About the 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.”

Handling the Weather

Excerpt from Foreword to Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, given by Mary Baker Eddy

In reading these watches, one wonders at Mrs. Eddy's insistence on students handling the weather. Gilbert C. Carpenter reports that she kept Laura Sargent working on the weather much of the time, even while she had other students working on specific problems that needed attention. Mrs. Sargent frequently conferred with him on the subject, especially at those times when she felt baffled by our Leader's demands upon her in this direction. At times she would ask him to help her, and he found his work was always successful, when he took up the weather from the standpoint of Mrs. Eddy herself, not as if she wanted pleasant weather for her own enjoyment, but as if the atmosphere at Pleasant View was the effect of her demonstration of a vantage, from which she might do the most efficient work for God and man. In his work he would relate the weather to her demonstration, declaring it to be governed by her reflection of Mind, and therefore to be harmonious, in the sense that it met the human need either for sunshine or rain; but that it could not be controlled by malice or hatred to do harm or to disturb her peace by extremes of any sort.

In Mrs. Eddy's eyes, it was no misuse of Truth to apply it to the weather and other general discords. The task of the working Scientist must include correcting the weather, if it violates the law of harmony, as well as to work on whatever else comes to his notice in the world that calls for divine help. On page 427 of the textbook we read: “Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.”

Christian Science Its “Clear, Correct Teaching” page 236

Weather is the belief that atmospheric conditions produce a variety of climates, good and bad.

Mind, embracing all action, includes all atmospheric action or condition. Then, is not all weather as directly subject to understanding as is a mathematical problem? Is not even the simplest mathematical problem the appearance of mathematical perfection in embryo, and is not the solution present with the problem?

Any weather condition is the omnipresence of the perfection of weather, interpreted finitely. Christian Science interprets it correctly and bad weather gives place to good, for it is not the weather that is bad.

When you destroy the belief that malicious mind is, with the realization that God alone is Mind, the hypnotic suggestion of a belief of bad weather vanishes. In its place is seen exactly the right heat, cold, rain, or whatever is required to best show forth the perfection of weather as the presence of God.

Thus as the voice of God you speak with absolute authority to every belief of weather, and prove that “even the winds and the sea obey him.” (Matt. 8:27)

Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, given by Mary Baker Eddy

The gentle clouds and the gentle rain fall upon the just and the unjust; no electricity, no thunder and lightning, no cyclone, no tornado, no destruction, for the dear Father's face looks out from the clouds in love and in harmony. No malice, and no hatred — for there is nothing to interfere with His government in Love. There shall be the gentle and beautiful rain upon the earth to water the whole face of the earth.

Do not take up, there is no thunder and lightning; know that God governs the elements, and there is nothing destructive or harmful. God sends the rain that watereth the earth. Human will cannot come in and govern. You would not argue diphtheria, if the case was consumption; neither do you argue thunder and lightning, when it is sin (malice). If thunder and lightning come, then know, forces are of God and are not destructive. If too much rain, realize harmony. If drought — no drought. S&H 102:9 (268th edition).

Christian Science Sentinel, June 4, 1921

The general opinion is that nothing has been done about the weather because nothing can be done about it. It is true enough that very little has been accomplished, in the sense that there are few instances in which a record has been made of man's dominion in this respect. It happens, however, that those few instances are of the greatest importance, for they occur in the Scriptures, and stand as object lessons to all who accept the truths of the Bible.

Both in the Old and in the New Testament are examples of control of the weather by man working in harmony with Principle. In I Kings, during a terrible drought and famine, there is the instance of Elijah's faith rewarded, when, after much prayer, his servant reported, "There ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand." In this case "there was a great rain," because rain was needed. In the New Testament we have the supreme example in an opposite case, when Jesus stilled the tempest and “there was a great calm.” Here it is recorded in almost identical phrase by Matthew, Mark, and Luke that “the men marveled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!”

The astonishment of these men was without cause, since, as Mrs. Eddy writes on page 134 of Science and Health, “A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that law.” We have the best of examples for not discussing the weather in terms of fear, as did those in the ship, nor even for complaint, but for invoking God's law of harmony regarding it.

An important fact to remember is that the strength of right thought lies not in number but in rightness. The effort of one person in any community, therefore, who thinks in accordance with Principle in this matter is sufficient to bring about harmony. Mrs. Eddy says in “Pulpit and Press” p. 4:

“You have simply to preserve a scientific, positive sense of unity with your divine source, and daily demonstrate this. Then you will find that one is as important a factor as duodecillions in being and doing right, and thus demonstrating deific Principle. A dewdrop reflects the sun. Each of Christ's little ones reflects the infinite One, and therefore is the seer's declaration true, that 'one on God's side is a majority.’”

Thinking rightly about the weather obviously does not mean outlining for the benefit of personal desires. If a country needs rain, it is worse than useless to seek to avert it because one prefers sunshine, though it may be entirely right to realize that the needed moisture may be supplied without accompaniments of destructive lightning and wind. At all times, however, it must be understood that no matter what the weather may be, man is never subject to it, and barometric variations can never interfere with right activity. Dominion over any material condition comes after, not before, we have freed ourselves from fear of it and belief in its reality. It is reasonable to suppose that a cessation of complaining talk and adverse thought about the weather would alone bring about great improvement.

If weather is worth thinking about for a moment, it is worth thinking about rightly. Such thought cannot fail to bring results in accordance with the Love which is, in the words of Isaiah, “a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.”

Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, given by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 104

Handle the thought of reversal. You can do it. The reign of harmony is; you can make it rain; it can water the earth. Is there a devil that can reverse God's government? No. Then have faith as a grain of mustard seed. You can. In working for the weather, never say, there is no wind, there is no lightning, no rain, etc., for if you do, it will act like mesmerism; it will break out in some other phase; but know the elements are in God's hands (His fists). They are not destructive, but governed by harmony and express harmony. God gave us dominion over the earth, but it is His dominion; the loving Father gives us what is for us, and nothing else can. He is Love, and Love controls the elements and all things. God looks out from the clouds. He is Love, and we are His reflection; we have love in our hearts, because He is Love, and we reflect Him, and we have no clouds.

My husband, who is not a Christian Scientist, was fulfilling a dream of his to sail his sailboat to Bermuda and back home to Annapolis. I thought it was a wonderful idea, but as the trip grew nearer, I was experiencing some doubts. It is over 800 miles and across the Gulf Stream, and we have all heard the horror stories about the Bermuda Triangle.

I decided to call a practitioner from Plainfield and ask for help and support for a safe journey for my husband, Len, and his crew. She agreed, but asked that Len also request her support. I was still able to reach him by cell phone, as he was on his way out into the ocean. He was delighted to have her prayers and support.

When they arrived in Bermuda (a 5-day sail), all I heard from Len and each member of the crew was how wonderful the trip was, and how much they all appreciated the help of the practitioner. As Len prepared to greet his new crew and sail for home, he wanted to have this Christian Science support again, and the practitioner agreed.

They set sail in perfect weather; but after they had been out for a few days, the weather looked ominous and the reports they were receiving on the single side band radio (too far off shore for anything else) were predicting storms coming their way. Len was able to reach me by satellite phone, and I then reported about the upcoming storms to the practitioner. We both were praying to know that they can only be in God’s perfect care and they were in the palm of His hand.

The reports from the crew that I heard after their safe return were that they couldn’t believe what they had experienced. During the trip, all around them they could see black clouds and storms, but over them all was fine. They heard on the radio that several boats were damaged and turning back to Bermuda for safety. But, as they sailed on, the good weather followed them; and into the night they saw only stars overhead — but just darkness farther away. It was as if they were in a bubble of good weather.

What an amazing experience and proof of God’s protection and care. I thank the wonderful practitioner and this dedicated independent Christian Science Church for this demonstration of what is possible if we align ourselves with divine Love.

Christian Science Monitor, February 7, 1920

Humanity stumbles along, grumbling at the weather, studying the sky and the barometer for some prospect of improvement, never dreaming that there is any connection between the condition of the atmosphere and the condition of human thought, that the purification of the human thought, or what Paul calls "the carnal mind," would result in a clearer atmosphere, with a lessening of the extremes of heat and cold.

But Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, saw this great truth and dared to express it, when she wrote in Miscellaneous Writings p. 374: “Above the fogs of sense and storms of passion, Christian Science and its art will rise triumphant; ignorance, envy, and hatred — earth's harmless thunder — pluck not their heaven-born wings. Angels, with overtures, hold charge over both, and announce their Principle and idea.”

Man is made in the image and likeness of God, Spirit, and given dominion over all the earth. Jesus expressed this dominion by walking on the water and stilling the storm, and yet mortals have so little understood man's divine right, that they have thought they were at the mercy of the elements, of every change of weather, and so have lived in constant fear.

Before they can control outward effects, however, they must gain some inward control over “the fogs of sense and storms of passion,” and learn to quell the storms of anger and passion in their own hearts. As they do this they will attain a freedom and calm that will surely grow and increase till the whole earth feels the power and dominion of good.

There were no fogs, or storms, or even darkness in John's vision of the holy city. In his description of this heavenly dwelling-place he uses symbols that express only purity, transparency, reflection, and light. Like Isaiah, he saw the everlasting glory of God for the sun, and “there shall be no night there.” Where there is perpetual sunshine there is no cold, nor should there be too much heat; for the promise is, “Neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat;” so in the holy city there are no extremes, no suffering of any kind. “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more.” Mankind would no longer believe man to be a material creature with physical wants to be supplied through toil and labor, but would know him as a spiritual idea of God, “for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters.” In the holy city, the kingdom of heaven, the dream of Adam no longer exists, for man is and has been forever awake, rejoicing in the life and light of the creation of God.

“Whatever the weather may be,” says he, “Whatever the weather may be, It's the songs ye sing, an' the smiles ye wear, That's a-makin' the sun shine everywhere.”

Course in Divinity and General Collectanea, The Blue Book,” page 201

One time Mrs. Eddy said, “Now, Martha, you go upstairs and write out a treatment for rain. We need rain.” On that special day, while it was very sultry, the sun never shone brighter. I had hardly seated myself to write out the treatment, when my number rang, and I had to go to her. She said, “Well, give me your treatment.” I said, “Mother, I did not have time to write it out.” She said, “Well, just tell it to me.” So I started in to show God’s allness, but she soon stopped me and said, “Now, Martha, come down from sailing around up there. It’s rain we need. Let’s have rain.” With the greatest feeling of humility and in tears, I said, “Mother, I can’t do it.” Then she said, “It took Calvin and Laura a long time to do it, but you can see that it must be done, and learn somewhat of how to do it.”

Then she talked to me about the weather, and when she had finished, I went to my room and wrote down as nearly as I could remember and had understood, some of the things she told me. “God does not make sultry weather, and if we, through belief, make weather sultry, we must unmake it. God governs the weather. He governs the elements and there are no destructive winds or lightning. Love always looks out from the clouds. Beliefs about the weather are easier healed than sickness.”

Mary Baker Eddy has said, “The task of the working Scientist must include correcting the sense of weather, if it violates the law of harmony, as well as to work on whatever else comes to his notice in the world that calls for divine help.” (Course in Divinity and General Collectanea, “the Blue Book,” page xi.)

A few years ago, a major hurricane was headed toward the Southeast Atlantic Coast. Forecasters warned of dire catastrophic effects for the states in its path. I was watching it closely because we have a rental home on a barrier island just south of Charleston, South Carolina. That area sits below or just at sea level, so it can be inundated in bad storms. The track of the storm showed it was heading close to the island.

I called a practitioner in this church who gave me some ideas to work with, including that God’s law of protection and power is supreme and in operation as a law, that this storm was a mesmerism, wickedly being stirred up, and to handle it — take this belief and rip it apart.

In praying, I was led to the citation in the Bible, “The battle is not yours but God’s, set yourself, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord.” The Plainfield Church also had a specific watch on the weather, and several articles were posted on the website to deal with handling it. This was very helpful.

As the storm approached, we found out that the storm surge that was going to be so catastrophic and submerge the island, did not materialize! In fact, one of the weather forecasters, who was camped out at the local hotel (and the hotel was full of them because they fully expected this island to experience terrible effects) — said he had never seen anything like this before. As the storm surge was being pushed onto the beach, the wind from another direction blew that surge of water down the beach, counteracting it so that there was minimal flooding.

At our home, which is on the backside of the island, the water from the river next to us rose to the threshold of the garage door and no further — no water entered. The wind also did minimal damage to trees, power lines, and homes, and no one there was injured. The island looks for the most part like it did before the storm, and businesses and restaurants are all open. The direction and speed of the wind and the timing of high tide all coincided to work in the favor of the island and those who live here.

When I called to thank my practitioner, she said she had worked with the thought, “God said to the wave, thus far and no farther,” and this certainly proved to be true. I have such profound awe, humility, and gratitude to God for this clear and beautiful proof of His protection and care. And I am eternally thankful for the prayers of the practitioner.

Christian Science Sentinel, August 15, 1901

During recent prolonged wet weather, a dear one writing to me said, “I think we had better begin building our arks.” Quick as a flash came the realization, “My ark is built; it rests in the secret place of the Most High, where no evil shall befall nor any plague come nigh, neither can floods overwhelm it. I dwell in absolute safety.” Thinking further, I realized that I cannot take any one into this ark with me, for I can work out only my own salvation (safety), but all may enter through the door of individual effort, and find therein safe abiding from everything unlike divine Love, — sin, disease, death, fear, all the flood of error with which mortal mind would overwhelm us.

Such a comforting train of thought that one little sentence, jokingly written, awakened, bringing with it such a realization of Truth, and an unspeakable sense of gratitude to divine Love, and to Mary Baker Eddy, who has made us to know that we are the sons and daughters of God now, and has shown us the way into our ark of safety, even into the “secret place of the Most High.”

Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, given by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 74

God governs all, is All-in-all. God is our constant Guide and Guardian. No mortal thought, known or unknown, seen or unseen, can interfere with the manifestation of Love's presence with us. The weather manifests God's government, and no evildoers can change this fact. The devils of human thought — all the powers of many minds — are powerless in Love's presence. God is All. God is Mind.

Christian Science Sentinel, November 15, 1900

Almost on the very top of Craig Mountain, Idaho, twenty-two miles from a railroad, river, town, or city, lies the lovely little Lake Waha, an ideal resting-place, where the citizens, old settlers, since the ‘60s have made a refuge from the sweltering heat of the valleys, Lewiston, Lapwai, and other towns.

The view from the lookout point is one of grandeur, giving one glimpses of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, Snake and Clearwater Rivers, and a number of canyons ripe and golden for the harvest nestling in their shelter.

But to-day for the first time has Truth been demonstrated upon Lake Waha’s shores. Like Columbus when he knelt upon the ocean's beach and claimed America for the church, a handful of happy Christian Scientists enjoying their Father's beautiful gifts, have held their usual Sabbath service on the hillside of Lake Waha, and claim it for His own.

The exquisite reflection of hill, pine-tree, and boats in its glassy depths, reminds us of that which we too reflect, and for the first time I realized fully there was no separation of the object and its reflection, nor of God and His idea; and that the calmer, the purer the water (thought) the stronger and brighter the sunlight, the more perfect the reflection.

When it storms, and the thunder echoes through the mountains, and the clouds veil their summits and creep like shadows around the peaks, and the wind sings and whistles through the pines, filling the air with their fragrance, we say, “He rides upon the storm” and “holds the winds in his fists,” and rejoice to know our Father is omnipotent and omnipresent. It would seem as if this great Truth that has come so lately to me, makes even nature more lovely, and our Leader expresses it beautifully in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 87, where she says, “I love your promise; and shall know, some time, the spiritual reality and substance of form, light, and color, of what I now through you discern dimly; and knowing this, I shall be satisfied.”

It is a bright, cool, lovely Sabbath day, and the twelve Christian Scientists who are spending the heated term here, are the happiest of the happy, holding their services on the cottage verandah of one of their number, feeling so fully the untrammeled freedom of God, and the rest from civilization's demands.

The First Reader of the Christian Science Church at Lewiston, and the Second Reader of the little band at Moscow were our Readers. There was no lack of Quarterlies and Bibles, as they are a part of a good Scientist's wardrobe apparently.

While I have had no great physical healing to relate, yet the little healings are as surely miracles of love, and the spiritual growth is worth far more to me than my whole body, sick or well.

Hymn Number 144 in the Christian Science Hymnal says,

In atmosphere of Love divine,

We live, and move, and breathe;

Though mortal eyes may see it not,

’Tis sense that would deceive.

How much happier conversation would be if this truth were remembered when the weather brings extremes of heat or cold! But, instead, people often prefer to complain about the weather.

Paul says, “Our conversation is in heaven,” and Mrs. Eddy tells us that heaven is harmony. Confining our conversation to harmonious topics has a positive effect, upon both our physical condition and upon the weather. Jesus declared that knowing the truth would make you free. How important it is, then, not only to know the truth about God and man, but to voice it, and to expect this truth to go forth with power and — like light entering a darkened room — to dispel its opposite.

Jesus would speak the word of Truth to a storm, and there would be a great calm. The Old Testament tells us that man has been given dominion over all the earth, and Jesus assures us that we have been given “power over all the power of the enemy.” (Luke) We have divine authority to turn on any suggestion of error with the sharp rebuke, “No, you don’t!”

I said, “I will walk in the fields.”

God said, “Nay, walk in the town.”

I said, “There are no flowers there.”

He said, “No flowers, but a crown.”

I said, “But the fogs are thick and clouds

Are veiling the sun.”

He answered: “But hearts are sick, and

Souls in the dark undone.”

I said, “But the skies are black: there is

Nothing but noise and din.”

And He wept as He led me back,—

There is more,— He said, “There is sin.”

I said, “I shall miss the light, and

Friends will miss me, they say.”

He answered: “Choose ye to-night if I

Must miss you,—or they.”

I pleaded for time to be given.

He said, “Is it hard to decide?

It will not seem hard in heaven,

To have followed the steps of your Guide.”

From Mrs. Eddy

The Christian Science Journal, May 1887

A large congregation was at Chickering Hall, April 24, to hear a sermon by Rev. M. B. G. Eddy on this text, Luke xiv. 30: “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.”

The meaning of the word “finish” as used in the text, seems not to be completion, but completeness: to be perfect and permanent.

The seasons have their changes; they come and depart. The stern grandeur of winter yields to the gentler challenges to vernal loveliness. Nature is silent, but at work opening her wardrobes, laying out her beautiful garments, opening her jewel caskets, selecting her brightest gems and getting ready for the June festival of roses. The seedling is busy meekly at work out of sight, toiling tirelessly in the dark and never sending a plaint above ground that earth is cold and hard, but toils on; for the history of a seed is its harvest.

The Scripture saith, “Summer and winter seedtime and harvest shall continue till the end.” But what is this end? The completeness and glory of time, or its doom? The wise housebuilder considers carefully his location and materials; and still greater care is needed in moral structures.

The history of men and empires is unfinished: Babylon, Media, Assyria, Thebes, Palmyra, are no more, there was not sufficient moral, intellectual, and spiritual force to preserve their foundations and structures. Not muscle nor matter constitutes the life of man or of nations. A good builder finishes his work, and, before he begins it, counts the whole cost of foundation and superstructure. He selects the right place in which to build, makes his foundations sure, and employs only the materials in building that are fit and time-worthy.

Adam began to build the human race but was not able to finish it; Adam was not man made in God’s image and likeness. He was a type of mortals, and a poor type of humanity. Not content with God’s company, unwilling to commune with the divine Principle of being and be guided by God, he sought person for companionship and guidance. This was the awful mistake: he could not look outside of self for even that person, nor bear a surgical operation in a state of consciousness. His self-mesmerism closed consciousness and, in a deep sleep, he dreamed he was self-divided and his better half was a woman. He was afraid to recognize this state of being in animal magnetism, and when he sinned and suffered for it he imputed the cause to his better half rather than the worse half of his nature. Mistaken, misguided, deluded all the way, he became deceitful, dishonorable, and dishonest. He would shirk the responsibility of correcting his own faults and fasten them upon another, hence his progeny are built on wrong foundations, and the materials with which they are built are sin, sickness and death which are the doom rather than the finish of mankind.

There is no difference between Christian Science and orthodoxy except the enlargement of the latter’s views. Instead of beginning with mortal man and matter, Christian Science begins with Spirit, God, and immortal man, hence it begins with perfection instead of imperfection as the rule of the universe and, for a perfect cause it derives perfect effect as the natural sequence in science.

Solomon was a master builder materially but spiritually he was not able to finish with the gold of Ophir and the surpassing skill of art; his temple was unable to stand; his spiritual status was insufficient to draw a plan so elevated that its building is eternal in the heavens. His foundations were laid in sense not science; his premises were false: he believed in evil and good; his faith in error was even greater than in Truth. He said “there is a time for all things, a time to love and a time to hate”. This theory had rotten foundations and his materials were antagonistic to each other and self-destructive, hence he failed to finish his work, and ended it by saying “all is vanity and vexation of spirit” And “how can one know whether he be a wise man or a fool.”

Paul said “According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble; every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” (I Cor. 3:10-15)

Enoch & Elijah built in Christian Science and were able to finish. Their foundations were Spirit, and the materials with which they built were so spiritual, God-like, they reached heaven, harmony the home of Soul.

There must be a change in the foundations of the doctrines of religion. They must be built on no other foundation than Christ-perfection to rear imperishable superstructures: “a house, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” (2 Cor. 5:1)

Christian Scientists hold as a vital point that the beliefs of mortals tip the scale of being, morally and physically, either in the right or in the wrong direction. Therefore a Christian Scientist never mentally or audibly takes the side of sin, disease, or death. Others who take the side of error do it ignorantly or maliciously. The Christian Scientist voices the harmonious and eternal, and nothing else. He lays his whole weight of thought, tongue, and pen in the divine scale of being — for health and holiness.

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From the Forum

The Forum area, under the “This Week’s Lesson” tab on the Plainfield Church website, plainfieldcs.com, provides a fresh, new look at various statements from the Bible and Science and Health that have appeared in recent Lessons. Below is a sampling.

All error can do is lose

(John 8:4-11) “They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

“Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

“So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

“When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.”

I was reading a short article about what a chess player had learned while competing professionally, and he said, “Sometimes, the best strategy is letting the opponent find a way to lose.” While reading these verses this morning, it occurred to me that all error can do is lose, and all its tools — many of which are conveniently listed in Galatians 5:19-21 — are designed to fail.

We can see that “the works of the flesh” the woman came in with were adultery, fornication, and uncleanness, while her accusers met her with hatred, wrath, and strife, and were ready to murder her for it. They were all finding a way to lose by relying on error.

Meanwhile, it is easy to see that Christ Jesus was filled with the Spirit because of the fruits he showed forth: Longsuffering for the Jews constantly trying to trap him; meekness and faith that God will work through him to heal the situation; love and goodness in his response; and gentleness in his final words to the woman. It was his joy to help them all learn how to succeed by expressing God’s good qualities constantly.

I am so grateful for Christian Science, and all I have learned here, which gives new clarity to each lesson! Thank you!

The meek man progresses. The hot-tempered man has a temporary false peace.

(Galatians 5:22, 23) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”

There is no law to overturn or reverse. Very powerful truth and promise. The traffic sign on this road is “Heaven – City limits”

(S&H 201:7) “We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and ‘all things are become new.’ Passions, selfishness, false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirituality, and the superabundance of being is on the side of God, good.” Mrs. Eddy sums this up succinctly.

Chastity

From Science and Health: “Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge of all races, ‘the pestilence that walketh in darkness,… the destruction that wasteth at noonday.’ … ‘Thou shalt not commit adultery,’ is no less imperative than… ‘Thou shalt not kill.’”

“Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. Without it there is no stability in society and without it one cannot attain the Science of Life.”

Wow…those are strong statements! I don’t think I ever looked at these words very closely. Perhaps because what I saw all around me growing up was infidelity and divorce, which were to some extent “normalized,” even in the C.S. church I attended. This was not a good foundation for me, and only the senior members at the time spoke out about these topics with force and clarity, and I did not hear enough of that! I had also not equated infidelity with the 91st Psalm’s “pestilence” and “destruction”… until now!

Mrs. Eddy states that chastity is the cement of not only civilization, but progress. Society’s idea of “progress” these days includes freedom from all restrictions to “whatever I want to do.”

It was only after coming to Plainfield that I could turn my life around and finally embrace chastity. It certainly freed me from terrible (self-inflicted) bondage!

Let us disrobe error

(Science and Health, page 201.) “We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and ‘all things are become new.’ Passions, selfishness, false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirituality, and the superabundance of being is on the side of God, good.

“We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied. Let us disrobe error. …

“The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfection is won on no other basis.”

One thing I found myself doing when assailed by negative thoughts was just denying the error. It then became just human mind trying to control error. The emphasis was on the problem. We do want to say no to these thoughts, but not to leave it in the negative, as I have been told by my practitioner here. Once I realized this, I began to more consistently affirm Truth. We are instructed that treatment should include the ratio of 10 affirmations to 1 denial, and do this until you feel the allness of God. And to keep at it. The focus on God destroys the mesmerism of error. I am so grateful that we are told to read the Bible, Science and Health, and Prose Works each day so as to do as Jesus did when he faced temptation with, “It is written.” Making sure I was doing this has much better results.

“The utterance of truth is designed to rebuke and destroy error.” from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, page 233

Be awake in Spirit, in Truth

(John 4:23) “The hour cometh, and NOW is,” for in Truth there is no past, present and future, no birth and death, no seeming mortal mind paying lip service to error, sin and evil. What is more, there is no personal “me,” the cause of human life. Now is the hour to “put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:25)

(S&H, 232:27-31) “It is only when the so-called pleasures and pains of sense (that is, personal sense “me,” “i”) pass away in our lives, that we find unquestionable signs of the burial of error and the resurrection to spiritual life.”

The “me” who is living in mortal mind lives in bondage to it, since Spirit has no bondage or freedom. There can be no renunciation of mortal mind as long as human reasoning accepts it to be true.

Jesus explained his Soul Self as Spirit. He never discussed his body, only the omnipresent Spirit within. The Father or Spirit is the primary substance and essence of the Christ, “the truth and the life.”

The Scientific Statement of Being reveals TWO significant facts: “Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error” (S&H 468:8-15). By taking a long, sustained, thorough and meditative look at the Statement of Being, over many months, even years, the notion of mortal mind as a real thing disappears, and when mortal mind goes, there remains only Spirit.

While mortal men and women are asleep and dreaming of worldly things, the Saints are awake in Spirit, and are able to look at “this world” smiling as if it were a motion picture.

Speaking the truth in love

(Ephesians 4:15) “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ”

The Twentieth Century New Testament translates this verse as follows: “but holding the truth in a spirit of love, we shall grow into complete union with him who is our Head–Christ himself”

Barnes’ Notes on the Bible: But speaking the truth in love — Margin, “being sincere.” Two things are here to be noted: First, The truth is “to be spoken” — the simple, unvarnished truth. This is the way to avoid error, and this is the way to preserve others from error. In opposition to all trick, and art, and cunning, and fraud, and deception, Christians are to speak the simple truth. “Truth is the representation of things as they are;” and there is no virtue that is more valuable in a Christian than the love of simple truth.

The second thing is, that the truth should be spoken “in love.” When we state truth to others, it should be with love and with a sincere desire to do them good.

Chemicalization / Fermentation: The leaven of Truth annihilating error

(S&H 540:11-16, Marginal Heading: “Cleansing Upheaval”) “In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our ignorance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought to know that God’s law uncovers so-called sin and its effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil and all power to sin.”

Annihilate: “To reduce to nothing; to destroy the existence of; to destroy the form or peculiar distinctive properties, so that the specific thing no longer exists” (1828 Webster’s Dictionary).

“Chemicalization . . . has a beneficial effect, and in this way good may result from the fermentation which is going on in the world to-day” (“World Fermentation,” George Shaw Cook, C. S. Sentinel, 5/4/1918).

“God is indeed working His purpose out; the very nature of Truth is to uncover and destroy a lie. Many muddy river beds of selfishness, of dominating human will, of belief in and love of materiality, of satisfied human intellectuality, are needing the wholesome stirring and challenge of Truth before a better order in human affairs can be ushered in. The task of the Christian Scientist during this period of chemicalization is to nothingize, and not to balloon, error as it is brought to the surface” (“God is working His purpose out,” John Randall Dunn, C. S. Sentinel, 4/10/1948).

How can one be grateful enough for our Leader’s teachings that make clear the truth about the disruptions that seem to be occurring throughout our world today? Thanks to the truths explained by Mrs. Eddy through Christian Science, we can confidently know that only a wholly good “cleansing upheaval” is going on, as a “better order in human affairs” is being ushered in, towards the true and ultimate freedom of all mankind: “Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It must destroy the entire mass of error, and so be eternally glorified in man’s spiritual freedom” (S&H, p. 118:10-12).

Our Leader has provided

I love the lesson this week! It shows us once again that Mrs. Eddy is our perpetual Leader, for all time and in all ways! Mary Baker Eddy is Absolutely, Sublimely and Divinely inspired to have written these words that apply to our era: “The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappearing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front.” AND “So secret are the present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare the age into indolence and produce the very apathy on the subject which the criminal desires.” AND “When the final physical and moral effects of Christian Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth and error, understanding and belief, Science and material sense, foreshadowed by the prophets and inaugurated by Jesus, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign.”

Mrs. Eddy’s prophetic Truth for this age also includes the cure to all the so-called problems in the world today and forever. Our textbook is an instructional manual that, when studied and applied, contains the answer to all and every question relating to God, Health, Life, Truth and Love. It is an absolute honour to be amongst the ranks of Christian Science as we witness God’s Allness in this era. We are continuing in the way our Leader has shown. We must be wakeful, watchful and ACTIVE in Christian Science. We must apply the Christ Science to every single thing that comes into our experience, no matter how small or how large it may seem to be. To each day make our promise to the Father and to Jesus. To each day perform our “duty to God, to our Leader and to mankind.” Following the Christly instructions that our Leader has provided, we will indeed see “spiritual harmony reign.” Thank you to all the dear, loving and wonderful members of Plainfield Independent! Christian Science is preserved at Plainfield … and so the whole world is saved through this sacred and holy work!

Incorrect Explorations Overthrown

“When Columbus gave freer breath to the globe, ignorance and superstition chained the limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and starvation stared him in the face; but sterner still would have been his fate, if his discovery had undermined the favorite inclinations of a sensuous philosophy.

“Copernicus mapped out the stellar system, and before he spake, astrography was chaotic, and the heavenly fields were incorrectly explored.” (S&H 120-121)

The history of scientific discovery is filled with incorrect explorations examined, overthrown, and finally, after much opposition, replaced by truth.

As the report of Columbus’ discovery spread among all the inhabitants of earth, Truth was set free to have its own uninterrupted way so that no one could stay its hand or say to it, “What doest thou?”

The word “gospel” is derived from “God-spell,” the spell that dispels all mesmeric spells opposing it — and may this mark the future of Truth-telling, exterminating error with ever-increasing effortlessness and inevitability.

Excerpt from “Divine Love”

Earl of Dunmore, C.S.B.

As heirs of God, in us that mind should be

That in Christ Jesus we can always see.

Oh, let us therefore strive, and watch, and pray,

For purity and meekness day by day.

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History Corner

Christian Science Sentinel, June 29, 1899

A Reporter for the Boston Journal gives an Account of his Visit to Pleasant View.

The Chicago Inter Ocean on Sunday, June 18, published a sensational article to the effect that Christian Scientists of Chicago are seriously in doubt as to whether Mary Baker G. Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, is really alive and on earth.

The article is based on what purports to be an interview with an unnamed “member of the South Side Society.” This mythical person is made to declare that Mrs. Eddy did not appear in person at any of the recent meetings in Boston, during Communion week, and that the address at the Annual Meeting was read by another person and handed out to the reporters under the false pretense that it was delivered by Mrs. Eddy herself.

The Boston Journal upon receiving the Chicago paper instituted an investigation of the matter, with the result that a reporter personally interviewed Mrs. Eddy at her home in the city of Concord, N. H., Tuesday evening, June 20, and the interview was published in the Boston Journal of June 21. The following is an abstract of the interview.

Concord Depot, N. H., June 20. — “Am I alive? Why I haven't felt more sound for forty years.”

These are words which will set at rest once and for all the reports which come out of the West with resistless regularity that Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, the Mother of the Christian Science faith and the counsellor of its interests the world over, is dead and has been in the grave for several years. It was the forcible and picturesque response to the question of a Boston Journal man as Mrs. Eddy tripped lightly into the parlor of her beautiful home in this city last night at an hour when many younger persons are in bed. The Journal man had come from Boston to deny or affirm the reports of her death, with particular reference to a purported interview in a Chicago paper with a prominent Christian Science worker there, who says emphatically that all evidence bears out the conclusion that Mrs. Eddy is dead, and that her death is being kept a secret by interested people who fear that knowledge of such a fate would be disastrous to the cause. This same gentleman is alleged to have made a statement that Mrs. Eddy did not deliver an address at the recent National Convention of Christian Scientists held in Tremont Temple, Boston, but that a woman who was made to pass as Mrs. Eddy spoke that day.

To a Journal man tonight, Mrs. Eddy took notice of these declarations. It was the real Mrs. Eddy and nobody else, with whom the Journal man talked for half an hour; the same Mrs. Eddy whom the reporter saw alight from her carriage in front of Tremont Temple two weeks ago when she entered the building on a Tuesday afternoon to deliver her address to two thousand and more persons assembled. As Mrs. Eddy came down the front stairs with the agility of a maiden and tripped lightly across the parlor floor the reporter's eyes bulged as he thought of a woman of eighty who has worked hard and thought deeply all her life.

She was charmingly dressed in black satin, black waist with purple front; her snow-white hair combed gracefully from the middle of her head was held by side combs studded with brilliants; her complexion like pink satin, clear and unflecked by furrow or wrinkle, and her eyes bright and glistening, were no uncertain evidences of health and contentment.

“It is only an impulse that I talk with you to-night,” she said. “I see no reporters, and, as my time is so thoroughly taken up by my work, it is not possible for me to entertain callers. I came to Concord for seclusion. Yes, it was way back in the seventies that the reports were first given out that I was dead, but here I am, and in good health. During the ten years that I have been here I think I have missed but three days for my daily drives. I go out summer and winter, rain or shine. There were two days last winter when the streets were almost impassable during that most severe cold weather that I did not go out driving, and one other time in years past that I could not go out, but for ten years I have missed but three days. One day last winter, when the wind blew frightfully, I drove about the city; coming home it seemed as if the carriage would be blown away from the street, and the driver expected it, but we arrived home safely, and I felt no bad effects from the experience.”

“What are your working hours?”

“I arise at six o'clock in the morning,” replied Mrs. Eddy, “and work all day. I retire to my room at nine o'clock, but not always to sleep. To-day, I have answered about twenty letters. I take ten minutes for every letter of four pages, read it thoroughly, consider it, and then write or dictate the answers to my private secretary. Of course, there are hundreds of letters that I never answer at all; to-day I have entertained letters from Congo Free State, from several European countries, and answered a letter from the wife of our minister to China.”

“Your time is occupied in other ways?”

“Yes, from all over the country I am besieged with requests for messages and counsel. Whenever a new church is opened the people think I ought to mail them some words of cheer and comfort if I cannot attend. So all these things take my time. I cannot go to Boston. I have not the time, for there is so much that requires my attention here every hour of the day.

“During the recent convention I felt that it was a call from God to speak to our dear people. I was there all day, and after running up and down stairs, holding receptions, and speaking words of cheer here and there, I rode back at night. There was a couch in my car, but I did not lie down. I did not feel tired, although it was a pretty good day's work.”

“I suppose the fact that you are to a great extent inaccessible to those who wish to call on you gives rise to many of these rumors of your death.”

“Yes,” replied Mrs. Eddy. “I reluctantly turn away many more from my door than I see. It is impossible for me to entertain the hosts who wish to see me. For years I have been trying to discourage hero-worship. Here is an incident. It was the first time that I ever uttered a reproof to anybody on such an occasion. Many people were tarrying at my gate when I got ready to take a drive one day after the recent convention; they had come from all parts of the country. I stopped my carriage at the gate and spoke to these people, then I drove away. But when I came back one woman had remained there two hours, waiting for me to return. I stopped and said, ‘What are you here for?’ ‘For spiritual help,’ she replied. ‘Have you no God?’ ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Then never come here again to see me. Depend on yourself — go into your “closet” and pray that He may guide and counsel you.’”

“You leave home but rarely now, do you not?”

“Yes; I am trying to extend this idea of God-help instead of my help on all my people. My heart is with them all, but they cannot expect that I can leave my work that is somewhat apart from theirs.”

“Age has descended lightly on you, despite your years of thought and toil,” remarked the Journal man.

“I never boast of my health, or speak of the to-morrow, but when I was driving recently, I was stopped by one who, after inquiring about my health, remarked, ‘Mrs. Eddy, you look to be about forty years old.’ Farther than this, I do not know what people think, but I really do not feel older than forty years.

“As I toil on I am comforted by the Scripture: ‘Ye shall run and not weary, walk and not faint.’”

“Do you find that your faith is flourishing?”

“Oh, very much so. In England there has been a great advance within the last four years; and in Germany, France and other parts of Europe, the work is in a very flourishing condition.”

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Interesting Squibs

The task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us.

Pray to do the will of God in every situation. Nothing else is worth praying for.

Each day comes bearing its own gifts. Untie the ribbons.

When I first open my eyes upon the morning meadows and look out upon the beautiful world, I thank God I am alive.

He is rich that is satisfied.

I come to the office each morning and stay for long hours doing what has to be done to the best of my ability. And when you’ve done the best you can, you can’t do any better. So when I go to sleep I turn everything over to the Lord and forget it.

The trouble with the world is not that people know too little; it's that they know so many things that just aren't so.

When the truth is in your way, you are on the wrong road.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

It is far better to be alone, than to be in bad company.

Peace if possible, truth at all costs.

If you do not know how to lie, cheat, and steal, turn your attention to politics and learn.

For many men the acquisition of wealth does not end their troubles, it only changes them.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

God does not exist to answer our prayers, but by our prayers we come to discern the mind of God.

When the knees are not often bent, the feet soon slide.

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.”

“What do you think of God,” the teacher asked. After a pause, the young pupil replied, “He’s not a think, He’s a feel.”

To live and let live, without clamor for distinction or recognition; to wait on divine Love; to write truth first on the tablet of one’s own heart — this is the sanity and perfection of living, and my human ideal.

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Watches to Work with Often

Watch Message from January 7, 2016

“... each individual can do something to help the situation. He can insist that the Lord God omnipotent reigns. This is another way of saying that Principle governs the world and the nations, governs business and industry, governs man and his affairs, nullifying unprincipled forces which would upset society, wreck business, start wars, or otherwise interfere with man’s well-being.”

We must pray now to support the upcoming mid-term elections. Pray for those who will hear and do God’s will — and this includes all the world’s leaders. The government is on His shoulders, and right thinking can bring to pass one who is in tune with God. It is God who will raise him/her up and animal magnetism has no power to interfere with His plan. Put away all political views and pray, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:10)

“WATCH — No fear of mortal mind. It has no power over us. We have full confidence in divine Mind, for it is All; there is none other.”

Watch Message from August 24, 2017

“Divine Love maintains man [and every child] forever at the point of completeness, preserves his every faculty and his individuality; guides each separate idea in continuous unfoldment of the infinite grandeur of spiritual creation.”

from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the "Blue Book"), by May Baker Eddy, page 65

“God is not the author of confusion, but of peace.” (I Cor. 14 : 33) Due to homosexuality and transgenderism being addressed in schools, without parental knowledge or intervention, many children are becoming confused as to their own identities. Now there is an attempt by the U.S. Department of Education and the Federal government to federally mandate gender identity ideology as part of their school environment. This would usurp parental rights, and is potentially harmful to children’s physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing and religious liberty!

Every child’s identity is in God, not in gender! There is no mind apart from God, therefore aggressive mental suggestion cannot invade the pure mentality of any child of God to cause gender confusion — it is not from God and will annihilate itself! Everyone has a divine purpose to fulfill without confusion, for God has called us by name and we are His. His work is finished and He is the only creator. “God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.”  (Genesis 1 : 31)

“This Scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man’s absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace.”

from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 265 : 10-15

Watch Message from February 13, 2016

Let us handle vigorously any claim of resistance to Truth, to Christian Science, whether it be in our homes, educational systems, governments, etc. Mrs. Eddy states, “practical application to benefit the race, heal the sick, enlighten and reform the sinner, makes divine metaphysics needful, indispensible.” (Mis. p.38) No one can or would want to resist the pearl of great price! Animal magnetism is powerless to prevent God's Word from going forth with power. This work well done will open the way for an inspired and dynamic Roundtable, Sunday Service, and Sunday School.

“Immortal Mind is God; and this Mind is made manifest in all thoughts and desires that draw mankind toward purity, health, holiness, and the spiritual facts of being.”

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From the Early Workers

Christian Science Journal, May 1916

At the time of the storm upon the Galilean lake, when the disciples cried out to the Master to save them, the question which he put to them was, “Where is your faith?” It was evident from their self-confessed inability to cope with the situation that their faith in the power of matter to destroy them was greater than their faith in the power of Spirit to save them; hence it is not surprising that to his very pointed question, not one of them could answer a word.

How often must the Master have groaned within himself at the deadly dullness of those whom he had so tenderly sought to teach! He had not another word for the terror-stricken little group as he quietly turned from them to rebuke the winds and the waves with such authority that the tempest could do no less than cease and the calm of Spirit follow.

No characteristic of Jesus was more pronounced than his unwavering trust in God. Before the writer became a student of Christian Science she used to puzzle a good deal over the failure of Jesus to assist the poor widow who had cast her two mites into the treasury. He knew it was all she had, “even all her living,” for he had called his disciples’ attention to that fact. Why did he not give her something?

He could do it because he had enough faith in God. He knew that instead of going home without anything, she was going home to find that every real thing on earth was now on her side. She had proven that she was not looking to matter to supply her needs, for she had just given away the last bit of it which she possessed; and by reason of that very act, she had placed herself unreservedly under the protection of Spirit, thereby availing herself of a spiritual law more certain, changeless, and infallible than the so-called law which holds the planets in their courses.

The widow may have been wholly unconscious of this. Her deed may have been inspired merely by a simple, childlike faith that in some unknown way God would take care of her; but this did not affect the result. She had laid hold of a law, whether she knew it or not; and God's law does not depend upon human will for its divine impulsion. She was, however, obedient to the law, not in opposition to it, or the blessing would have been missed.

Although the woman may have been unconscious of the fact that by giving up her pittance in matter she was laying hold of the limitless abundance of Spirit, this did not render the result any the less inevitable. Jesus understood. That is why he could let this woman go without a word. He simply stood aside, because there was nothing left for him to do. She had done it all herself, and there was no more doubt as to the ultimate outcome. As she turned away from the treasury that day, one can easily picture the pure joy which must have shone in his face as he watched her go; and looking into the future, foresaw its radiant possibilities. To have hurried after her in order to press a little money into her hand would have spoiled it all; and Jesus never spoiled other people's demonstrations by getting in their way.

After a correctly scientific treatment has been given in all earnestness and sincerity that man is under no law but the law of God, and that consequently every avenue and channel for good is open to him, and is always available, one does not need to rush around to “make” anything happen; he only has to stand aside and “let” it happen.

In Science and Health p. 368 Mrs. Eddy has written, “When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.”

O Love divine, that clothes the lilies and marks the sparrow’s fall, if we would only trust Thee a little more!

Christian Science Sentinel, March 19, 1921

Much is thought and talked of the world being made safe for democracy. The word “democracy” derives from the Greek and means “rule by the people.”

With the passing of years — which is, in reality, the unfoldment of eternity — any conception of government undergoes a change. And when democracy is seen as government by the one Mind, opposition to government will cease. The establishment of the rule of Mind to be effective must be accomplished, not by the sword or any human agency, but through education in its highest sense.

The phrase “making the world safe for democracy,” conveys the thought that, for those nations most nearly approximating individual freedom, the ideal of democratic government can never be overthrown. The truth that they express is the power of spiritual idea, against which the aggression of so-called reactionary forces is futile. The machinery of government may be needed, but when recognized as the activity of Principle, it can never tyrannize, it can never crush out liberty of thought and action, it can never be other than truly democratic.

In The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, beginning on page 246, Mrs. Eddy gives a definition of pure democracy which is applicable for all times and circumstances: “The Magna Charta of Christian Science means much, multum in parvo, — all-in-one and one-in-all. It stands for the inalienable, universal rights of men. Essentially democratic, its government is administered by the common consent of the governed, wherein and whereby man governed by his creator is self-governed. The church is the mouthpiece of Christian Science, — its law and gospel are according to Christ Jesus; its rules are health, holiness, and immortality, — equal rights and privileges, equality of the sexes, rotation in office.”

This quotation is the ideal of democratic government — government "by the common consent of the governed." No one can be governed without his consent, a fact clearly recognized by Paul when he warned his hearers that they would be servants of that to which they yielded obedience, whether of sin or of righteousness. It is only the yielding obedience or consenting to the suggestions of error that allows the individual to be overwhelmed and controlled by the domination of sin and disease, or false belief in any form.

When recognizing the direction and guidance of Principle, manifested as the abundance of good, it can be said that one lives in the democracy of Mind. The teachings of Christian Science emphasize the fact that man is influenced alone by God, Principle; and being amenable only to the law of God, the individual finds priestcraft, medical domination, human will — autocracy in any of its myriad appearances — of none effect.

The human will to rule or ruin in its determination to deprive man of the right to his own demonstration of the word of God, is the antipode of true democracy, the practice of which is summarized in the Sermon on the Mount. The perception that one lives under the rule of Mind permits no personal interference or domination, but enables man to recognize the absolute government of God expressed through every phase of experience.

Neither wars, revolutions, nor abortive attempts to overthrow governments will bring liberty to those in bondage, whereas the knowledge that man, the image of Mind, is governed by God, will make manifest in every way the freedom for which men have struggled throughout the ages. "That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God," then, is the method of Christian Science, by which democracy may be established for all mankind.

Christian Science Journal, December 1884

The ministry of Christ was to reform the sinner and heal the sick. If he only reformed the sinner, he could not say — “Thou art made whole;” He could only say, Thou art made half. But he did both and his command is most emphatic that we do likewise. “The things that I do ye also shall do,” and, “If ye believe on me, these signs shall follow.” “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Shall see God, or as the original reads, shall see good. Before peace and good-will shall come to the sons of men, there must be a change of belief in the pleasures of the senses, and we must understand that the only real pleasures are those that come through the avenues of Soul.

Christian Science Sentinel, June 15, 1912

Humanity's every prized privilege and possession has been the direct fruitage of resistance to temptation. Men of vision who have been wise enough, unselfish enough, and strong enough to stick to the problem at hand, and patiently endure, have been the channels through which our best blessings have come.

Every hero of history, Washington, Lincoln, and all the rest of them — especially Mrs. Eddy — has steadily refused to exercise the privilege of letting things alone. All have had to refuse to play into the hands of an established order and have become non-conformists, and this is the supreme call of Christian Science today, that we "be not conformed" to the reign of un-ideal mortal thought, but be "transformed by the renewing" of the mind. This certainly means not the shirking of duty, but wakefulness to, and readiness for, its every demand.

“Never absent from your post, never off guard, never ill-humored, never unready to work for God.” In her Miscellaneous Writings (p. 116) has Mrs. Eddy defined the worthy attitude of the men and women who are sincerely interested in the success of the cause to which she consecrated herself in such a splendidly unreserved way.

It is trying, exceedingly so sometimes, to get on with the pettiness, bickering, and false zeal of some mortals; but to avoid the trial is often to play directly into the hands of the self-seeking and the reactionary. There is absolutely no worthy course to take save that of the man who holds on to his ideal and knows mightily that “one on God's side is a majority.” He will win — not today perhaps, but he will win.

Christian Science Sentinel, December 11, 1909

Perhaps no words more fully express what Mrs. Eddy calls the “meekness and might” of Jesus than these: “I can of mine own self do nothing.” But what worlds of might the meekness of those words implies! Again, he said, “The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.” Thus there was no limit to the power for which Jesus was the channel, because he absolutely renounced material selfhood, thus giving the Father free course “to will and to do of his good pleasure.”

In erasing the belief in material selfhood, it is equally arrogant to permit a sense of inability to govern us — the opposite extreme, the extreme which prompts us to assume personal credit for an achievement, which permits self-pride to govern us, and which loftily thanks God that we are not as other men.

If we take these words of Jesus to heart, fear or self-pride could find no entrance. The admission of the all-power of Truth brings the beautiful assurance that if fear and pride are eliminated, and the love of our Cause is uppermost, Truth will voice itself; and, in the words of our Father, will inevitably be both comforting and convincing, and create a desire for more.

As we demonstrate such spiritual understanding as we have, God's messages, “spiritual intuitions” (Science and Health, p. 581), will voice themselves through us, regardless of our previous education, and we will declare the things of Spirit.

We are sometimes placed in a position where a statement of truth is essential for the defense of our Cause, when silence would imply weakness. Then, if we forget self, and remember Jesus' words, “And when they bring you unto the synagogues, and unto magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say." Then will Truth voice itself, and our words will be not of ourselves, but of the Father. The Master said, "Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist.”

Christian Science Sentinel, May 22, 1915

One day, while walking, I was attracted by a small bird that was flying away from a dog. The dog pursued the bird and was gaining on the tiny fledgling, which was but a few inches from the ground; and although flying at a good speed, as long as it continued on a level with its pursuer, just so long the dog followed it.

I watched the flight of the one and the chase of the other to corner of the street, and turned with them in order to watch the outcome. Suddenly the little navigator of the air darted straight up and away from any possibility of being caught by its pursuer. The dog stood still, gazing upward; but as he was unable to proceed in the direction the bird had taken, he presently trotted off, leaving the winged creature free and safe in its upward flight.

It seemed as if the bird had suddenly become conscious of its ability to rise and so escape the danger that threatened it. This recalled Mrs. Eddy's words in Science and Health, where she says, “Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which . ... preens its wings for a skyward flight.” Again she says, “Distrust of one's ability to gain the goodness desired and to bring out better and higher results, often hampers the trial of one's wings and insures failure at the outset.”

Our safety always lies in rising up into the spiritual heights of Mind and dwelling there in conscious understanding of the allness of God. In Paul's epistle to the Colossians we read, “Your life is hid with Christ in God.” Error cannot enter this domain of Spirit.

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Current Articles

A statement in Miscellaneous Writings by our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has been increasingly meaningful to me: “By purifying human thought, this state of mind permeates with increased harmony all the minutiæ of human affairs.”

Thanks to the teachings of pure Christian Science that I am learning through the various resources Plainfield provides, this truth is being demonstrated in my daily activity. For example, recently when my husband returned from a flight and emptied his computer bag, the fob used to start his car was missing. Because his suitcase had been checked, that bag had been the only place he had to put his keys to go through airport security. He felt sure the fob was lost and he planned to go to the dealership the next day for a replacement.

On numerous occasions the guidance of a Plainfield practitioner in dealing with suggestions of lost items has come to mind; namely, to stop looking, to pray, and then listen for the right idea instead of continuing to look. My desire was to demonstrate harmony; I acknowledged that my husband’s trip had a right motive and discord was not part of that. While working with that evening’s Unity Watch, the thought suddenly came where to look. I found the fob in a pocket of the slacks he had worn on the outgoing flight and stored in his suitcase. The fob had been there all during the trip because, when he had removed his other keys, the fob was entangled in the pocket’s fabric and did not fall out. The demonstration was that the discovery was made before expending the time and expense to get a replacement.

I am grateful that a Plainfield member brought this wonderfully scientific demonstration of Church to my attention over eight years ago. Since then I have loved being taught pure Christian Science through the many provisions the Plainfield Church offers.

Having been an active member of my local branch church for 40 years, the spiritual education Plainfield was providing me enabled me to contribute more spiritual insights to its worthwhile work. When it harmoniously unfolded for me to withdraw from that membership over a year ago, this led to the happy opportunity to share, with church friends and others, the Plainfield website, which undoubtedly has been a blessing in the way God directs for each individual.

I am grateful to God for His Love evidenced in revealing to Mary Baker Eddy the revelation of the teachings of Christian Science, which provides the rules for practicing the healing power Christ Jesus demonstrated. Now my great joy as a Plainfield member is sharing with receptive hearts the resources for spiritual education offered freely on the website of the Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent.

The discussion in the November 7, 2021, Roundtable about driving, reminded me of an amazing incident that happened around a year ago.

I had recently heard a testimony about how a lady always knew the Christ goes before you and prepares the way, whether it was for an appointment, a journey, or even something like a phone call.

I thought it was a lovely idea and I gave it much thought throughout the rest of the evening. I felt it would be a helpful thing to tell a friend of mine, who is not at all religious but had recently admitted to me that she was very scared of long-distance driving.

The very next day I had an appointment some distance away, about a 3-hour drive. I asked God to go ahead of me and kept this very much in my thought throughout the journey. It was an uneventful trip until I noticed a sign on the motorway, the freeway, saying there was debris in the road. It seemed only a second or two later that I noticed the car in front appeared to run over something and a large sheet of metal flew up into the air. It was probably 3 feet square, and I watched it flip through the air and come straight towards me. I was in the middle lane so I was trapped between lanes of traffic and there was no time to swerve or do anything, but it appeared that it would hit my windscreen, and sure enough, it landed on my car. There was a loud bang as the metal hit my car — and then nothing else happened. I continued driving, waiting to see if I would be covered in millions of pieces of glass, but nothing happened.

A few seconds later I saw a sign saying services in one mile, so I prepared to leave the motorway and headed into the services car park to check the car. There were a few scrapes on my wing mirror and a few minor marks on the metal that framed the windscreen, and possibly slightly down the car door where it had scraped, but absolutely nothing that would suggest what had just happened. My windscreen was completely intact, and still is one year later.

The next day when I inspected the car with my partner and told him what had happened, he could not believe how little damage had been sustained.

I was, and still am, incredibly grateful for the protection I received that day, from an outcome that could have been quite disastrous. I try to remember now to ask God to go ahead of me wherever I go, anywhere. Best of all, I was able to tell my friend when I saw her next, that not only I heard someone make this suggestion, but that it had quite possibly saved my life the next day. She thanked me and said she would bear it in mind.

Thank you so much for giving this wonderful reminder and for the wonderful Roundtables. I so enjoy listening and learning every week. Sending much love to everyone at Plainfield Christian Science Independent, and so much gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for bringing us this liberating knowledge, and to God for His ever-present, ever-watchful care.

I noticed in a recent lesson that the word “rebuke” appears twice: first in relation to Jesus rebuking the wind and second, in relation to Jesus rebuking the devil.

Rebuke is a strong word. It doesn’t say Jesus asked or Jesus prayed by knowing the Truth. He rebuked. In my time as a member at Plainfield, I have learned that we need to take a strong stand against animal magnetism and the suggestion that man is subject to sin, disease and death. We must actively work against this suggestion. There is nothing passive, nor gentle about the word “rebuke.”

The modern definition of rebuke is to “express a sharp criticism.” Anyone can criticize the storm or devil, but what we need is more than strong criticism. We need action. The original definition of the word rebuke from Anglo-Norman French also indicates action. To Rebuke is to “turn back” or “force back.” In this sense, Jesus is not just expressing a sharp criticism of animal magnetism and its suggestion of chaos and illness, he is taking action and forcing it back to its native nothingness, making it disappear like mist exposed to the sun. When the lie is exposed for what it is, we see the true reality of perfection and man’s at-one-ment with God.

The rebuking of the wind and forcing it back to its nothingness helped me in a healing recently of cold and flu. I stood firm and rebuked the “winds” of cold and flu and saw them for what they were: lies and false beliefs. I commanded “peace, be still!” All sense of illness disappeared and left me with a stronger and greater understanding of how we must actively stand up to sin, disease and death and take action by forcing it back to its state of nothingness.

I’m grateful for a lesson that I am learning in Christian Science — to fear less. And I’m looking forward to someday fearing not.

When I was a young adult and first came to Plainfield, I thought I was fearless. I didn’t think I feared anything. I had a little bit of instruction in Christian Science as a child, and I experienced some healing, and thought that I really had nothing to fear. After I got to Plainfield and began working with a fine Christian Science practitioner in Plainfield, I gradually realized that a lot of the things that I did every day I did out of fear — out of fear of not being loved, or not being able to pay my bills, or out of fear of losing something. As I realized, with the help of this fine practitioner, that I was doing a lot of things out of fear, a couple of the passages in the Bible began to take on new meaning to me. One of those passages is “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (II Timothy 1:7) Another passage which stood out and stayed with me was the passage that says “perfect love casteth out fear:” (I John 4:18)

With the help of this practitioner, I realized that I needed to love more. I needed to love better, to have a more perfect love for God, for my fellow man, and for myself. I needed to see that my being was spiritual, and not material. I realized that I had a lot of big important lessons to learn that I hadn’t yet learned.

I have found over the years that this is a process. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it takes work. I’m grateful for all the help that I have received from that practitioner, and from others in the church, to be more understanding, and more comfortable with my spirituality and not so materialistic, and to learn to stop being competitive.

I’m happy to say that I do fear less, and that I am a much happier and more content person as a result. I’m looking forward to everything else that I need to learn, because I am finding that Christian Science has the answer to every question. It has certainly done so in my life so far, and I expect that God will provide whatever else I need going forward. I am very grateful for Christian Science.

If you look hard enough, there’s wisdom to be found in much of life’s experiences, even a TV series. One Star Trek episode had some wisdom that I never forgot. The storyline went like this-

There was an asteroid on a collision course with a planet. But, it was really a space ship, filled with people who thought they were on their home planet. Everything was artificial, the ground, the sky, the atmosphere, but the inhabitants believed with all their hearts that they were on their home planet. Upon being told of the impending collision with another planet, the high priestess tried to reconcile what she believed to be true about her world with the actual truth that had just been revealed to her. She uttered this phrase — is truth not truth for all? What she believed to be true, was an illusion. In fact, the real truth about her universe wasn’t even close to her false knowledge about her world.

We find a similar theme in our study of Christian Science. Everything we have been taught to believe about the material world is false because it has its foundation in matter. It is but the counterfeit of the spiritual truth about the universe. And if we hold on to the misconceptions of materiality, we are on a collision course with sin, disease, and death. However, through the study of Christian Science, we learn that God, Spirit, is the only power in the universe, and we reflect His perfection in all aspects of our lives. Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer of Christian Science, writes in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, “Human logic is awry when it attempts to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from matter. Finite sense has no true appreciation of infinite Principle, God, or of His infinite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image of God.” (page 300:1)

Yes, truth is truth for all mankind. Not one of God’s children is outside of His ever-loving, ever-tender care, not even for a moment. And when we feel like He has forgotten us, or even worse, rejected us, we need but to remind ourselves that God’s laws hold true for all of us, and as St. Peter wrote, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.” (Acts 10:34) Another quote from Jeremiah 31:3 is very comforting — “Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” With lovingkindness, God draws us all closer; He doesn’t push us away or ignore us. And He is not selective about who He loves either. He loves all mankind. Now that is a truth worth telling!

Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health, on page 454, “Love for God and man is the true incentive in both healing and teaching.” I know that we all claim for ourselves how much God loves us, but it occurred to me, how frequently do you ask yourself — myself — what do I do to show that I love God, because that is also very important. In what way really am I loving God?

In Matthew 22, Jesus says, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.” “This is the first and great commandment.” “And the second is, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’”

I feel that we should often examine ourselves, and be honest with ourselves, to what extent, and in what way, am I loving God? He loves us, yes, but in what practical ways, am I loving Him? Am I obeying these commandments? In Mrs. Eddy’s article “Ways that are Vain” (Miscellany, page 213) we read “Watch your thoughts, and see whether they lead you to God and into harmony with His true followers.”

From this I feel that maintaining a pure consciousness that is keeping only the ideal of God’s creating as its reality, is one important clear way of obeying and loving God and man. Seeing and thinking only good, is obeying God’s command, and is loving Him. Also, Mrs. Eddy says in Miscellaneous Writings page 210, “Love your enemies, or you will not lose them; and if you love them, you will help to reform them.” So beautiful! And again, it is in keeping with loving God’s ideal — the ideal of His creating — and loving and lifting man's burdens. In so doing we are loving God and respecting Him. Such thinking blesses all.

I am so grateful for all that we learn from the Bible as well as Mrs. Eddy’s writings, which makes living the truth very practical and uplifts us all.

There is a prayer that I love very much found in Watches, Prayers, and Arguments by Mrs. Eddy which says, “There is no fatal mistake; there is no unforgivable wrong; there is no unpardonable sin; there is no permanent injury; there is no incurable disease; there is no such thing as too late.” In this one sentence, Mrs. Eddy covers every kind of situation that could possibly be plaguing us.

In Science we know all things are possible to God. I was thinking about the word incurable. The dictionary definition of it is: “a person diseased beyond the reach of cure; beyond the power or skill of medicine.” Well it might be beyond the power or skill of medicine, but it is never beyond the power or skill of God, who is our Great Physician!

I once read that the word incurable means the cure must come from within — incurable. If you are harboring thoughts of unforgiveness, resentment, jealousy, etc., this would prevent the love of God from reaching you. His love is aways ever-present and shines upon all, but we need to be receptive to it. So the cure must come from within. We must be willing to cast out those ungodlike thoughts and replace them with all that is good and true and lovely. Mrs. Eddy states on page 261 of Science and Health, “Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.” Thus you will begin to prove for yourself there is no incurable disease! And you will also find out those negative thoughts are no more real than the seeming physical manifestation — they are not of God, therefore powerless! Nothing but good has ever touched the child of God.

I am so grateful for Christian Science where we learn, and can know, and can prove for ourselves that there is no incurable disease — God wipes it all away with His tender loving care for us all. I am also very grateful to Mary Baker Eddy for giving us this Science and this precious way of life.

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Letters of Gratitude

Thank you for the announcements at the Roundtable June 26, 2022. I think it is a good idea for the “Love is the Liberator” magazine to be issued quarterly going forward. It is strange but I was thinking about that last week as I am still reading / studying the issue, The 121st Psalm. It is a powerful magazine with such amazing articles and the research that is made to give us the articles by Mrs. Eddy and the early workers is much appreciated. I, for one, am happy with the change.

Finally, if you ever are listening to a repeat of any of the church services, may I suggest that you try listening to the organ prelude with earplugs — the sound pierces the heart!!

I have been following, listening, learning daily from the weekly Bible Lessons and available online material that I go back to repeatedly. There is always new insight and something more to learn. And of course, the more I learn, the more I realize how very little I know. How rich this Science is!

I have learned that stilling the senses is not the same as numbing the senses. To quiet the senses is to invite the all-knowing Divine source in. To distract the senses into pacification is to invite the mortal rot in. There is a big difference. I erroneously believed that watching inane videos or playing innocent games was harmless, but I learned that this distraction robs me of my pursuit of the real jewel: that is to know God better.

I am so grateful for the Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent. No longer do I feel bereft and rudderless, but filled with a true purpose and reason for living a rich and full life. Self-centeredness is giving way to selflessness and a desire to help others and the world. I also want to thank Florence for her words on tithing — she is correct! We must all support the lighthouse (Plainfield) so that she can continue to be the beacon for seekers of Truth.

The Roundtable discussions are so helpful to me. Even though I had been exposed to Mrs. Eddy’s writings at an early age, and kept feeling there was truth to them, there was so much I wasn’t grasping on my own. I don’t feel like I am on my own anymore, and thanks to the sharing from all of you and all the material freely made available on your website, my understanding is growing every day and I am starting to be able to put what I am learning into practice. I am so grateful.

Truly how wonderful and instructive the Roundtables are. Thank you so much for the spiritual tools you give us to overcome error. I am sure Mrs. Eddy would be very grateful to you for keeping Christian Science on track. She feared that the Cause of Christian Science would be lost in the passing of time because she knew that this could happen. You have rescued it and you continue to rescue it every time for the blessing of us all and mankind. So happy we have found you!!

Thank you so much for the Roundtable of May 29, 2022, and for having the courage to speak of and denounce what is behind the current apparent world conditions.

The conversation about animal magnetism and hypnotism, and how nothing can take hold in a mind which is already filled with Truth, reminded me of John H. Wyndham’s wonderful book The Ultimate Freedom. It is the story of his time as a prisoner of war in the second world war.

One night in his cell he became aware of a strange, sinister, pressure, and had a strong feeling that he should pray, which he did do, for hours. Very late into the night the strange feeling just stopped, as though a tap were turned off, and he fell asleep and thought little more of it.

Years later he met a Korean officer who took an interest in him and, oddly, knew his name, rank, and serial number. When Mr. Wyndham asked how come the officer knew him, the officer said it had been standard practice, the night before prisoners were interrogated, to target them with some sort of mental manipulation or malpractice on them. He said he remembered Mr. Wyndham because he was the only prisoner he knew who had withstood this attack, and they had been unable to be effective on him.

This has helped me greatly, many times, when he describes receiving a message to “control thought” — which he says can only have come from God.

Also, many thanks for the advice to turn to the Hymnal when feelings of confusion are making it hard to think straight. All in all, I cannot think of a better way to spend a precious hour than listening to and learning from the Roundtable!

Thank you, Plainfield, for the wonderful way you present the Truth and for that which you make available through your website, practitioner support, the Bible Studies, the Roundtable, the Sunday, and Wednesday services.

I love the emphasis that Christian Science gives to the Bible and Science and Health. The Watching Points are so beautifully synchronized with each Lesson.

I thank God for the Bible, Christ Jesus, Mary Baker Eddy, and for your faithful work.

Thank you so much for wonderful Roundtable discussions! We are so inundated with commercials, advertisements and such that promote materialism and pull older and youth alike from God. The incessant bombardment of the media to buy this or that, to eat this food or that food, organic vs non-organic, the myriad types of diets promising a healthier body or longer life, etc. It only keeps our attention on the material not on God. Has anyone been able to get healthier or prolong their life by adhering to any of these materials rules? I would love to know!! 

Dear Divine Plainfield Independent,

Today we received our beautiful books that we ordered: a lovely copy of Leaves of Healing bound in red leather with gilded edges and more writings by the wonderful Bicknell Young and Martha Wilcox. The quality of this print work is absolutely superb; the pages are top quality paper with easy-to-read font and no bleed through. It’s quite extraordinary to think of the work and diligence that has gone into the Plainfield Independent publishing efforts. No doubt this is God’s touch eternal to bless our reading and learning at Plainfield and to make such premium items available at such an affordable price! Thank you, thank you so much for restoring our rich heritage in Christian Science through our early workers whose priceless books contain the holy words of healing!! Much love to all involved in this holy effort!! Thank you!!

Please accept the enclosed check as a token of our love for this church, which continues to bless our lives. I would not want to go back to the Christian Science I knew before coming to Plainfield because something just didn’t feel right. I thank God that He kept me going until my searching heart found the truth about Christian Science and the movement through Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent website. I can say that the truth truly did set me free and transformed my life, bringing me out of a self-centered existence into one redirected toward blessing others, and that includes sharing Christian Science in ways I was never able to do before.

The ongoing teaching during the Sunday Roundtables are very much appreciated and absolutely priceless. This truly is a wonderful church community. I thank all the members for their tireless effort in safeguarding Mrs. Eddy’s pure Christian Science and sending it forth as the greatest gift to a waiting world, just as it found me.

Thank you for the Unity Watch which covered the pressures faced by children regarding gender. As always, a powerful, loving watch giving us all plenty to work on. This watch was the focus of our Sunday watch group, here on the other side of the Atlantic. We also discussed the pressures on parents and caregivers who want to “do the right thing” but find themselves in a difficult situation. In this age of many messages it is not always clear what that right thing is. I have found this article, “One With God is a Majority and You Are That One” by William R. Rathvon, very helpful many times over the recent years, covering the appearance of mass mesmerism.

With huge gratitude for this wonderful website with its treasure trove of writings that Plainfield makes so freely available.

Thank you for the Roundtable of August 28, 2022, and the service. Notes I made that lifted me up are:

“Work more to be like Jesus,” and “Shine like a star.”

I am working on my nearness to Christ Jesus. What a lovely God-inspired company.

Many thanks and much love to you and all at Plainfield, a Godly family.

Something that was shared in the June 5, 2022, Roundtable by Martha Wilcox was, “healing is the increasing awareness of perfection.” So, we keep our focus on God, the only Cause, and stay there.

So grateful that so many truths are shared in the Forum, and on the Archived Roundtables for further study!

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Testimonies of Healing

from I. H. in Australia

Thank you Plainfield Independent for your Love in sharing the Truth of Christian Science with the world! It is always bliss to listen to the divine Love breathed through all that you share with us.

Today I recall a beautiful healing I experienced about a year ago when God first led me to Plainfield independent. I was going through a seemingly difficult time in my life, and as had sometimes happened to me at times of apparent crisis, my whole spine totally seized up and froze, becoming extremely painful. I hobbled to my bed. As with any problem, I knew that only Christian Science applied through holy prayer could help me, and I found quick remedy at Plainfield Independent on the website. I came across “Love your Enemies” from Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, as read by Mary Beth Singleterry here in our Church.

I had never read “Love your Enemies” before; I’d skimmed it, but as I had never understood how to love anyone who had done harm to one, I had always turned away from actually reading this or even trying to understand it. Not 30 seconds into this sublime reading, I started to weep. Mrs. Eddy’s quote: “What is it that harms you? Can height, or depth, or any other creature separate you from the Love that is omnipresent good, — that blesses infinitely one and all? Simply count your enemy to be that which defiles, defaces, and dethrones the Christ-image that you should reflect.” 

My intense emotional reaction to that passage surprised me; and at the same time I felt a heavenly comfort reaching back through the years, back through my human history and correcting all the hurt and rejection I had been carrying around with me. Memories flitted through my consciousness; coming and going, only to leave a glowing sense of Love in their place. I listened over and over again, experiencing an immeasurable sense of love and freedom, compassion and bliss. A soul cleansed, a heart healed in those moments! My life, viewed to my thought, suddenly came into focus as a life not of sadness but of joy, not of grief for “what-could-have-beens” but of Love, Love, and still more LOVE.

It would have been on the 3rd or 4th repeat of working with this recording that I suddenly realized all my back pain had evaporated. I jumped up; made myself some food, and heartily ate. I jumped in the shower, got dressed and went on about my day as if that painful attack had never been. Since that day I have not had a single return of that supposedly painful backache.

I have listened and re-listened to that recording many times. All those years I had been holding a belief that I had been harmed by violence and human hatred, but in actuality I was with God’s Love the whole time, He did give His angels charge over me. No harm had ever touched my eternal selfhood! Casting out the belief that I had been hurt allowed God’s reign within me. And so I was free to experience the ever present, overflowing, pure, abundant and joyous Love that is immediately at hand. This is what pure Christian Science achieves, according to Mrs. Eddy’s instructions as practiced here in our Church at Plainfield Independent.

Thank you to my wonderful Plainfield practitioner. This experience carries the hallmarks of Truth as pointed out by Mrs. Eddy in Jesus’ own command: “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.” Thanks be to God for this beautiful healing!

from B. N. in New Jersey

God is always speaking to us, usually in a still small voice, reminding us of His care and ever-present love. Even in our shortcomings, His love never leaves us. He is our fortress, our steadfast love, our refuge and strength, in time of trouble.

Not too long ago I was visiting family members in the Philippines. One evening my wife and I were resting in our hotel, when suddenly the earth started to move. I have never in my life experience an earthquake before or seen buildings move, including the hotel we were staying in. There was panic and chaos in the island. People were screaming, running and searching for safety. Humanly speaking I had nothing to run to, and I hardly knew anywhere in the island.

Then I ran to the One and Only; I ran to God in prayer, as I have always done. I continued to remind myself of how God loves us and has never left us alone. I kept reminding myself that we are in the presence of God; that His presence never left us alone; and that His love never left us alone; and that His presence fills all space and that where God is not, we will never be.

We remained calm, and moments later there was calmness in the island. The earthquake had stopped with minimal damage and not a single life was lost.

I thank God for Christian Science for helping me understand that God’s presence is everywhere and that not even an earthquake and its magnitude can separate us from the love of God.

from M. H. in Hawaii

A few days ago, my neighbor was telling me her life wasn’t so great at the moment. Her sister’s daughter had been hospitalized for some time and it looked like her organs were shutting down. I told my neighbor we could both pray, and she was grateful.

I went home and asked God for guidance. There was a sense that details were not important; we — every man, woman, and child on this planet — are His children and can only reflect His attributes of life, love, truth, intelligence, health, and wellness. Nothing can obscure this fact. I could feel His presence everywhere. The story of the man at the pool of Bethesda came to me. He had an infirmity 38 years and wasn’t able to get down to the pool when it was stirred by an angel. Jesus commanded him to take up his bed and walk! I knew that God would take care of all things; I need not work at anything. A couple of days later I saw my neighbor. She said her niece decided to get out of her bed and walk in order to strengthen herself. My neighbor said she was no longer on her deathbed. I smiled all the way home and thanked God.

Everyone, please know that faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains. It just needs to be practiced. I always thought I was a helpless creature in the face of mortal storms, but now, little by little, I am growing in courage and knowledge that with reliance on God, error can be defeated.

from R. H. in Indiana

I’d like to tell of a healing. I was at work, and got a phone call from my husband who was in distress. He was helping a friend do some work that included heavy lifting. My husband was down in a hole and a friend of his was on a bobcat machine, and the machine ran into his leg, which became turned at an unusual angle. When his friend moved the machine back, he couldn’t stand up or walk.

He called me right away and asked me to get him some support. I called a Plainfield practitioner, who gave me some truths to work with, such as there are no accidents in God’s kingdom.

When I arrived home, his friend had brought him home. His friend had wanted to take him to the hospital but he told them no, he wanted to be at home.

The situation did not look good, but he was calm and I told him the practitioner and I were working for him. So we listened to articles from the Plainfield website throughout the day and evening. On the fifth day a lot of friends and family came by and were very concerned and wanted him to go to the hospital. He said no, he was working it out, and he was not in any pain. He said the pain had stopped as soon as the practitioner was called.

By the eighth day he decided to have x-rays taken. When we went, the doctor said “do you have good insurance?” We said no, we don’t have any but that it was OK. When he unwrapped the leg he said, well it’s pretty much broken, and probably sprained and he gave us a grim outlook.

They went to the back to take x-rays, and I texted the practitioner from Plainfield. She texted back saying that God’s law of adjustment is in operation. Nothing can be out of order or in pain.

I read this to my husband, and throughout the whole time, when I could tell that he was getting a little worried, I would tell him we will do whatever you want to do, but I would remind him that he did have prayerful support, and he would say, “I know, I’m staying with Christian Science.” When the doctor came back in, he said there’s no break, no sprain, there’s nothing.

One more thing. My husband has sprained his ankle a lot through the years, and he told the doctor before they went to take the x-rays, “you’re going to see a lot of old damage. I’ve sprained my ankle a lot of times, now you’re going to see a mess in there.” He asked the doctor what about the old sprains, and the doctor said there’s nothing there. Your foot is clear. So we were very grateful. My husband was very surprised and very happy. He’s still a little on the road to recovery, but he’s making wonderful progress. I'm extremely grateful to Christian Science, my Plainfield practitioner, Mary Baker Eddy, everything, we’re just really grateful.

Mexico

Last week I started having a sharp pain in my right thigh in the back. Suddenly I started to feel sharp pins and needles at night. Some were so strong that I would scream. This continued until I realized I had to apply Truth to the situation with strength. Every time the pain came, I declared loudly and forcefully “shut up, you are nothing. There is no pain in Truth, and no Truth in pain. In the name of Jesus Christ, get out of here. All is Mind and His idea.” In a day and a half, I was healed.

This was a lesson to me that when error is spoken to strongly, it recedes and vanishes. I am so grateful that I am finally learning to speak with authority to error. It is clear to me that coming to this blessed church and having practitioner support has greatly helped me with this.

I want to also express my gratitude for the Plainfield website. It is an inexhaustible source of living water for all of us who wish to go deeper into Christian Science. I really appreciate that there are constantly new readings on the home page. The rescue you have made of all these articles and sharing them for free with the public is priceless.

I also really appreciate the Roundtables, which are wonderful. They just hit the nail on the head about animal magnetism and how it operates and try to deceive us. The Lesson Sermons and Wednesday readings are worth reading several times. What a blessing to have them archived for reference on the website. I am infinitely grateful to God for leading me to this church.

God bless you all. Muchas gracias!

from J. P. in New Jersey

I am so grateful for all I have been taught here, and for how learning to live Christian Science has helped me to get rid of so many doubts and fears and regrets so that I can actually be useful to God and to mankind.

My kids came to visit me last week. I should probably say adult children, since they are 20 and 24 now. They are working to find their way as adults, and all week long I was so grateful to this church and my practitioner for this nearly eight-year apprenticeship I have had here. So many times while my kids and I were talking during the week, everything would line up so I could pass along some insight I have learned here. And, each time they were very receptive. Finally, when it was time for them to leave, I was able to really know that our Father-Mother God is guiding, guarding, and governing them at all times. As my practitioner had told me, the best protection for them, and me, is doing my work faithfully. That in itself is a great blessing.

I am very grateful to God, Christian Science, this church, and my practitioner for all the good that I have gained, and for making it so that the many mistakes I made before Plainfield have no enduring history or ill effect on my children. What a good God we have! Thank you!

from S. W. in New Jersey

When I was new to Christian Science, and to Plainfield Church, I was a smoker. Before coming here, I had tried to quit many times, but was not successful. I asked a practitioner for prayerful help, and she gave me the statement from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy that said, “Puffing the obnoxious fumes of tobacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no creature except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting.” That was it. I realized without a doubt that smoking was not for me.

I got off the phone, threw my cigarettes away, and never craved smoking again. When I really wanted to quit, I was able to do it with no problem. That was the end. It has been many years now, and the healing has been complete. This really proved to me that with God all things are possible.

I am grateful for Mrs. Eddy, the office of practitioner and all the healings I have received.

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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.

Our Website

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.

YouTube Channel

Our YouTube channel has over 3,000 videos of church services, classes, readings of books and articles, hymns, and music from our services, which are visited regularly by people from all over the world.

Check out all that we have to offer by going to:

YouTube.com/PlainfieldCS

Our Church Publications

Our church publications are available free on our church website, but sometimes it’s nice to have a copy in your hand to refer back to at your leisure, or during the night when there might be a need for comfort. Descriptions and subscription prices are included below.

Newsletter

In alternate months, our church publishes our church Newsletter, “Plainfield Independent.” This publication contains news about church activities, miscellaneous writings, and other fun things that will make you smile, laugh — and think.

Books by Early Workers in Christian Science

Plainfield Church is the source for many books and writings by early workers in the Christian Science movement, many of whom worked in Mrs. Eddy’s home and were taught by Mrs. Eddy herself. These priceless writings are available for purchase at very reasonable prices, and are listed, along with ordering information, on our church website, plainfieldcs.com. Many articles on our church website are excerpts taken from these books, so to have the complete works is a real privilege!

You can find a list of books we have available for purchase by clicking “Store” on the top menu of our website.

Church Membership

“When one sees that Christian Science is the only way, he is ready for church membership, and there is no other requirement.” — Mary Baker Eddy

This is the only requirement for membership in Plainfield Church. We welcome everyone who wishes to become a member and work for God to send in an application, which you can find under the “Members” tab on our website. Or send an email to our clerk at: clerk@plainfieldcs.com.

Websites in Other Languages

Our missionary work is expanding. We have recently launched websites in the languages of Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian, Marathi, Nepali, Pashto, Persian, Sindhi, and Tamil, which join with our existing Spanish, French, German, Dutch, Chinese, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu — that makes seventeen languages other than English!

Much gratitude to all of our translators for their individual demonstrations which are working to bless every corner of the world!

We recently received the following email from someone new in Pakistan:

Accept my greetings and salute for the lovely way to produce your unchallenged true teachings about God, as our Mind, we as His ideal creation and making it clear what the Christian Science Church is giving to the spiritual-thirsty like me. The great work you and your Church is dealing regarding foreign languages is amazing and fruitful. I am having great blessings since I have started learning the Word of God through your website and YouTube channels. Especially Pashto, Sindhi, Urdu, Punjabi, Tamil and Marathi languages are doing great things spiritually in my life when I read and listen to the YouTube lessons.

I greatly appreciate it and ask my Lord for the unstoppable blessings for the whole church worldwide. May you always please my heart and soul by producing these lessons and other great material in all the languages of the world especially for my Pakistani and Indian people. Amen.

I thank you and the whole church again for all of this.

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 maintaining 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 use the “donate” button on the website. It would be greatly appreciated!

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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”

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