life dammed up and obstructed. The remedy is to think about life as “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and the Lamb.” (Rev. 22:1)

Over-weight is just a heavy, cumbersome, materialistic burdened concept or thought about life. But life is light, unencumbered, spiritual, free, unburdened. For God is our life.

Poverty is a limited sense of Life, a limited sense of God, and consequently a limited sense of good. Your God, your Life, is unlimited, unrestricted. Refuse, absolutely refuse, to think of your God, your Life, as limited. Can God prepare a table in the wilderness? What cannot God do?

Sin is a distorted thought about life. It is the illusion that says that life, your life, can be evil. Dig deep, appreciate the fact that God is your life; therefore your consciousness and experience includes no evil.

Death is a shallow, very shallow concept of life. Don’t be a mortal, a dying creature. Dig deep. Acknowledge that God is your Life, and therefore it is eternal. Don’t fulfill the shallow expectation of the people, that all must die. Fulfill the deep expectation of God that all must live eternally, abundantly.

The flower does not say, “Oh I have so much work to do to be a beautiful rose, to be fragrant — it just lets Life express itself as a rose. Just let Life express itself as man, as you, a beautiful, fragrant, healthy expression of being. Many individuals spend half their time planning on their death, thinking about insurance, wills, cemetery lots, etc. Don’t dig a shallow grave for yourself. Never plan on dying. Dig deep in Spirit and plan to live eternally.

From the 1963 Association Address by Herbert Rieke

Instead of being bound for the grave, we must know we are on the eternal road of Life that has no sense of death.

from Essays and Other Footprints, (the “Red Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy

Some Notes on True Vision by John L. Morgan

Freshness
Newness of strength; spirit; vigor; liveliness; contrary to a faded state; Color of youth and health

1. 246 : 27 (Life)-31
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.

Any experience that you may have is only God’s gift to you to put the right amount of pressure on you, to compel you to rise and force you to acknowledge Him in all your ways, and then you find His direction right there

Excerpts from letters by Herbert Eustace

Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are proofs of God’s care.

from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 66

Luke 18:27
The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

Our Mission in the World Is Individual by Martha Wilcox

To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.

from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 15

Golden Text: Jude : 21
“Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

“The word “keep” is an imperative indicating the believer’s urgent responsibility to understand God’s love and apply it to himself. The word “keep” means to attend to carefully, take care of, guard. We are to give careful attention to the love of God for us. We keep ourselves understanding God’s love by (1) building ourselves on the Word of God and (2) praying in the Holy Spirit.” (Bible exposition on Jude 21)

“Keep yourselves in the love of God and eagerly await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life." We must endeavour to remain within the protective sphere of God's never-ending love as we abide in Christ and He in us. We are to be clothed daily and securely protected by the armour of God. We are to be covered completely in Christ's own perfect righteousness and peace, as we live for His glory…Whom to know is life eternal.

How important to build up our faith on a sound foundation, to fight the good fight of faith, and keep ourselves in the love of God. How vital to maintain ongoing communion…by admitting our need of His guidance and grace.

How crucial to immerse ourselves in the Word of God and live godly in Christ Jesus our Lord.

How needful to pray in spirit and in truth, for this will nurture our faith, feed our souls, maintain fellowship with our Father, and enable us to face the fiery trials that pursue our way.”

Source

A TESTIMONY

It was healing that permanently brought my family into Christian Science many years ago. It was a case of "man's extremity is God's opportunity."

Through an accident my mother had lost her sight. After several excruciatingly painful operations through which the best eye specialists endeavored vainly to restore at least partial sight, all hope was abandoned. My father at that time was suffering from an incurable disease and doctors gave him but a short time to live and advised him to put his affairs in order. In this dark hour a man in whom my father confided his dire circumstances said, "My friend, be of good cheer. You and your wife can both be helped. sat in a wheelchair many years, thinking there was no cure for the rheumatism. But heard of Christian Science and was completely healed." He advised my father to go and see a Mrs. Coulter, C.Š., who had her home and office in the Lincoln Hotel, Seattle.

Greatly encouraged, my father took my mother to see Mrs. Coulter. My father at that time did not think his own difficulty could be healed, as he was somewhat steeped in medical lore, and had read in his "Doctor Book" that his difficulty was fatal. When my mother's sight was fully restored after three visits, unbelievable joy and prayerful thanksgiving reigned in our home. It was then that my father decided perhaps he, too, could be helped. He was perfectly healed in one treatment. My mother then confided to the practitioner that my little brother had been wearing a truss for what the doctor had diagnosed as hernia. Mrs. Coulter said, *You have seen what God can do. Go home and read the textbook, and you will find your little boy is all right." The next morning when Mom was dressing this little boy she found him entirely healed. Mrs. Coulter at that time was in her ninety-first year. was about seven years of age then, and these wonderful healings made a profound impression on me. In heartfelt gratitude would sometimes climb up to the attic and in the corner where the chimney ran through would kneel down and ask God to help me understand this marvelous Science so that someday could help people in the way my mother and father and little brother had been healed.

Those healings have overshadowed everything in my life, and my prayer, "0 God, feed my famished affections for a higher holier understanding of what God and man is,"has been answered in ever-increasing comprehension of the Science of Christian Science. To Mrs. Coulter it had become solid conviction that disease is but the image of a lie. Disease is not matter or a part of matter. It is but the result of a falsehood. She recognized the physical difficulties to be but the image of wrong thought. She saw it as just that, and it was healed, much as a mathematician spots error in a calculation and substitutes the right answer for the wrong one.

Originally from Mary Baker Eddy: A New Look By Helen M. Wright

As found in the Independent Christian Scientist by Doris Grekel

Destroying the Evidence by J. Thomas Mumford

from the November 25, 1916 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

THE real Christian Scientist is not discouraged by criticisms ignorantly made against Christian Science, even though they seem severe. Jesus said, “These things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me,” and the reason given by Paul for his part in the persecution of Christians was that he did it ignorantly, thinking that he was doing God a service. Jesus said to the Jews, “Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.” When he was hanging on the cross he said of his persecutors, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” The criticisms offered against Christian Science may seem to those who use them to supply good reasons for opposition, but to those who are enlightened along spiritual lines, they are utterly without foundation.

Many of these criticisms are attempts to minimize the evidence, so as to make it less convincing. In the twelfth chapter of John we see that many were attracted to Jesus because of the great works of healing which he did, but “they came not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the dead.” That is, they wanted to see the evidence. But, it is added at the tenth verse, “the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; because that by reason of him many . . . believed on Jesus.” That is, they consulted how they might destroy the evidence of Christ’s power over death and the grave.

To the enlightened and spiritual it seems astounding that people will study to destroy the evidence of “God with us,” and try to put out of the way anything which will place the power of God, good, above mortal limitations. They do it, however, because they are not acquainted with the true nature of God, and the real man made in His image and likeness.

The attempt to destroy the evidence of God’s power over sin, disease, and death has been peculiar to mortal mind in all the ages. The history of the world is largely characterized by the effort of mortal mind to rule God out of His own universe, and to minimize the evidence of His hand in human affairs. On the day of Pentecost some critics tried to weaken the evidence at hand by saying, “These men are full of new wine.” After the crucifixion the rulers attempted to destroy the evidence of Christ’s power over death. To do this they placed a guard about the sepulcher, and after the great event had taken place and the soldiers had fled into the city and told what had occurred, they bribed them to say that the disciples had taken the body of Jesus away while they slept.

Criticism against divine Science is of the same nature today. The attempt is even made to show by sermons and the printed page that God is not healing the sick through spiritual means, and that Christian Science is akin to suggestion or hypnotism. The man born blind who was healed was a living testimonial of the Christ-power over disease and human limitations, but to destroy this evidence the Jews cast him out of the synagogue. Contact with a man like that was obviously dangerous to the old way of thinking. In these days the attempt is made to have it appear that there was virtue in the clay with which Jesus anointed the blind man’s eyes, and that it did not take quite so much power when the clay was used. What is this but an attempt to weaken the evidence?

In the dark ages, when a man had an advanced thought which brought him nearer to the right conception of God and man, he was burned at the stake, or otherwise put out of the way. In the old way of thinking he was considered a dangerous person. This kept the evidence in the background and the world was impoverished thereby. Who knows what advancement might have been made in spiritual enlightenment had such men as John Huss, John Tyndall, and hundreds of others been permitted to preach the truth as they understood it without hindrance? We owe much to religious liberty and to the freedom of the press, and that is one reason why such great progress is being made in this day and age.

Nothing deserves to survive that cannot bear the light of honest and sincere investigation. If it is not the truth, it will come to naught; if it is the truth, it will prevail. In the words of the poet Bryant:—

Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,—
The eternal years of God are hers.

Christian Science is not injured by criticism. Many have been led into Science by the statements of some overzealous critic. We are informed that “the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.” The one who seeks to destroy the evidence of the ever present divine Life is blinded by the god of this world (material sense), but some day this blindness will disappear and together we shall all see as God sees and know as God knows.

Spiritual rationality and free thought accompany approaching Science, and cannot be put down. They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific means and so-called laws.

from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 223

1. Psalm 118 : 17
17 I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.

Living Witnesses by William P. McKenzie

from the June 15, 1918 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

Acquaintance with the truth of being enabled the psalmist to say, “Thou art near, O Lord; and all thy commandments are truth.” He was able to see also how not distance but discord separated blessing from man, saying, “Salvation is far from the wicked: for they seek not thy statutes.”

The joy and privilege of one who knows the truth as to God the Savior is clearly stated through inspiration by one who said, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” Once a question was asked concerning a group of workers and students in Christian Science, Whence came they? The questioner had in mind locality and perhaps occupation. The one who made the reply, however, was reminded of the answer given by John to a similar question, “These are they which came out of great tribulation;” for the one questioned thought of the many victories over error and sickness which were represented in the group, and so said simply and truly, “Most of us came from our graves.” Their experience had illustrated the truth of the statement found in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 323): “The true idea of God gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that there are other minds, and destroys mortality.” It recalls also the statement in Ezekiel: “Ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live.”

The Christian Science movement has included in its workers and promoters thousands of those who saw first in their own lives the marvel and mystery of Truth in operation. Peter in his address to the household of Cornelius declared “how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.” “And,” he went on to say, “we are witnesses of all things which he did.” Likewise there are witnesses to the work of the Comforter, “the Spirit of truth,” in these latter days. For the encouragement of those who are seeking Truth, who believe that they shall recognize it by the sign of salvation, the periodicals of our movement have always recorded such signs or evidences, naming them testimonies of healing. Those who write these testimonies are the living witnesses—not merely living but loving also, that is, living with a new sense of life. It may here be said that whatever the purposes of medication may usually be it is not the purpose of Christian Science healing to make anyone merely a healthy animal, or to give one such material successes that he may for example come under the ban indicated by Isaiah when he said: “Woe unto them that join house to house, that lay field to field, till there be no place, that they may be placed alone in the midst of the earth!” The life and the love revealed through Christian Science make one spiritually minded, superior to covetousness and animality.

The reward of fellowship that may be found by those who bear witness is illustrated by what one whose testimony was published, has written. She says: “I wish to thank you for publishing my testimony of healing and for the marked copy sent me. Through it, friends whom we have not heard from for years have written us letters. We did not even know where they were living. One family has been interested in Science for twelve years, and another party I was instrumental in helping six years ago, writes me of continued blessings in Christian Science. This is proof that nothing is lost in the divine Mind. My gratitude goes out daily for Christian Science and no words can express my appreciation for the literature.”

The opportunities that are before Christian Scientists should not be taken lightly nor disregarded. If one begins to make excuses, it is easy to find reasons for saying, “I pray thee have me excused.” But if it was said truly long ago, “He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him: but blessing shall be upon the head of him that selleth it,” much more can it be said to-day that if one gives true testimony regarding the bread of Life, the people will love him. Not only, then, before audiences at testimony meetings, but also by means of articles and records of healing in our periodicals, reaching a vaster audience, may Christian Scientists show themselves to be living witnesses, attesting and confirming the fact that man “doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.” Those who are responsible for the regular issuance of the periodicals wherein testimonies of healing appear, invite the living witnesses to consider the opportunity of the hour.

“I Girded Thee” by Maud Dunn

from the August 3, 1912 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel

Lately it came to me very clearly how true these words of our Leader are: “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need” (Science and Health, p. 494); and as I dwelt upon the first affirmation I realized how in the past my needs had been met according to my understanding, divine Love being with me even then, although I knew it not. One especial instance of this fact comes into my thought and fills me with gratitude. When but a child of about twelve years old I was seized with a fear of immediate death, although I was well. I said nothing to any one about this fear, but it seemed to haunt me and morbid pictures presented themselves to my mental vision. Just at this time my father, who is a clergyman, invited a neighboring curate to preach for him. I went as usual to church, and when the text of the sermon was given out I felt as if a direct message had come to me, for it was the verse, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord.” I was then and there healed of the fear, and have never forgotten the relief I experienced. Again, when quite a child, I lost a little pearl ring which my mother had given me, and I did not know whereabouts it had been dropped. Again I said nothing to any one, but instinctively I went to God in my trouble and I prayed incessantly that the ring might be found. At the end of a few days the ring was brought up from the village smithy; it had been stepped on by a horse and become embedded in the soft part of the foot, where it was found when he came to be shod. The owner of the horse said, “Perhaps it belongs to one of the young ladies up at the rectory,” and at once brought it there. I looked upon the event as a miracle, and for many years wore the little battered ring on my watch-chain in order to be reminded of the answer to prayer.

As the years rolled on I however grew more and more discouraged, until the light of Christian Science came to me. Looking back I now see how true the verse is, “I girded thee, though thou hast not known me,” and as I advance in understanding I realize more or less clearly that as the errors of the past were met and trials overcome by divine Love, they are being met today with the fuller understanding gained from our revered Leader’s writings, and always will be met as the future unfolds more of Truth and Love.