About the new cover:

From In Defense of Mary Baker Eddy, and the Remnant of Her Seed, by Paul R. Smillie:

In the Christian Science Sentinel of September 6, 1913 on page ten, Archibald McLellan stated three most important points about the cover of the Sentinel and a minor change made at that time on its cover. Speaking of this change he said, “Beyond this there can be neither desire nor occasion for change in the Sentinel, because,” he said, “Mrs. Eddy’s instructions forbid any change.” He explained this by saying, “Mrs. Eddy likewise gave instructions.” The word “instructions” is most important. Speaking then of the two women, the lamps and the inscriptions beneath them, he said they had been “preserved as expressive of our Leader’s thought. ...” Mrs. Eddy requested that the cover of the Sentinel be light blue in color.”

Unselfed Love

The commonly accepted definition of “unselfed,” by which is meant to be unselfish, is unlike the metaphysical meaning of the word.

Unselfishness is full of personalities, and it means to be doing for, or giving to, others. To be unselfed is the exact opposite. It has absolutely no personality attached to it. It is centered entirely on God as All-in-all. Every thought begins with God, and flows from Him, enfolding His presentation of Himself in all the beauty, glory and completeness of His own being.

God does not give, He is, and man is His showing forth.

To be unselfed means never to harbor a thought which starts from effect. To think in terms of effect is to mentally malpractice because it is accepting something aside from God, the one cause.

Then to be unselfed means to start with cause, God, and find Him as the basis and substance of all being.

Mrs. Eddy once said, “There is only one way through, and only one, and that is to become unselfed.” Impersonality and unselfedness go hand-in-hand because both start with God as causation, and never with effect. Effect — in other words, what is seen — is like the image in the mirror. Its only purpose is to testify to the object standing before the mirror, the cause, and never the effect.

To do this is to become unselfed, and is the only way to be impersonally and spiritually minded.

Denver Republican Christian Science Weekly, December 1, 1898

To make Christianity helpful, we've got to quit judging others and get down and lift. There is no load of sin or sickness too heavy for Christian Science — the lever of Love — to pry off our shoulders.

There is a good deal said about unselfishness, but there is very little of it. Self is the giant of these days; but the undersized David met and slew Goliath, and that is what everyone must do with his giant of self to attain the freedom of doing right.

If it were not that everyone seems to feel bound to appear better than he is, self would not be so hard to overcome. Self rides us, booted and spurred, because we are too proud to call for help. We do not like to let our fellow men know that we are secretly pandering to self, and so we keep up a righteous appearance at the expense of slow progress toward the realization of true manhood.

The Christian Science Church is not a fellowship of saints, but of mortals who are trying to help one another to be saints. When a man tries to make himself good, he is attempting an impossibility. Self cannot be good. Goodness appears only in the measure that self is forgotten. If it were not for self — properly speaking, the false sense of self — we would not be unjust, malicious, jealous, envious, covetous, and we would not suffer from the envy, malice, injustice, or criticism of others.

Selfishness will hide under a thousand masks of seeming goodness, but self is the one Devil, though his name is Legion. A selfish sin so well covered up that we are not conscious of its presence, may sting us unexpectedly. It is like a revolver concealed in the pocket. You never know when the trigger may catch in the lining and cause it to go off.

An electric light in a bad neighborhood is a better protection than ten policemen would be without the light. Christian Science is a bright light in the human consciousness which searches out all the lurking-places of error. It will finally drive them all out, even selfishness.

Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase!)

Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace,

And saw within the moonlight in his room,

Making it rich and like a lily in bloom,

An angel writing in a book of gold:

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,

And to the presence in the room he said,

“What writes thou?” The vision raised its head,

And, with a look made of all sweet accord,

Answered, “The names of those who love the Lord.”

“And is mine one?” said Abou. “Nay, not so,”

Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,

But cheerly still; and said, “I pray thee, then,

Write me as one that loves his fellow-men.”

The angel wrote, and vanished. The next night

It came again, with a great wakening light,

And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,—

And, lo! Ben Adhem’s name led all the rest

Excerpt from Footsteps, Chapter 79, pages 350-354

Shortly after I arrived at Pleasant View, the thought struck me, what shall I do if I fall ill? The rest of the household have their work to do, and I am sure I cannot ask Mrs. Eddy for help. Furthermore, no-one is called to this home, until he has proved his ability to demonstrate his health through his understanding of Christian Science.

I opened my thought to God for guidance on this point, and the lesson became clear to me. As man attains a knowledge of Truth, he becomes a channel through which the unbroken power of infinite good flows out to the universe. This divine essence not only blesses humanity, but it sustains the channel through which it flows. When, however, man turns his thought in to himself, he produces a belief of interruption of this divine power.

The first time I fell ill while at Pleasant View, remembering the above revelation, I resolved to test it out. I sat down by the window, and let my thought go out in prayer to all the sufferers in the world in hospitals; in sick rooms; those condemned under the classification, incurable; those without knowledge of the presence of God to care for them; to bring them the truth, that there is no incurable disease and that, even though they did not know it, they do have a heavenly Father who is the great Physician, who “healeth all thy diseases.” I let my thought issue forth to all who needed God, with the true realization of the God that is all-presence, all-power and Love.

When I returned from this mental journey, I found myself well. Through this process, I restored my thought to being a channel for good, and thereby eliminated the ill effects, which were the outward proof of an in-turned thought. During the year I was at Pleasant View, this divine mode of effort, which I believe was God-inspired, never failed me.

The statement, “God is Love” is the most metaphysical in the Bible. Human love is full of fear and doubt; however, it is not to be destroyed, but redeemed. We do not lose human affection in Christian Science, we lift it up. Don’t stifle human affection, but let it be more and more like God. It is unfailing, never changing, always active and available; in fact, it is the basis of all creation.

First, last, and always, the great need is Love. Lack of love is the only trouble with the world today. Love alone will heal the distrust, jealousy, fear, and ignorance of the race, and in doing this, will heal its lack and disease.

We need not only to believe in Love, but to live in Love, to be Love, and to know that there is no other being than Love. Love is the acme of all things, and Love is the divine Principle of all being, the Mind that is God, and the Life that is man. Love is the only essential Principle of the universe, and you cannot go beyond Principle.

Elevate your thought of man, and love more. You not only have to recognize divine Love, you have to be divine Love. Divine Love is not a distant power that meets human needs. Divine Love will do nothing for a man until he takes it into his consciousness.

I was told a good story recently that I would like to share. It was told to me by my business partner, who has been a really good partner and friend for many years. He is one of the most selfless, giving, and honest persons that I know. He volunteers one night a week to drive an ambulance for the volunteer Rescue Squad. He and his wife spend a week in Haiti every year with a group of doctors administering medical care to a region that has no medical facilities. He is not a Christian Scientist, but he knows that we are, and he respects that tremendously. His wife is a Roman Catholic, and when he does go to church he goes to church with her to support her.

One Sunday he and his wife were at their summer house, which is out on the end of Long Island on the Long Island Sound. He woke up and got a message very clearly that he shouldn’t go with her to church that morning, but that he should go out into the water in his boat. He has a little fishing boat that he loves. He says that whenever he goes out on the water, it is his time to commune with God. He wasn’t sure why he was getting this message, because he hadn’t planned to go fishing, and it was stormy; but he did go because it came to him so strongly that this was what he should do.

He took his boat out into the storm. It was windy, and the waves were very high. He was out there, not knowing why, and he was the only boat out there, or so he thought. He had not gone very far when he saw something in the water. He went over to look at it and saw a man in the water waving his arms wildly, clearly in trouble. His kayak had taken on water and was sinking. The man had on a lifejacket, but he didn’t know how to swim, so he was scared to death. He was having great difficulty.

So Tom, my partner, went over and pulled him up out of the water. The guy couldn’t move, he was so distraught. Tom pulled his kayak out of the water and got it into his boat. When the man was finally able to talk, he said he was from Eastern Europe visiting friends in the United States. The man said he had been out with his friends in the kayak fishing, the storm had taken him away, and he got lost. He did not know where he was and couldn’t get back. Tom then took him back to where he had come from. On the way, they saw his friends, who were very happy to see him. They had thought their friend was gone forever. The fellow was deeply grateful to Tom for having saved his life.

After Tom told me this story he said, “Isn’t that the craziest thing?” I laughed and said, “No it is not crazy. That is how God works.” I told him it was to his credit that God called him to save this fellow, and that he listened and obeyed. I encouraged him to tell this story to his children and grandchildren on the importance of listening to that still small voice and obeying it. Then I chuckled and told him, as Jesus said, God made him a fisher of men. He laughed.

Here is a man who leads a very moral life, very unselfed, and willing to help anyone at any time. He was the right person to save this fellow. He got the call and obeyed it. It is Christianly scientific to listen to that still small voice and obey, and he did. There is a God and He is good! God does take care of us when we listen.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the following poem shortly after an article was published describing the horrors of the Crimean War. The article told of Florence Nightingale, a compassionate nurse who often worked for 20 hours without a break, visiting the hospital wards alone every night, lamp in hand, to comfort the men. Mary Baker Eddy mentions her on page 385 in Science and Health, where she says, “It is proverbial that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists engaged in humane labors have been able to undergo without sinking fatigues and exposures which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derived from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds.”

The poem also calls to remembrance Mrs. Eddy’s tireless dedication in bringing God’s comforting and healing message to mankind in the form of Christian Science. In fact, Mrs. Eddy, herself, chose the second-to-last verse of Longfellow’s poem to engrave on the bases of the statues of the two ladies with the lamps on the cover of the original Christian Science Sentinels, which now grace the cover of our Plainfield Church magazine, Love Is the Liberator.

Whene'er a noble deed is wrought,

Whene'er is spoken a noble thought,

Our hearts, in glad surprise,

To higher levels rise.

The tidal wave of deeper souls

Into our inmost being rolls,

And lifts us unawares

Out of all meaner cares.

Honor to those whose words or deeds

Thus help us in our daily needs,

And by their overflow

Raise us from what is low!

Thus thought I, as by night I read

Of the great army of the dead,

The trenches cold and damp,

The starved and frozen camp,—

The wounded from the battle-plain,

In dreary hospitals of pain,

The cheerless corridors,

The cold and stony floors.

Lo! in that house of misery

A lady with a lamp I see

Pass through the glimmering gloom,

And flit from room to room.

And slow, as in a dream of bliss,

The speechless sufferer turns to kiss

Her shadow, as it falls

Upon the darkening walls.

As if a door in heaven should be

Opened, and then closed suddenly,

The vision came and went,

The light shone was spent.

On England's annals, through the long

Hereafter of her speech and song,

That light its rays shall cast

From portals of the past.

A lady with a lamp shall stand

In the great history of the land,

A noble type of good,

Heroic womanhood.

Nor even shall be wanting here

The palm, the lily, and the spear,

The symbols that of yore

Saint Filomena bore.

Following Christ in the way of Christian Science costs something: complete surrender of self. The Sermon on the Mount makes known the process of giving up self’s most valued and defended possessions, likening it to giving up the right eye or right hand. But to allow that mortal self to express itself is to smudge or besmear the transparency that God created man to be.

This complete giving up of self, though it seems very costly, is the price that must be paid to purchase the “pearl of great price.”

In Gethsemane, Jesus told three of his disciples, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death,” and asked them to watch with him while he prayed. Returning to them, he found them asleep. He said, “What, could ye not watch with me one hour?” (Matt. 26:38, 40)

The key to obedient, successful watching is maintaining “First Love” for God in concentrated, consecrated commitment to doing His will, every moment of our lives. It was lack of First Love that put the disciples to sleep throughout that one fateful hour when Jesus needed them most.

Mary Baker Eddy writes, “Kindle the watch-fires of unselfed love, and they throw a light upon the uncomplaining agony in the life of our Lord; they open the enigmatical seals of the angel, standing in the sun, a glorified spiritual idea of the ever-present God — in whom there is no darkness, but all is light, and man’s immortal being.” (Mess. ‘02, 16:15-20)

Mrs. Eddy also says, “When mortals learn to love aright; when they learn that man’s highest happiness, that which has most of heaven in it, is in blessing others, and self-immolation — they will obey both the old and the new commandment, and receive the reward of obedience.” (‘02 at 17:7)

In reality it was Mrs. Eddy’s declaration that she functioned under God, so that whatever she said or did by way of treating people in a kindly way, was not because she was a good woman, moral, unselfish and sweet-tempered, but because she had demonstrated God's government to such an extent that it had become second nature; whatever God required her to do, she had to do it.

To think of Mrs. Eddy as doing good because it was an inherent human instinct, was not the right conception of her. In Christian Science, students should not express unselfishness and share with others, just because they believe they have loving natures of themselves; but because they are governed by God. To be sure, they should always act in a way that will call forth human commendation and regard, but they should do it wholly as Mrs. Eddy did. She made a law for herself that she could not help being kind, because she was governed by a kind God.

Christian Science does not merely engender the development of human virtues; it requires one to reflect God. Mrs. Eddy claimed no self-derived virtue. She did not express love from a human motivation of unselfishness and kindness, but from the basis of obedience to God. She did what He told her to do. So when He told her to be stern, she had to be stern, no matter how much she might have wished to be otherwise. In her famous class of 1898 she was asked if Scientists ought to reprove error in others, or if the realization of Love would destroy it without an audible rebuke. She answered, “One of the hardest things I have had to do was to deal with this very question. I would rather at any time dwell on Love alone, and get away from error; but that would not do. It would allow error to increase. Jesus rebuked sharply. I must do so until I arrive at that place in Mind where I cannot see error, where God, Spirit, is All-in-all.” (Precepts IV, page 196)

Jesus Included as a qualification for leadership, the willingness to wash another's feet. He set forth that his willingness to wash his disciples’ feet constituted part of his fitness to lead them. He defended himself against human ambition, and avoided personal aggrandizement, because he knew that if he permitted himself to be exalted personally, it would cost him a loss of God that might prove fatal to his mission. (Precepts III, page 119)

Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health, “Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power.” (p. 192)

When I first realized what this statement was saying, I was quite awed by it. I began to think about it and pray with it before I would do a Watch. What Mrs. Eddy is saying is, even if your thought is not on a high level, as long as it is aligned with unselfed love, you will receive “directly the divine power.” Therefore, as I am praying for our church, our community, our world, because it is unselfed, I am the receiver of the divine power. This is a tremendous thought.

Years ago, the practitioner and teacher in this church told us a story of how she had once been very ill with the flu. She was getting help from a very fine practitioner. After a few days of this, the practitioner said, “Well are you praying for everyone? Are you knowing that this flu is not the truth about you, nor is it the truth about anyone, anywhere?” Her answer to this question was, “Well, no, I haven’t been praying like that.” She then began to. In other words, she made her prayer not just personal for herself, but she made it universal, to know that the claim of flu was not true for her or for anyone, anywhere. She said she was healed that day.

All our prayers should be unselfish. Yes, we pray for ourselves, but also to send our prayers out to bless and heal all mankind. I am so grateful to Mary Baker Eddy for our textbook, Science and Health, for the wisdom she has given us, and her understanding of the Bible.

Some bit of loving-kindness, Lord,

Give me to do each day.

Some loving thought or kindly word

Teach me to think or say.

Some little act of gentleness

Impartially bestowed,

Some thoughtful deed to help and bless

Another on his road.

Some self-forgetting charity

That does not seek its own,

But causes other men to see

Good is from God alone.

Thus be for me each day’s reward

A part of each day’s plan.

Some bit of loving-kindness, Lord,

To do for fellow man.

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From Mrs. Eddy

From Course in Divinity and General Collectanea, (the Blue Book), page 223

Science and Health is changing the belief that heart is matter and sustains life, to the understanding that “God is our Life,” that “In Him we live, move, and have our being.” This change of heart would deliver man from heart disease and advance Christianity a hundredfold.

There is another heart in us that needs to be changed; namely, the human affections. Changed from selfishness to benevolence and love for God and man; changed so as to have but one God and to love Him supremely, and our brother man as ourselves. This change of heart will have its effect physically as well as spiritually, and heal disease sooner than burnt offerings or drugs. It is a good thing to mentally remind yourself daily that God is the only law-maker for man, morally, spiritually, and physically.

Oh, mountain monarch, at whose feet I stand, —

Clouds to adorn thy brow, skies clasp thy hand, —

Nature divine, in harmony profound,

With peaceful presence hath begirt thee round.

And thou, majestic oak, from yon high place

Guard’st thou the earth, asleep in night’s embrace, —

And from thy lofty summit, pouring down

Thy sheltering shade, her noonday glories crown?

Whate’er thy mission, mountain sentinel,

To my lone heart thou art a power and spell;

A lesson grave, of life, that teacheth me

To love the Hebrew figure of a tree.

Faithful and patient be my life as thine;

As strong to wrestle with the storms of time;

As deeply rooted in a soil of love;

As grandly rising to the heavens above.

Miscellaneous Writings pages 249-250

What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the underived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the alone God, is Love.

By what strange perversity is the best become the most abused, — either as a quality or as an entity? Mortals misrepresent and miscall affection; they make it what it is not, and doubt what it is. The so-called affection pursuing its victim is a butcher fattening the lamb to slay it. What the lower propensities express, should be repressed by the sentiments. No word is more misconstrued; no sentiment less understood. The divine significance of Love is distorted into human qualities, which in their human abandon become jealousy and hate.

Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken down on rare occasions with sugar-tongs and laid on a rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results. Unless these appear, I cast aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or goodness without activity and power. As a human quality, the glorious significance of affection is more than words: it is the tender, unselfish deed done in secret; the silent, ceaseless prayer; the self-forgetful heart that overflows; the veiled form stealing on an errand of mercy, out of a side door; the little feet tripping along the sidewalk; the gentle hand opening the door that turns toward want and woe, sickness and sorrow, and thus lighting the dark places of earth.

Mary Baker Eddy’s Lessons of the Seventh Day, p. 338

I walk the earth in the atmosphere of Love which holds me in spiritual gravitation. The Love that I reflect repels every error of mortal mind, for Love is the only law and Love is all activity. Love fills all channels and expels all error. Love purifies, inspires, protects and satisfies.

Love contains, Love maintains, Love sustains, Love does liberate, unbind, unseal and deliver; naught can hinder Love. Love does supply with perfect freedom, Love does furnish, provide, adorn with great liberty. Love does glow, warm, shine, light with its rays of glory.

Love does illumine, irradiate, beam with resplendent brilliancy.

Love is the only and all of spiritual attainment in spiritual growth. Without it healing is not done and cannot be, either morally or physically. Every advance step will show you this until victory is won and you possess no other consciousness but Love divine.

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Interesting Squibs

In Support of Our Nation, Our World

1936 Primary Class

Read that wonderful passage in Science and Health (565:13-17): “The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our Master; but ‘of his kingdom there shall be no end,’ for Christ, God’s idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples — imperatively, absolutely, finally — with divine Science.”

The essential thing to see here is that the words imperatively, absolutely and finally mean now. If you do not see this, you are postponing good, in belief, when it can be realized here and now for all mankind.

Only in this way can you be the new heaven and new earth. You are understanding this, and you will find it more and more of value forevermore.

Christian Science Journal, 1885

Dr. Benjamin Franklin, during his residence in Paris, was invited to a company of distinguished men who were skeptics. According to their custom, in conversation, Christianity and the Bible were treated with unsparing severity. One of the company attracted universal attention by asserting, with great confidence, that the Bible was not only a piece of gross deception, but totally devoid of literary merit.

Benjamin Franklin asked if he might read them a passage from a book he had just bought. They consented. He read Habakkuk 3:4-6: “And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power.

“Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.

“He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.”

The few sentences made a deep impression. The admiring listeners pronounced them superior to anything they had heard or read; and that nothing could surpass them in grandeur and sublimity. They all wished to know what was the name of this new work, the name of this new author, and whether this was a specimen of its merits? “Certainly, gentlemen,” said Dr. Franklin, smiling at his triumph. “My book is full of such passages; it is no other than your good-for-nothing Bible. I have read to you a short paragraph from the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk.”

I am afraid that the schools will prove the very gates of hell, unless they diligently labor in explaining the Holy Scriptures and engraving them in the heart of the youth.

Divinity Course and General Collectanea, the Blue Book, page 233

Every pure thought falling silently and gently into human consciousness does its part in cleansing the whole world, just as every falling snowflake does its silent share in transforming the noisomeness of the grimy earth into a soft white blanket of purity. We must remember that the smallest truth is mightier than the greatest lie the world has ever known. The one is as enduring as eternity; the other is as transient as a shadow. Take from a lie its power to deceive and it becomes nothing, for its very being depends upon its ability to mislead. A lie must have two willing accessories – one who is willing to be deceived: one who is willing to deceive – the victimized and the victim; if either is wanting, the lie can do nothing.

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A Watch to Work with Often

“Every By-law in the Manual is inspired. I did not write them any more than I wrote Science and Health. I study Science and Health constantly.”

from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 185

The Church Manual is the law of God, as much so as the Ten Commandments, and requires unwavering obedience! Disobedience to God’s Word brought plagues on Egypt; and world conditions since the bogus Manual was foisted upon Christian Scientists are very similar. It is the divine right and duty of every Christian Scientist to be awake to this evil, to break the shackles of the Boston organization, declare allegiance only to God, and demand obedience to Mrs. Eddy’s Manual. “God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.” (S&H 393:13)

“Waken to the need of this hour that those who would set aside the Manual of The Mother Church with its just By-Laws see the sinfulness of their ways.” [dated September 5, 1902]

from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 53-54

Ever hidden jewels in caverns,

Lie the deepest thoughts of Man,

where peace and love are always stirring,

never near mortal demands.

A place of calm and deepest refuge,

a place unfettered like the sea,

always stirring pure emotions,

setting every captive free

like the waves e’er pushing forward,

or the leaves in autumn trees,

freeing man from his addictions,

a place where every demon flees

Back and forth with branches swaying,

A breeze it sweeps upon the leaves,

Bringing man to stations higher,

Than at first he did believe.

Touching first the ruffled feather,

Of rested birds within their nests,

Then stripping through the thickened treetops,

Bringing leaves, autumnal rest.

Gently stirring garden blossoms,

Harshly pulling tidal seas,

Taking man to places heavenly,

Than he could e’er first believe.

Image by Carl Miller

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History Corner

Myrtle Stewart, a Christian Scientist and newspaper reporter, wrote this document after investigating information she acquired relating to the Board of Directors’ unlawful substitution of their bogus Manual for the final edition authorized by Mrs. Eddy. Their faithlessness to God, Mrs. Eddy, and Christian Science resulted in the decline in church membership and caused a general lack of interest in Christian Science.

The following is an excerpt from this very informative and enlightening document. The entire document can be found on the Plainfield Church website, plainfieldcs.com.

Mrs. Eddy was deeply saddened by the necessity of providing a Manual of rules for her students, after having given “Science and Health” to THE WHOLE WORLD!

She later realized how crucially important her Manual would become after she disappeared from mortal sight, for she wrote:

“Notwithstanding the sacrilegious moth of time, eternity awaits our Church Manual . . . which will stand when [ministries aggressive and active] have passed to rest.” (My. 230:1)

Mrs. Eddy realized also that the directors of her Mother Church were conspiring to break her Manual, for they importuned her to rescind its By-Laws [the estoppels STOPPERS]! This was because the estoppels require that the organization, not ANY churches, dissolve at her decease; and the directors would feel that they had been demoted!

She always replied to their plea by saying God dictated her Manual, and that it was spiritually inspired EQUALLY with “Science and Health” and therefore she could not rescind it.

Those five individuals and all of their ensuing self-elected successors thereafter were no better qualified to assume the leadership than ANY of the Leader’s followers. Her Manual of 1910 NOT the directors’ Manual of January 1911 was the fool-proof, impersonal successor to Mrs. Eddy’s proven inspired spiritual guidance.

Until the publication of this document, the members of the Mother Church and many other Christian Scientists were unaware that the current Manual is a fake. It is NOT Mrs. Eddy’s!

Only three new pages were needed for this sudden transformation! One page at the front of the book simply omitted Mrs. Eddy’s name as Pastor Emeritus, while two, near the back, contained three added ALL-REVERSING words: “and Branch Churches.”

It was a religious COUP of unprecedented scope and depth. It was WORLD SHAKING! This writer saw that the 1910 COUP had been inflicting the Biblically promised plagues upon the whole world, ever since the COUP occurred. She saw that these plagues are cited in the Bible, in its closing verses [Rev. 22:18,19], and that the penalties would continue to escalate under the regime of the hoax-Manual which the directors had fabricated IN SECRET while Mrs. Eddy was still here, and which they sold AS HERS within three weeks after her funeral!

The reason the world’s plagues would continue to increase is chillingly simple. It is because the directors’ spurious Manual not only conceals the great Leader’s divine guidance for the whole world, but it flies in the face of those Bible verses which tell of the inexorable plagues that would result from “ADDING TO” and “TAKING FROM” the words of the sacred Scriptures.

There is a truism that “world conditions are the reflection of the highest world religion.” The religions of the world, however, are fragmented, and are personally specialized. In this light, Christian Science should not be called RELIGION but SCIENCE, because it is not fragmentary. It reveals and TEACHES the ultimate of God, Good, in the pure SCIENCE OF BEING!

While Mrs. Eddy was here, the world recognized that the Christian Scientists possessed the highest understanding and proof of God that was ever manifested on earth since the Acts of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. At the time a new Christian Science Church or Society formed every 3-1/2 days! [Quoted by the Christian Science Sentinel of June 11, 1910.]

A few months before her death, LIFE Magazine of July 14, 1910, had printed a glowing birthday tribute to her in her 90th year, in part as follows: “She has held her course with apparent serenity and at present, at an advanced age, is still the head and front of ONE OF THE GREATEST RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS KNOWN.” [Emphasis added.]

THEN “SATAN ALSO CAME” IN THE FORM OF THE 1910 COUP and the Christian Science denomination began its imperceptible [at first] plummeting toward becoming almost the least influential religion on the planet! Worse, the “mentally-liberated” and humanly ambitious directorate became the veritable Biblical CAUSE of our Biblically promised plagues!

Today, despite the several past decades of these inevitable plagues, there is a crescending “GLAD SOUND” heard in human consciousness! It is caused by at least 35 years of obedience to Mrs. Eddy’s Church Manual by uncounted thousands of “Independent” Christian Scientists, of whom there are more today than there are members of the organized Mother Church.

These free Christian Scientists are participating, all year round, all over the literate world, in a myriad of Christian Science seminars, conferences, classes and study groups.

In 1976, the theme of the June Annual Meeting at the Mother Church was “SHOW ME, SHEPHERD!” But the high hopes of the members were dashed when it became evident that the theme meant: “O Lord, grant that we may always be right, for Thou knowest we will never change our minds!”

Now, a quarter of a century later, that is still the dominant theme of the LOYAL director supporters; all the while, in divine vindication of Mary Baker Eddy, their disobedient organization is RAPIDLY melting out from under them!

DIVINE LAW CANNOT BE BROKEN. Mortals break themselves on it, when they believe they are breaking it, or when they are not even aware of doing so. Mary Baker Eddy’s Church Manual IS divine Law, and it cannot be broken!

The article on the Church Manual by Blanche Hersey Hogue, in the Sentinel of September 10, [1910] is practical and scientific, and I recommend its careful study to all Christian Scientists.

Mary Baker Eddy. (My. 237)

Christian Scientists have for their instruction, the Scriptures, the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, which open the Scriptures, and the Church Manual, the rules of which help them to apply what they have been taught.

The Bible, understood through Christian Science, is aiding its students individually to live in Christian discipleship; the Manual of The Church of Christ, Scientists is helping them collectively to live in Christian fellowship. The teaching of the Scriptures and the Christian Science textbook bring about the individual correction of thought, while the rules of the Church Manual make possible right action through groups of individuals and through the whole body of Scientists. So, the Bible, Science and Health, and the Manual are equally important in their places.

The Manual bears definite relation to the other two books in that it shows us how to take the steps that will bring their teaching into our lives in all relations with our fellow-men. It safeguards and regenerates Christian fellowship by promoting the best possible form of church organization. For these reasons, therefore, it can no more be dispensed with than can the Scriptures or the Christian Science textbook.

Of the Bible Mrs. Eddy has written: “Christian Scientists are fishers of men. The Bible is our sea-beaten Rock. It guides the fishermen. It stands the storm. It engages the attention and enriches the being of all men” (Sentinel, March 31, 1906). Christian Scientists themselves know what place the Christian Science textbook holds in their regeneration; how it makes plain the words of prophet, apostle, and of the Master himself; how it brings Christian healing into human experience today. And concerning the Manual Mrs. Eddy has said: “Of this I am sure, that each rule and by-law in the Manual will increase the spirituality of him who obeys it, invigorate his capacity to heal the sick, to comfort such as mourn, and to awaken the sinner” (Sentinel, Sept. 12, 1903).

It is best for the Christian Scientist at present that he is not allowed to live to himself. His place in organization teaches him many things that he cannot learn otherwise, for it lifts him from the selfish consideration of his personal problems to the unselfish support of an impersonal cause.

If, then, the Church Manual, with the organization for which it provides, has so large a place in the establishment and growth of Christian Science, it is essential that Christian Scientists be keenly alive to its provisions and its demands. Continual fidelity, for instance, to the instruction found in Article VIII., Section 1, that “neither animosity nor mere personal attachment” shall govern motives and actions; to the warning in the same paragraph against “prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously;” to the demand for a charitable attitude toward all religious, medical, and legal points of view; to the adoption, of the spirit of the golden rule. This fidelity will help in the making over of human nature, until in some fair day by-laws to provide for such consistent Christian behavior shall be no longer necessary. And it is unquestionably true that he who really does heed the requirement set forth in the Manual concerning Jesus’ teaching that each shall go to his brother alone and tell him of his fault before publishing it to others, accepts a discipline which makes him in deed as well as in profession a genuine Christian Scientist.

Because the question of church organization is so vital a matter, it becomes naturally an important point to protect. A Christian Scientist who cannot at the moment be made suddenly disloyal to the Bible, to the Christian Science textbook or to its writer, can perhaps, through innumerable arguments, be persuaded into a lukewarm attitude toward church organization. Indifference, restlessness, criticism that is mere fault-finding and is not constructively helpful, are the symptoms of coming under such persuasion.

To prevent this each member needs to keep his thoughts warm and loving toward all church activities; to be cheerfully in his place at meetings whenever possible; to be helpfully interested in every detail of cooperative work, though this does not mean necessarily that he shall take part, personally, in every church undertaking; for the quietest and least conspicuous church-member is sometimes best serving the church. It does mean, however, that we must guard zealously our love for organization, even in its present incomplete form, that we may not hinder its growth into greater beauty and utility.

Indifference to organization indicates that we believe we value the Scriptures and the Christian Science textbook, but refuse the discipline that their teaching asks of us through the rules and by-laws of the Manual. Finding and keeping a place within organization means sometimes the surrender of ease and self-will, but it means, too, shelter and safety and the right to peace. So long, then, as the Leader of the Christian Science movement sees there is need for organization to establish Christian Science, no student may fancy that he has rightly “outgrown” organization. The Christian Scientist is a standard-bearer within The Church of Christ, Scientist, and he who remains loyally and lovingly at his post best serves God, all humanity, and himself.

It may be said, truly, that the inspiration for the Church Manual is found in the life of Mrs. Eddy. Everything asked of Christian Scientists in maintaining the cause beyond and above all personal interests, Mrs. Eddy herself has done before them. Had she consulted only her own comfort she might have been tempted to apply what she knows of God just to the working out of her own salvation. Instead, she has labored forty years and more to give of her store to the world; she has been impelled to found the church with all its educational branches, and to protect its growing activities; she has foregone ease, and has bound herself to this task, that we, too, may find the Christ-healing for our sin and pain. Consistent and blessed is the Christian Scientist who can bind himself with her until many more shall find their healing and until The Church of Christ, Scientist, shall stand in good will to all men, radiant and triumphant in the earth.

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From the Early Workers

Excerpt from Lectures on Christian Science

Man cannot help but live on and on indefinitely, for he is made up of imperishable elements. Look within yourself; look into consciousness. What do you find? Honesty, purpose, resolution, and an innumerable host of spiritual qualities. Take any one of them — honesty, for example. Can honesty have a collision? Can it be gassed or inflamed or extinguished? Can any spiritual quality suffer accident or pain? Can it experience birth, decay, dissolution? Manifestly not. Then man, as a compound of spiritual qualities, cannot suffer or experience such conditions.

Why not hold to these obvious truths, and reject the false consciousness of disease, accident, physical birth, age, and extinction? Spiritual man, and there is no other, has not fallen; he cannot fall with the everlasting arms of Principle underneath. Your genuine self has not left heaven for earth. It is no more than a dream that you have been born into a realm of danger and destruction.

One of the first steps toward overcoming the belief of death, is to overcome the belief of physical birth. So long as one entertains the belief that he has been ushered into this vale of tears, he can hardly hope to escape being ushered out of it. Indeed, one can scarcely expect to gain permanent immunity from sickness and accident, as long as he indulges the supposition that he has come into and inhabits a world of lawlessness and contagion.

When Jesus declares, “I came forth from the Father and am come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father,” he declares a universal truth, which every individual would do well to apply to himself. You have never left the abode of safety, the presence of God; your real self never has. Hence the groundlessness of fear.

When you intelligently claim your present sonship with the Eternal, you begin to awake to the man of His creating, and the tottering mortal that physical sense proclaims begins to dissolve and fade out. Then you begin to find in yourself the health and strength and ability the Almighty equips you with. If you are not trying to realize that your true self always has lived and always will live as a tangible witness to imperishable Life, and therefore that birth and death are alike impostors, you are failing to utilize one of the fundamental truths of Christianity. In other words you are not making your practice or treatment as searching and dynamic as you might.

Overthrowing the fear of disease and establishing confidence in place thereof is a fundamental feature of Christian Science treatment. The soundness of this practice is apparent when we remember that the human mentality and body are so intimately related that actually they are one. Therefore, when the individual is half-frozen with fear — and this is the usual condition of mortals — inaction or overaction in the body is inevitable. When, in place of the sense of fear, a sense of safety is established, the body will function as it should.

Christian Science Journal 1887

How do we treat our difficulties? Difficulties and conflicts, if wisely met, bring growth. We find unlimited possibilities by overcoming our difficulties and conflicts.

When the higher light of Truth dawned upon Mary Baker Eddy’s consciousness, she isolated herself from the outside world three full years, with the Bible as her only textbook, that she might discover the Principle, the law by which creation is governed. She met obstacles which arose higher than the Alps; yet she persevered, and learned that God never leads where He does not sustain.

Had she shrunk from the conflict, Science and Health would not have been written, and Christian Science would not be before the world. What a victory crowned that decision! As a consequence, thousands rejoice today in the hope of Eternal Life, and the healing power of Eternal Truth.

We cannot overcome error by tacitly admitting its existence. We must meet and overcome it through Love and Truth. Each victory lifts us farther above the things of time and sense, into that higher realm of thought where our spiritual intuitions become more keen, where difficulties and conflicts will change into triumphs, and “Christ, who is our Life, shall appear, and we shall be like him in glory.”

Where Duty calls, go forward!

And dare to do the Right;

Hold high the flag of Truth and Love,

And strike with all your might!

Forward! God through Moses spoke

To Israel's trembling host—

Lo! watery gates were closed upon

The pride of Egypt's boast.

Be not afraid — in Duty's path —

Of famine, flood or foe;

As snow flakes falls the manna bread, —

From rocks sweet waters flow.

The lions which beset your path

Are shadows of a dream;

For opposites of Truth and Love,

Are never what they seem.

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Current Articles

I’ve been reading Cracking The Camouflage Ceiling by Chaplain (Colonel) Janet Yarlott Horton, U.S. Army (Ret). Her experiences and powerful testimonies, beginning in 1976, are inspirational as the First Christian Science woman chaplain applies Christian Science to break the gender barriers in the U.S. Army Chaplaincy.

My favorite story is about animals. While on a morning run at a retreat in the Arizona desert with the men chaplains, she’d been praying to take her mind off the long run when she realized she was alone. Wondering where the men had gone, she saw a pack of hungry coyotes that began to growl and circle her. When the lead dog moved in, the others would follow. Turning away from the scene before her, she prayed to hear God’s voice for this situation. What came to her was, get down and speak to the lead dog. So she got down on one knee. When she knelt, the lead coyote laid down. Then, so did all the others, and they became very attentive.

She began to “preach the gospel to every creature.” She began with Genesis, and how God created everything and, behold, it was very good. Also with the idea in Science and Health: “All of God’s creatures, moving in the harmony of Science, are harmless, useful, indestructible” (514:28-30) She then told him he had a purpose, but it is not to harm her. And she had a purpose, not to harm him. “We need to be about our Father’s business, but it’s not here. You need to go now.” She waved her hand upward and then pointed out to the desert. The lead coyote popped up and took off, with the others following behind him. The men had seen them and hid, climbing trees, etc. They came out, amazed by what they had seen. If she could preach to wild dogs and they’d listen, she probably could preach to soldiers, too. It took the edge off having a female among them.

The book is packed with practical applications. It encourages the reader to understand prayer and how God’s presence can bless and grace any challenge one may meet. Col. Horton also details the events of September 11, 2001. While at the Pentagon, she was able to go with the rescue team to pray and bring peace to those in need.

During a recent Roundtable discussion, a verse from Ezekiel (chapter 22, verse 30) was read that I don’t remember being aware of before, and which really resonated with me. “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”

At this time Jerusalem was in a sad and horrible state, and God was saying through the prophet Ezekiel that He was searching for someone who would intercede for Jerusalem and do what was necessary for her salvation, someone who would be a good example, and by his influence, stop the sins. He sought a man among princes, priests, and prophets who would stand in the gap, and found no one who would intercede for the nation and the city. 

It was brought out in the Roundtable that we all can stand in the gap, so to speak, whether it’s for our children, our family, our country, our world. It was said that it takes one righteous man or woman to think the right and correct thought, and stand his or her ground, not to give up despite the outside appearances that nothing has changed, but to keep knowing the truth; and what is true will eventually be manifested. It includes praying for those we love, and pouring out that love unconditionally.

I would like to say that I have seen fruitage from standing in the gap. Over the past year, I have had a lot of practitioner help for myself and my son, and have been learning to release him to God. I have been praying each day that God is governing, guiding, and guarding him. It has been a bit of a rollercoaster year seeing where he might end up, and the practitioner’s help has been invaluable.

Six weeks ago we dropped him off for basic training at a military academy, where none of the cadets have access to phones and can only receive and write letters. Several weeks ago I received a beautiful letter from him that expressed how he appreciated me as a mother and how I have been there for him, and saying he was grateful that I have prayed for him all his life. He had never expressed it in such a heart-felt way before.

As an aside, we recently attended a lunch with other parents whose children have already been through basic training at the academy. The question was asked, “If you were to provide, in hindsight, a piece of advice for new parents, what would that be?” One lady got up and said, “Prayer. Pray each day for them. They are not our kids; they belong to God.” And then a man also said, “I can’t stress enough the power of prayer.”

I thank God for this wonderful working out, and it is all due to Christian Science and what I’ve been learning here in Plainfield Church, and the very effective prayers of the practitioner. I am very grateful.

In Retrospection and Introspection, page 86, Mary Baker Eddy writes, “There is but one way of doing good, and that is to do it! There is but one way of being good, and that is to be good!” One of the great lessons I have been learning at Plainfield is what it means to do and be good, based on the Bible and the teachings of Mrs. Eddy.

One day in preparing for a Plainfield class, I happened to look up the word “good” in Webster’s 1828 dictionary and found the following: “honest, uncorrupted, valuable, useful, moral, right, benevolent, kind, highest worth, perfect, beneficial, virtue, firm, not weak, complete, opposed to wicked, wholesome, faithful, fidelity, wise, calm, abundance, satisfied.”

For years I have struggled with the concept of what it means to be good. Reading this definition made me realize that it was how I defined the word that caused me confusion and problems. I thought that what I had to do to be “good” and be “nice” was to please the people around me. It often felt like an impossible task and left me exhausted and unhappy because it demanded me to be compliant, conceal the truth, tolerate errors, not wanting to “rock the boat,” and to allow wrong to rule the right, suppress feelings, and to conform to others’ demands. I found it hard to say no, and pride made me fear making mistakes. I realized that not one of those qualities is in the definition of “good.” Actually, I was not being “good” at all, according to the true meaning.

This false sense of doing good led to a state of self-deception, believing I was good when I wasn’t; and this state of thinking has been hard to break through. What I was doing became a human effort at goodness rather than godlike consciousness. I am learning if I would abide in good, I must do more than long for or strive to attain it with human will or blind faith. I am learning that this is not personal characteristics, dependent upon my mortal moral fiber that is fighting against evil. Rather it is to gain a love for good by obeying God’s laws and removing all that is in the way of pleasing God.

I see now I was on an impossible mission in trying to be “good” by human effort and standards. It has been a relief to be learning that only God is good. By getting a better understanding of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings, it is helping me learn how to live a life of integrity and how to reflect God’s goodness by relying on Him to direct my actions.

It’s often difficult to find a balance in life; there seem to be demands on every side. Most of my life was one big roller coaster ride. I could never seem to find any balance. It was always feast or famine, drought or flood, fight or flight. But, through Christian Science and the work of my practitioner, I am gaining that balance that can only come by putting God first.

Earlier this year, when I went to Plainfield for a gathering of members, I left with the peaceful assurance that heaven can be experienced right here on earth. When I returned home, I was not sure how that would translate into my everyday living.

In the beginning of June it started to get very hot and dry where I live. With temperatures in the 90’s and even reaching above 100 for a week straight, local fire departments opened comfort stations for the elderly. After a month with no rain, many area lawns had burned off and wells were running dry. I called my practitioner about my concerns for the farmers’ crops, and to get insight into what I needed to know about the situation. She said she would pray; and that afternoon, in the middle of the bright sunshine and heat, it began to rain. Although it was a tiny amount, it was enough to assure me that God would not forsake us, keeping the balance on the side of Good. I shared my gratitude with my practitioner and she assured me of God’s love and care for His children.

A couple of weeks more went by, with no restorative rain in sight. But, during this entire time, the most amazing thing was occurring, the grass on my property remained as green and lush as it was in the spring. The flowers I planted were in full bloom, and the tomato plants I planted at the end of May were already producing red tomatoes. Everything seemed to be flourishing. My son even landed an interview with a very large company that would provide him with the money and security to move forward. That glimpse of heaven I experienced while at the church in Plainfield continues to have its presence in my life today. I am so deeply grateful to God for everything I have been given.

Last week, with a humble heart, I reached out to my practitioner once more with concerns about the drought in the area, and the guilt I felt for having so much. With her loving support I began to understand that in time, all shall know God and find that perfect balance. It has been steadily raining a soft, gentle restorative rain, since Sunday morning.

What a blessing to be learning to keep my thought focused on the truth and ever balanced on the side of Good.

I am very grateful to be learning here in Plainfield to “keep on keeping on.” I have found that nothing can interrupt the work we have to do for God, and that He always provides a way to keep going.

Recently, we had a few storms that threatened to disrupt the work at this church. While the first one took out the internet at my home, I was able to use my phone's internet for most things I needed, and had access to the internet at other places, including the church, when needed. I actually had a lot to do that didn't require being online, like preparing the first draft of this month's magazine, so all went well, and within three days my internet was restored.

The second storm, however, seemed intent on stopping the Wednesday testimony meeting altogether. My practitioner was insistent that the storm could not impede the work we do for God, and made sure that our Unity Watch reflected that. Speaking with her always leaves me with a sure sense that nothing can possibly interfere with the mission of this church.

Despite how the storm appeared that Wednesday, I kept knowing that there is no power apart from God. This allowed me to do what I needed to do all day long, and then be ready to broadcast from home. Pretty much everything came through fine, and God kept everything moving forward.

I am very thankful for all I am learning here that helps me to face these situations without being ruled by fear. This is only possible because of all I am learning about Christian Science, and practitioner support.

“I recommend to Christian Scientists, and to all lovers of truth, to read the little book, On the Way There, by Katherine M. Yates. It is scientific, simple. It is an object lesson for each one of us to learn the meaning of this saying of our Master: ‘Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves.’ Mary B. G. Eddy, Pleasant View, Concord, NH, August 18, 1904” (quoted from The Christian Science Sentinel, August 27, 1904.)

The above quote refers to a beautifully written allegory that can be found on our church web site called, “On the Way There,” by Katherine M. Yates. While listening to the audio version, I began to mentally paint myself into the scene, recalling how I had once longed to exchange the nightmares of childhood abuse, for a land filled with peaceful joy. As I listened, I traveled along with young Marjorie from bed to bog, from the islands of misconception, to the white road and golden spires high above the hedges. I could see the loving woman as she compassionately shared her discovery. Unmoved by the bog and what it seemingly presented, she held to the truth, and was able to lead those who listened, to the “beautiful city.”

As I listened, I started to understand how it was that the “errors” mentioned in the allegory began attaching themselves to me. I recalled all the times when, as a child, I wished I belonged to another family, convinced that God had made a mistake. I was jealous of my friends for what I believed they had. I saw how easily that turned into hate and revenge and falsehood, and eventually pulled me into the pool of ill health. I often ran high fevers as a child and struggled with an irregular heartbeat. As a young adult, I began to entertain thoughts of suicide and eventually gave up on any idea of a loving, merciful God. I spent my whole life trudging through that bog and was just about to be pulled under by the weight of it all, when I was led into Christian Science.

The story reminded me how my practitioner had guided me through the process of holding those errors up to the light until I could see right through them, and with one final breath, the smoke of them disappeared, along with any illness and suicidal thoughts.

I am so grateful for this powerful message and what it has to offer to anyone who struggles to find salvation. Seeing the error of materiality in this way has helped me to understand more clearly the work I must do each day to be watchful of the thoughts I entertain, consistently holding them in the light of Truth.

This story has given me a greater appreciation for Mary Baker Eddy and all she has done for mankind. I am grateful for the tireless dedication of my practitioner and the members of this church, who have helped in so many ways to lead me out of the darkness and find my freedom in working for God. Our God is truly a loving and merciful God.

I am so grateful for Christian Science. It is through Christian Science that I learned what love really means. The world tells us that we all have human personalities and are to love them. But Mrs. Eddy has emphasized a true, pure love that is the main thing in this Christian Science ministry. This has really changed my life. It is here in this church, the teachings that were given some time ago, and still continue, where I learned what this true love is.

Mrs. Eddy says love, just love. In Science and Health, she says, “Love for God and man is the true incentive in both healing and teaching.” I remember some time ago listening to a tape from this church where the teacher, Mrs. Evans, would say, “Love out.” She explained, just love, and at least every day find something to love. In other words, you can find some claim in the world to know the Truth about. When you put it into practice every day, there is always something that you can pray for. Whatever the opposite is saying, you know the Truth about it.

Since I put this into practice, it has helped me tremendously. In fact, it has helped me forget some of the so-called problems that I had, and they have disappeared. It brought me closer to God; to really learn how to love, to know that everyone is in God’s care.

Everyone is God’s idea, so we don’t see people as personalities and hold onto resentment and anger that comes with that type of thinking. I am so grateful for Mrs. Eddy because this love is not talked about anywhere else. For what it has done in my life, I just cannot thank her enough. I thank Christ Jesus and God for giving us this Science through Mrs. Eddy. I pray consistently that, what He has given us, we can share so others can come to Him.

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Letters of Gratitude

I have been studying Christian Science for the past three years, and almost entirely online via the Plainfield website. The church has been so helpful and inspiring. I am 35 years old and live in western Michigan.

As a child, my grandmother talked about her cousins who lived in Washington State who were Christian Scientists. My great grandmother, who belonged to the Disciples of Christ Church, while not a Scientist, loved the Christian Science Monitor and had a subscription for years. Hearing all this growing up, peaked my interest in Christian Science and Mary Baker Eddy. My college library had a copy of Science and Health, and at first it was incredibly hard for me to wrap my head around; but in time, it made more and more sense.

In April 2015, I purchased my very own copy of Science and Health and savored the whole thing, finding so many beautiful truths. Around this same time, I came across the Plainfield website, and landed on a treasure trove. Roundtables, Bible Studies, testimonies, articles, FREE Bible Lessons! Too good to be true. I have learned more about the Bible and read it more while studying Christian Science than I have at any other time in my life.

Eventually I started putting into practice what I had been studying and had healings! A condition of hives that caused me a very painful five years, miraculously cleared up. Allergies, up and gone. Depression and anxiety, alleviated! A new sense of purpose, and knowing that God is always present, always available, All-in-all.

I have visited some local branch churches. They have not been my cup of tea, so to speak. Very few attendants, and I'm just so surprised to see that they want money for everything. Quarterlies must be paid for, and if you go online, they give you the Golden Text and Responsive Reading; but if you want to go deeper into the Lesson, you must pay, even to see the citations. Somewhat discouraging.

So, I am hoping to print out an application for church membership to Plainfield and get that into the mail soon. I read the entire Bible Lesson from Plainfield every day, and it really is my lifeline and connection to you all. I also sing along with the hymns at all the services; so on Sunday mornings, when you're in church, know that I'm in Michigan singing right along with the rest of you. I typically have the Full Text in front of me at most Sunday services, but today, after the Responsive Reading, I just put it down and listened to the Readers. I was amazed how much I absorbed that way!

I was wondering if you could recommend a decent biography of Mary Baker Eddy. I just can't get enough of wanting to dig deeper and deeper into her life and teachings.

Just wanted to get an email out there and say hello and connect with someone from Plainfield.

I’d like to express my profound gratitude for the July issue of Love is the Liberator. As lovely as it is on the website, it is even lovelier in person with its light blue cover — the color Mrs. Eddy chose for the Sentinel. It is a wonderful tribute to the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science to have this stately, principled, and inspirational cover grace the magazine of this church, in recognition of and obedience to the Christ. The articles inside on Forgiveness are outstanding and healing — so grateful to the practitioners in this church, who love God and mankind, and who share and teach us so much.

Every page of this magazine is a treasure, sharing many inspirational and practical guides to living closer to God and being a good citizen! The artwork is also outstanding — inspiring and delightful!

Thank you to all who made this treasure possible, a complete healing work sent out to all mankind.

Thank you for the testimony meeting on rest for the soul. The comforting readings are so needed right now.

Love radiates out from our meetings and heals the world. We all feel it, and we know that even those who we haven’t met yet feel this Love, too.

Many new members will keep coming here because Love is irresistible, and this church is overflowing with Life, Truth and Love. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matt.) Blessed are those who come to the Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent and are filled with the tremendous resources here so freely given. It is the gift of God. We are so grateful.

I am very grateful to be a member of the Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent. This church changed my life and gave me true purpose — working for God through this church. I am so grateful for the church website, teleconference, and internet, which allow those of us who live far away to participate in church activities.

This church is truly a church without walls.

I’ve been saving up for quite some time to have something done in my yard. Yesterday I found out, because of a city ordinance, I won’t be able to have it done at all.

At a Roundtable it was mentioned that funds are needed to put a new roof on the church. I’m donating the money I saved for my yard to the church.

I love it that you asked for help through the Roundtable. Individually would be like pressuring people for money. This way it is just letting us know you need us to step up and help. I want to be very clear about this — I have never been pressured for money from this church.

Today is my birthday. What a wonderful gift to me to be able to help.

Thank you for blessing our lives and helping us to understand Mrs. Eddy’s teaching with greater clarity. It has made such a difference. The weekly discussions and the wonderful website and practitioner help available are greatly appreciated.

I’ve passed along some of your material to friends.

I am so grateful for the resources I am finding on your website. I listen to so many and am greatly enriched, especially now while I am going through a difficult time, experiencing many sudden changes in my life.

I found the site while I was extremely sick in bed with the flu for weeks. I could only sleep, drink fluids, and eat a little. I had never experienced anything like it before. Because I had no energy to read, I started to listen to the books of the Bible on YouTube. Then I wanted to listen to Science and Health, and I found the recordings read by Florence. I was curious why all the clips were in her voice, so I followed the link to the church. Through an illness, I am finding enormous healing! “All things work together for good for them that love God.”

I am so grateful to have found the website and everything there. I want to personally thank you for all that you have done to make the website and all your YouTube clips. Thank you for persisting with all the work when you didn’t know if it would ever make an impact. I want to tell you that it has, and does!

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Testimonies of Healing

From S. W. in New Jersey

Approximately 20 years ago my mother passed on in this church during a Wednesday evening meeting. A practitioner, seeing what happened and realizing the seriousness of the situation, came over and sat in the pew behind us and starting speaking the Truth to her. A few of the things I heard the practitioner say were: “God is your life,” “God loves you,” “You are surrounded by Love.” Then the practitioner told my mother that she was needed here to do God’s work. My mother sat up, her color returned, and she was raised from the dead. In Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy defines death as “An illusion, the lie of life in matter; the unreal and untrue; the opposite of Life.” (S&H 584) It was only an illusion, a belief of mortal mind, since man never dies. He is God’s image and likeness.

My mother continued to do God’s work and attended every service in this church for the next 20 years, until she recently passed on at the age of 96. She was healthy and happy at the time of her passing, but her work for God here was finished.

I am grateful to God for this healing, to Mary Baker Eddy for giving us this Science, for the help of the practitioner, and to be a member of this church.

From D. W. in Virginia

I’m very grateful for the protective care of our Father-Mother God. A couple of months ago I experienced a bad, tumbling fall down a full flight of bare wooden stairs. When I came to rest at the bottom, with my eyes closed, I loudly declared, “God good, God good, God good; Life, Truth and Love fill this place and nothing else does; evil cannot come nigh my dwelling; Everlasting arms of Love are beneath, around, above;” and I prayed with the 91st Psalm. I was then very grateful to be able to freely go straight to do my individual prayer Watch. As it was early in the morning, I then called my Plainfield practitioner, leaving a message of what had happened, and asked for support. The practitioner called back and said the angels of His presence were indeed holding me up and protecting me.

My husband told me later, that when he helped me to my feet, he was relieved to see that I was not in pain or incapacitated. I can honestly say that my only fear at the bottom of the stairs was that the only clothes I had brought to go to church that day (as we were visiting from out of state), was a dress, stockings, and high heels! The thought came to me that in Mrs. Eddy’s household, students would be asked to do things which seemed impossible to human sense — they had to be demonstrated; and so here was my opportunity.

The day turned out to be an absolute joy; I was able to freely do everything I had to do, to bear witness to the truth, and to glorify God. And this protective care and healing has remained permanent.

I can’t express enough gratitude for what is taught in this church of the allness of God and nothing else; and for my practitioner, who is faithful and dedicated, and who was prayerfully watching and working on that day to see the unfolding of good!

From C. M. in Massachusetts

I want to express my gratitude for practitioner help this week. I had a problem with my teeth. I have had various issues in the past with pain or cavities, but the issue seems to recur every so often. So, this time I called a loving practitioner here in Plainfield Church for prayerful support and guidance.

She told me that my teeth are rooted in Love. She told me that this is found in the Bible: “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.” (Ephesians 3:17) That idea has been a great help to me. My teeth are rooted in Love and are strong and enduring. In fact, my whole being, and all being — everything that God made — is rooted in Love.

I’m very grateful to say that my teeth feel fine again. But, what I love most about this idea is the bigger picture. When I see a discordant situation I can say to myself, “Is this rooted in Love?” If not, I know it is a lie and not the Truth. This is helping me to see through lies to what’s really there. Everything real is rooted in Love.

From J. F. in Maine

Recently, my husband who is not a practicing Christian Scientist, mentioned that he had a cyst that had formed in the roof of his mouth. He had experienced something similar years ago, and it was not pleasant! I asked him if he would like me to ask my Plainfield practitioner for help, and he agreed.

One of the references that the practitioner gave me to study was from the recent Bible Lesson on Love. The reference was from our textbook, Science and Health (p. 365:15-19) which in part reads, “If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine.”

I’m most happy and grateful to report that my husband came to me in a matter of three or four hours after the call to the practitioner and said that the cyst was dissolving. It has completely disappeared! We are most grateful for the loving and instant support given by the practitioner in this experience.

From B. S. in California

While at a club meeting, where I was helping with food and dishes, I was in the kitchen alone cleaning up the coffee maker and the container of hot water for the tea. I remember not being a particularly happy camper about it at one point. About five minutes later, when dumping out the hot water, it poured on top of my hand. I yelped, and then said “God good” and other statements of truth, and continued on with the clean-up.

Within a minute or so I remembered that I had felt resentful. At that point, I just stopped and told God I was very sorry for the resentful thinking, corrected my thought about my fellow club members, and mentally apologized to them all. It was then I realized that resentment wasn’t just being a little upset, it was hatred, pride, and arrogance directed at others for my own short-comings!

While this was sinking in, someone came in, and I was able to express love to them. By the time the clean-up was finished and I arrived home, there was no more pain and no mark or redness. On the way home I prayed that God created man in His own image and likeness, and that did not include a discordant mortal and therefore this mistake did not have to be attached to me.

I am very grateful for this quick healing and for lessons learned, to watch my thinking every moment. I’m very grateful for Mrs. Eddy’s pure Christian Science as taught at this Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent, and for practitioner help over the years.

From M. G. in Wales

I recently felt perhaps I should change my car, but I was not sure if my reasons were right, so I turned it over to God with, “not my will but Thine be done.” I thought no more about it.

A short while later I felt impelled to go to a dealer just to have a look around. I told the salesman I would like to see an updated version of my present car. They had nothing available at this location, but he said he would see if another location had one. The salesman found one, and in a few days had it brought over for me to view.

It was exactly what I wanted — only 10 months old, with very low mileage. It was the color I would have chosen, at a price I could afford, and I just felt it was right for me. Not only that, the salesman expressed many Godlike qualities. I have never had such a pleasurable and harmonious experience when buying a car. I was so grateful to God, it truly feels like God’s car, and I have such joy driving it.

From L. S. in Pennsylvania

I am very grateful for God’s protection while driving in a severe rain storm.

We were detoured off the main road due to flooding and found ourselves on the back roads of an unfamiliar rural area. Each turn that we needed to take was blocked off for one reason or another due to this sudden storm. At one point it started to feel as if we were trapped and going around in circles.

Then the heavy rains began again. I really reached out to God, turning to prayers that I have learned at this church. Very shortly the rain stopped and did not return for the rest of the hour we were driving. There were also many other cars on the road struggling to find their way, and at one time our only option was to pass though deep waters. That week I had been carrying around a statement from the Lesson, a promise from the Bible that said, “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isaiah 59)

During this whole time I prayed for all those affected by this damaging storm; the workers, the drivers, the homeowners, and the animals, especially when I saw the challenges they were facing. I was very grateful for the respect I saw expressed by the drivers at this time. This experience opened my eyes to the importance of being aware of the needs of those around. Sometimes it can be easy to lose sight of this when you are not directly affected by the challenges others are facing.

Later we learned that we had been protected from a mud slide in an area we passed through. While there was damage to property, no person was injured. I am deeply grateful for all that I am learning about praying and the weekly Watches at this church.

From D. A. in Virginia

I have been a member and participating with the Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent, for many years. Several years ago, I allowed my feelings to be hurt during a visit to the church when I took a statement said to me the wrong way. I felt righteous in “picking up my marbles,” and running away. I could have called and worked things out, but my sense of pride would not allow me to do that, I’m now sorry to say.

Over a year went by, but still I did very little to keep involved with the church. I did listen online and even volunteered for a reading or two, but mostly I had left the church.

I found myself in extreme need this past March and desperately needed a practitioner’s help, but still I was too embarrassed to call. Where would I start? What would I say? Finally, with tears streaming down my face, I wrote an email to one of our practitioners and asked if she would please take my call. I had fallen on some ice and broken and dislocated three bones in my ankle and one in my leg. Surgery was performed with many screws, nails and bars, and again I was in extreme pain. I didn’t even want to go on living, it was so bad. The practitioner answered right back with an invitation to call, and so I did.

It was very humbling to admit that I needed help and that I had messed up so badly. As we talked about one of my major upsets, I realized that I had misunderstood and had gotten it all wrong. Why hadn’t I called and worked it out right away!? A sense of pride and personal sense was the culprit. Also, I was so prideful that I didn’t want to listen to correction. I had a lot of work to do.

With the practitioner’s almost daily help, I began to come back to a close spiritual sense of myself. This journey of learning isn’t over yet, but I’m now walking fairly well and able to sit for longer periods of time. This isn’t just a matter of healing broken bones, but of healing my sense of myself and how I see the world and what I can do to help others and our mission. I now see how damaging a sense of pride can be and how I need to stand guard to keep pride out and fill my thoughts with all the truths told us by Mrs. Eddy. I need to develop and improve my relationship with God.

I so appreciate that this practitioner was willing to work with me again and help me get back onto the correct path. She continues to work for me and guide me toward the truth. I am filled with gratitude.

From L. T. in New York

As a child, growing up under very stressful circumstances, I often experienced pains in my chest. I struggled often to find relief. As I grew older, the world seemed to be closing in around me. My anger at my circumstances was growing. I resorted to taking heavy doses of pain pills, in an attempt to escape my tortured mind. It never seemed to work, but only increased my despair.

About seven years ago, I was diagnosed with a heart condition called “AFib.” I was hospitalized and monitored and given medication to restore the heart to normal rhythm. They did their tests but found nothing abnormal that would be causing my heart to behave this way. I was left with questions, but I think somehow I knew there was a mental cause for it all, so I left it at that. The condition would reoccur from time to time, as the stress of being a Correction Officer, took its toll. I just kept knowing it was mental. Removing myself from the stress seemed to put it at ease, but it still remained only a temporary, human remedy.

I came into Christian Science a few years later, full of pride, hate, anger, mistrust, and disbelief. I was in desperate need, standing at death’s door, with no one to guide me until I called a practitioner from this church, who, from the very first words out of my mouth, began to apply Truth to every discordant claim, and even claims I had not yet spoken. I was pretty adamant about what I knew to be true, but God is patient, God is forgiving, God knew my every need. Over the following years, my practitioner continuously worked with me, healing me, freeing me to receive the Truth, teaching me, sometimes holding me in prayer for days until the mesmerism broke.

I am so grateful to God for leading me to this Church, where divine Love is so freely expressed. I have learned many valuable lessons through the Bible Studies and Roundtable discussions, and through reading Science and Health. I have learned to trust Truth and to “Cast my burdens on the Lord.” As my thinking changed, so did my mental state and my health. From the very beginning, patience and Love met me right where I stood. I have never once, in five years, experienced a pain in my chest.

I am so grateful to God for Christ Jesus and Christian Science. He has truly sent his angels to guide me in the right direction. I am deeply grateful for my practitioner and Mrs. Eddy. I have no doubt that Love heals, Love redeems, and Love restores.

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Announcements

When Plainfield Church first became independent, we were asked, “How will you survive? What will you read?” As you can see below, through the grace of God, we have survived very well, thank you — and flourished!

We began by writing our own Bible Lessons, and then Independent Christian Scientists from all over the world began sending us writings by early Christian Science workers that were not available anywhere else. And we grew from there — and continue to grow.

Good news! After taking the summer off, our Saturday morning Bible Studies will begin again at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, September 8. This is a Bible Study like you’ve never known before. We discuss events in the Bible from the perspective of Christian Science, what we can learn from them, and how they relate to our lives today. Each one is lively and interesting, and you won’t be bored! You can join the Bible Study by teleconference at 908-768-2169, listen live on our church website plainfieldcs.com, and listen to past Bible Studies there as well.

Our church services are broadcast live on Sunday mornings at 11:00 a.m. Eastern time, and our Wednesday evening testimony meetings at 8:15 p.m. Eastern time. These services are available over the internet on our church website, plainfieldcs.com, through our teleconference phone number 908-768-2169, and over our YouTube channel. We look forward to welcoming you to our congregation!

At 10:00 a.m. Eastern time, just prior to our Sunday services, we have our Roundtable discussion via our teleconference number, and over the internet, where the weekly Lesson is discussed, along with other topics important to serious students of Christian Science. You’ll find these discussions stimulating and very informative, and you won’t want to miss them.

Our church website, plainfieldcs.com, has a wealth of inspiring and healing items to read and listen to, including recordings of past services, Bible Studies, and Roundtable discussions.

You will also find a treasure trove of articles and other literature by early workers in Christian Science, including Bicknell Young, Martha Wilcox, Herbert W. Eustace, and many others. There are also audio recordings of many of these articles and books. Audio recordings of the current week’s Bible Lesson, and a Forum to post comments relating to the Lesson are available, and also a Bulletin Board where you can post comments of a more general nature.

Our goal was, and still is, to get the Word of God out to people all over the world who need this pure, unadulterated Science, as we did, and still do. So you will see that much of what we provide on our website, plainfieldcs.com, is free. Please feel free to browse through all that we have there. You don’t even have to tell us who you are—we warmly welcome everyone!

But there are expenses involved in maintaining a website, and in caring for our church home and our church services. So if you are helped by what you find here, and you wish to show your gratitude, please feel free to use the “donate” button on the website. It would be greatly appreciated!

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Tenets of Christian Science

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,
by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 496-497

The following is a brief exposition of the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian Science:—

1.     As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

2.     We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God’s image and likeness.

3.     We acknowledge God’s forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.

4.     We acknowledge Jesus’ atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man’s unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.

5.     We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter.

6.     And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.

A note about the lighthouse sketch by Luanne:

Boston Light — little Brewster Island (outer Boston Harbor), Massachusetts

Boston Light was the first light station in North America and is the country’s oldest continuously used lighthouse site. The original structure, built in 1716, was destroyed during the Revolutionary War. Rebuilt in 1783, it has been called “the ideal American lighthouse.” Designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1964, it is the only manned lighthouse in the United States.

“Publish the Word”

Broadcast the Truth

“Freely ye have received, freely give”