Sunday, March 1st, 2026 Roundtable

Now worry does not demonstrate. All the mental energy one spends on worry would be better used in faith. Just pray when you do not know what to think, or sing a hymn to yourself until worry goes. Nothing happens out of order, everything happens in the order of development for you. You pray to learn; then why be regretful when the page turns over and a hard lesson comes next? Let resentment go, and just roll up your sleeves, so to speak, and get to work and declare that you are going to squeeze all the benefit out of that experience that you can. Just learn to be glad of these chances to impersonalize error.

from Essays and Other Footprints, (the “Red Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 77

55 — WATCH lest, in your endeavor to apply absolute Science to the human problem, you feel that you should ignore the claims of material sense, since it is unscientific to acknowledge them. This error is seen in those who talk in terms of absolute Science all the time, and rebuke those who voice anything concerning the human problem. Such an attitude Mrs. Eddy says may be a tedious mischief-maker. On page 252 of Science and Health (link) she writes, “A knowledge of error and of its operations must precede that understanding of Truth which destroys error.”

When an architect designs a structure, he draws his conception on paper; then comes its construction. In establishing the true sense of man, the perfect model must be formed in thought. Then with this perfect ideal before one, he can carve it out in his daily life…

Mrs. Eddy once wrote, “The Christ is the manifestation of Truth and this Truth came not to destroy but to fulfill the law of Life and to perfectly realize all of its manifestations. It is reported that Jesus said on one occasion, ‘These things ought ye to have done and not to leave the others undone.’ The healer in Christian Science carries two lines of thought, first the approximation to the truth, and second, the final truth. He argues for all the manifestations of health of body. At the same time he argues that man is God’s own image and likeness. In the words of St. John, ‘Now are we the sons of God.’ The healer does not discourage the thought by trying to make that appear first, which is not the beginning but the end of the desired result. The full consummation of Life, Truth and Love is not reached at once, but through the footsteps as did the apostle. When we have reached divine understanding, through these footsteps, we shall then know ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life.’ Then we shall find ourselves the image and likeness of divine Love — the child of God, the offspring of Spirit — never born of the flesh nor of the will of man, but co-existent with the eternal and infinite God.”

500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter

They cannot in the beginning take the attitude, nor adopt the words, that Jesus used at the end of his demonstration.

from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 215

Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick.

from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 476 to 477

Rejoicing in Tribulation, from Dominion Within by Rev. G. A. Kratzer

She said malicious animal magnetism had been trying all over the land to precipitate evil leading into all sorts of sin and destruction, seeking to lay its work to Scientists, but said she, “I have been holding it back.” She spoke in such a way that I did not feel that I understood and that perhaps I ought to. So I said, “Is it something I may inquire about? I do not just understand what you mean. Do you mean that some particular individuals that you know are seeking to do these things?” This seemed to vex her a little, and she replied, “You know the use of language, don’t you? I don’t see how the language can make it any plainer.” She went on to say that mesmerism sought to make people believe that they hadn’t any mind at all and that therefore they could not exercise their mind. I asked if she meant that idiocy belief was thereby induced. She replied that she had known of subjects becoming mesmerized into the belief of complete idiocy. She said she did not recognize these powers as realities; did not allow it to have a place, or give it a name in her consciousness.

Recollections of Mary Baker Eddy by James F. Gilman

The return of old beliefs is broken forever by the knowledge that it has no law by which to stand, now and forever. Evil suggestions have no past, present or future. Never did they do anything in the past, nor can they do anything in the future. We must not be apathetic and think we have nothing to do. If well and happy, it is just the time to work, so that we are protected and protecting all, and helping mankind. We must incite each other to more earnest, systematic work, to be instant in season and out of season, and keep in advance of the enemy all the time and not be found napping.

Teaching and Addresses on Christian Science by Edward A. Kimball

7. Mark 13 : 37
And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.

The Birth of Jesus, from the Christian Science Journal, August 1888, by F. E. Mason

The present is ours; the future, big with events. Every man and woman should be to-day a law to himself, herself, — a law of loyalty to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The means for sinning unseen and unpunished have so increased that, unless one be watchful and steadfast in Love, one’s temptations to sin are increased a hundredfold. Mortal mind at this period mutely works in the interest of both good and evil in a manner least understood; hence the need of watching, and the danger of yielding to temptation from causes that at former periods in human history were not existent. The action and effects of this so-called human mind in its silent arguments, are yet to be uncovered and summarily dealt with by divine justice.

from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 12

True, I have made the Bible, and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” the pastor for all the churches of the Christian Science denomination, but that does not make it impossible for this pastor of ours to preach ! To my sense the Sermon on the Mount, read each Sunday without comment and obeyed throughout the week, would be enough for Christian practice. The Word of God is a powerful preacher, and it is not too spiritual to be pracical, nor too transcendental to be heard and understood. Whosoever saith there is no sermon without personal preaching, forgets what Christian Scientists do not, namely, that God is a Person, and that he should be willing to hear a sermon from his personal God!

from Message for 1901, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 11

The lives of those old-fashioned leaders of religion explain in a few words a good man. They fill the ecclesiastic measure, that to love God and keep His commandments is the whole duty of man. Such churchmen and the Bible, especially the First Commandment of the Decalogue, and Ninety-first Psalm, the Sermon on the Mount, and St. John’s Revelation, educated my thought many years, yea, all the way up to its preparation for and reception of the Science of Christianity. I believe, if those venerable Christians were here to-day, their sanctified souls would take in the spirit and understanding of Christian Science through the flood-gates of Love; with them Love was the governing impulse of every action; their piety was the all-important consideration of their being, the original beauty of holiness that to-day seems to be fading so sensibly from our sight.

from Message for 1901, by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 32 to 33

The parable of “the prodigal son” is rightly called “the pearl of parables,” and our Master’s greatest utterance may well be called “the diamond sermon.” No purer and more exalted teachings ever fell upon human ears than those contained in what is commonly known as the Sermon on the Mount, — though this name has been given it by compilers and translators of the Bible, and not by the Master himself or by the Scripture authors. Indeed, this title really indicates more the Master’s mood, than the material locality.

from Retrospection and Introspection, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 94

The Beatitudes, from Sermons and Articles by Doris White Evans

Meekness and Restoration by Florence Roberts

Little Heart’s-Ease

From the February 1891 issue of The Christian Science Journal

There was once a king who had a very beautiful garden and grounds arranged with care and taste. He spent many hours there, and loved every little blade and leaf and flower that grew. It had shady, quiet walks, and bubbling springs, and wonderful views; and in this garden were to be found all manner of delightful fruits. There was one superb old oak, so high and grand that it could be seen for miles around. There were also roses and lilacs and flowering shrubs of every kind; in fact, nothing was lacking to make it a perfect spot.

One day the king’s head-gardener came to him exclaiming: “Oh, king! pray come and see what is the matter with your garden; everything is wilting, drooping and dying.” While he spoke, other gardeners came running up, all with the same sad story to tell. The king followed them into the garden, and found it all as they had said. He went, first, up to his grand old oak-tree, his pride and admiration, and exclaimed: “Why, oak, what’s the matter with you, that you are withering and dying?” “O,” said the oak, “I don’t think I am of any use; I am too large and cumbersome, and bear neither flowers nor fruit. Besides, my branches spread so wide and thick that it is all dark and shady under them, so no flowers nor fruit can grow there. Now if I were a rose-bush, it would be worth while; for I should bear sweet flowers; or if I were a peach or a pear-tree—or even a grape-vine—I could give you fruit.” The good king turned sadly away, making no reply.

He went on down the path to his favorite rose-bush and said: “Well, rose-bush, what’s the matter; why are you drooping?” “Why,” answered the rose-bush, “I’m of no use; I have no fruit—I bear nothing but flowers. If I were an oak like that grand one in the middle of the grounds, I should be of some use; for then I should be seen for miles around, and should do honor to your garden. But as it is, I might just as well die.”

The king next came to a grape-vine no longer clinging to its trellis and the trees, but trailing sadly on the ground. He stopped and asked: “Grape-vine, what ails you; why are you lying so dolefully on the ground?” “Ah,” said the vine, “you see what a poor, weak creature I am. I can’t even hold up my own weight, but must cling to a tree or a post,—and what good can I do? I neither give shade like the oak, nor bear flowers like the shrubs. I can’t even so much as make a border for a walk, like the box. I must always depend on someth

On went the king, quite in despair, at sight of all his place going to destruction. Suddenly, low down by the earth, with her face turned up to him, he spied a little heart’s-ease looking as bright and smiling as sunshine lie stopped and said: “You dear little heart’s-ease! What makes you look so bright and blooming when everything around you is wilting?” “Why,” said the heart’s-ease, “I thought you wanted me here. If you had wanted an oak, you would have planted an acorn. If you had wanted roses, you would have set out a rose-bush; and if you had wanted grapes, you would have put in a grape-vine. But I knew that what you wanted of me was to be a heart’s-ease; and so I thought I would try to be the very best little heart’s-ease that ever I could.” The good king smiled, and said half to himself:—

“‘Behold! how God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty.'”

Just then a little breeze. came through the garden and carried this lovely thought of heart’s-ease to the oak, the grape-vine and the rose. For about half an hour there was a great silence; then, in quietness and humility the oak straightened out his leaves, and lifted his great branches up towards heaven; the vine began tenderly to wind herself about the tree; and the rose again put forth her beautiful buds. The king returned to his house, saying: “The meek shall inherit the earth.”

Signs of the Times

from the July 30, 1927 Christian Science Sentinel, originally from an article by Dr. George H. Morrison, in the British Weekly, London, England

In a thoughtful book published the other day there is a striking suggestion about Jesus. It is that the question he is always asking is, Have you tried the way of love? His teaching was infinitely varied and exquisitely adapted to the moment. He couched it in a hundred forms, according to the demand of the occasion. But the question he was always asking, and which he is always asking still, is, Have you tried the way of love? There is nothing radically new in this, for love is native to the human heart. In the dimmest past and in the darkest spot some spark of love is found. The glory of Jesus is that he brought love to light, as he brought immortality to light, and proclaimed its application everywhere. The worth and wonder of love was not a new thing in the world when Jesus came. It is embedded in every great literature, and freely recognized in the Old Testament. What Jesus did was to exalt it into a compelling and universal motive, applicable to the whole of life. Others had bidden us to love our friends; Jesus made us love our enemies. His followers are not to love selected souls; they are to walk in love. With difficult people, with all who irritate us, with those we can scarcely think of without bitterness, Jesus always confronts us with the question, Have you tried the way of love?

It is there he so transcends the older covenant which he came not to destroy but to fulfill. For the question of the Old Testament is this, Have you tried the way of justice? There is a great deal of love in the Old Testament, but love is not yet upon the throne. Love is like the dawn in the Old Testament; it is not yet in the middle heaven of noonday. The moral glory of the older covenant is not its passionate insistence upon love, but its passionate insistence upon justice. Instead of wild and unrestrained revenge, it enforced an equal retribution. If a man lost an eye, he might demand an eye; if a tooth, he might demand a tooth. Right through the law of Moses and the prophets, and on to the Baptist’s preaching in the wilderness, there is one long cry for social justice. Then came Jesus, and the cry for justice was transcended in the cry for love. He says to the man embittered by his blinding, Have you tried the way of love? And he means that by the way of love something more is gained than retribution, for the enemy is turned into a friend. For conquering enemies and settling problems Jesus believed in love alone. Love to him was the universal solvent of the injuries and injustices of life. We may smile at that, and call it idle dreaming—”behold, this dreamer cometh.” But for the Lord it was “the only way.”

It is notable that Jesus never defines love, just as he never seeks to define faith. These monosyllables reach the heart of things, and in the heart lies their interpretation. But no one can read the sayings of our Lord, nor recall his training in the home at Nazareth, without recognizing that his thought of love was colored by the relationships of home. To him nothing was more heavenly than the love which he had found in family circles, with its understanding and forbearance, its quiet self-forgetfulness and sacrifice. Like golden threads there run through all his teaching tender memories of the humble home at Nazareth. … He wanted to universalize the home. Get that spirit to reign in the broad world, and the wilderness would blossom as the rose. …

But if love was colored by the hues of home, our Lord’s insistence was not based on that. He called on men to try the way of love, because he knew it was the way of God. He found that as he wandered in the fields—did not the rain fall on the evil and on the good? Did God withhold His sunshine from the sinner on the strict and narrow plea of retribution? He found that in himself, sent in the very lavishness of love, for “God so loved the world.” For Jesus, love was not an attribute of God; it was the depth and center of His being. God was not fatherly; He was a Father, loving His children as a father does. His perfection was not a rigid justice, but an infinitely loving heart—and we are to be perfect even as He is. That was why Jesus was so daring, though all the world might reckon him a dreamer. To him the way of love was God’s way, and God’s way is the only way. Undeterred by the mockeries of men, … he confronts our broken world to-day, still asking, Have you tried the way of love?