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.”

The First Commandment

Christian Science Journal, July 1925

It would be impossible to estimate the extent to which the First Commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me,” has influenced the thought of the world. Nothing has done more to establish monotheism, — the doctrine of one God, — and so to destroy polytheism, — the doctrine of gods many.

It is obvious that the meaning of the First Commandment depends on the significance which the word “God” has to each one. On page 465 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mrs. Eddy answers the question, “What is God?” in the words, “God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.”

If we remember that God is infinite Mind, the First Commandment would read: “Thou shalt have no other gods before infinite Mind.” Then we see that full obedience to it necessitates the denial of matter or material power.

Again, remembering that God is infinite Love, the commandment will read: “Thou shalt have no other gods before infinite Love.” Then we see that every unloving thought, every unjust thought, every sinful thought, every unmerciful or uncharitable thought must be ruled out. In this way it is seen how wide the First Commandment is in the scope of its requirements, and how far-reaching obedience to it must be.

Mrs. Eddy says, “The First Commandment is my favorite text;” and she continues a few lines farther on: “The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal.” (S&H p. 340) That is exactly what Christian Scientists are proving in some degree daily.

God is divine Principle. To be obedient to divine Principle means that one has an understanding of the Science of being — Christian Science — and thus is able to demonstrate health in the exact measure of his faithfulness to the First Commandment.

The prophet Isaiah was inspired to write of God, “I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me;” and John, the beloved disciple, from the mount of vision wrote, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” The words of both prophets emphasize the First Commandment, which, as it becomes more clearly defined to human consciousness by Christian Science, can only serve to establish more fully the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man, thus aiding in ushering in the reign of universal peace and good will.

Christian Science Sentinel, January 9, 1915

“The First Commandment,” Mrs. Eddy writes, “demonstrates Christian Science.” (S&H p. 340) This commandment covers the whole ground of Christian endeavor. It is the foundation of all true religion and of all right thinking. It expresses the Science of eternal being, wherein and whereof good alone is. Its demand upon mankind is not because it is in the Bible, but because it is the law of infinity; not because there is something besides God, but because there is nothing besides Him.

While the First Commandment is generally accepted as embodying man's obligation to God, it is not so generally regarded as including one's rightful attitude toward man. Jesus taught that the Son is as perfect as the Father; and Christian Science, true to his teaching, declares the perfection of the ideal man to be as scientifically indispensable to divine Truth as is the perfection of God.

The Scriptures indicate that God is the only creator; hence, if the Scriptures are true, there can be no other man than God's man, despite material evidence to the contrary. Since all Christians agree there is but one God, infinite and perfect, they should likewise agree to acknowledge but one type of man, and that he is as perfect as his origin. The corollary of the First Commandment would be: Thou shalt have no other man than God's image and likeness.

To accept the argument of evil respecting man, would be as sacrilegious as to accept the argument of evil respecting God. Truth is self-evidently incapable of deterioration, and so must be its idea or product.

The supposition that there is an evil man, must necessarily involve the supposition that there is an evil cause or creator to have made him. Since man was made in God's own image, all that can be real about any man is his likeness to God. The question is, Shall we acknowledge this unlikeness as man, or shall we, in loyalty to God's allness, deny it reality?

We acknowledge unhesitatingly the absolute nature of Deity, His wisdom, goodness, love; we believe, or say we do, that He alone created us, and is our life; then we illogically and unchristianly forsake that position and identify ourselves with what is not God's likeness. Should we not be Christian enough to see that that which would separate man from God is not the truth, but is the illusion which mortals call evil, and so refuse to believe it?

The failure to discern man's rightful place in the First Commandment, and to adhere to it, has obscured the truth from mankind, and has prevented them from asserting their freedom from evil as God's children. Had the Christian church concluded, like Paul, to know “no man after the flesh,” and had taught this, it would long before now have ushered in Christ's kingdom upon earth! Cannot the Christian of today see the moral impossibility of accepting the perfection of God without accepting the perfection of all that He manifests? Nothing is more certain than the conclusion that, if evil and imperfection do not pertain to God, they do not pertain to man, who is made in His image.

As surely as the First Commandment holds out the model of a perfect God, it holds out the model of a perfect man, and bids mankind have no other model in their thoughts. Christian Science does not teach that a sinful mortal is the offspring of God, but on the contrary that a sinful mortal is a false concept of man which a knowledge of the truth will correct. God could not be the author of evil beings unless He were Himself evil. The theology which teaches that God's image and likeness has degenerated into a creature of evil, neither honors God nor blesses mankind.

To have no other than the one God, means that we should think of man as a child of the one Father, as expressing divine Mind, and as an heir of eternal life. It means that we should never think of man as less than perfect, and that we should demonstrate this perfection. This is not presumptuous, but Christian. “Be ye therefore perfect,” said Jesus, “even as your Father . . . is perfect.” In Christian Science, “perfect God and perfect man” is given as “the basis of thought and demonstration” (S&H p. 259), and every Christian should know that no other basis makes possible the fulfilment of the law or the gospel.

If we would give man his rightful place, we should not picture ourselves as sick or sinful or in any way imperfect, for that would acknowledge another creator or power besides good. We should know our true selfhood as expressing God's perfect man, and should strive to be loyal to this divine ideal. This may conflict with material testimony, but who can serve God as supreme without denying this material evidence! If there is no material God, and we believe there is not, there can be no material man; then why think of one's self as material! If God does not exist in matter, then man does not. If sin, disease, and death do not reflect the glory of God, neither does matter, for only through so-called material sense can these errors be experienced. Since we can worship God only “in spirit,” we can know man only as spiritual. It is but a sense of evil that outlines man as material and sinful, and this evil sense is all that claims the power to break the First Commandment.

Let us be sure that we believe in God. Then if we have no other gods, no other creator and power, no other origin or Father, we shall honor no other man and have no other man in mind as true than God's image and likeness.

Christian Science Sentinel, January 23, 1915

Nothing could be more definite or more inclusive than the requirement of the First Commandment, and nothing more lamentable than the universality of mankind's disobedience thereto. Its demand is that, apart from Him whom Christ Jesus named “our Father,” gods of every name and nature, whether honored among the nations or ruling in but a single life, each and all are not only to be denied place and power, they are to remain forever unknown.

This commandment is the chief emphasis of Scripture teaching. Nevertheless, how numerous and how influentially colossal are the gods to which Christian peoples have paid and are still paying devotion, — Mars, the god of war; money, the god of greed; lust, the god of sensualism; and material sense, the god of false belief, — these are some of the principalities and powers which error has enthroned and with which awakened thought is called to wrestle. Along with them, a legion of lesser deities usurp a place and command a service that in every degree of faith should be consecrated to God alone.

To see a man of splendid capabilities, in bondage to some immoral weakness or governed in important judgments by an utterly silly prejudice; to find that women of ability and culture are the slaves of the absurdities of fashion or prevailing caste customs, — such discoveries of “what fools these mortals be” — “all these be gods,” whose rule in human living speaks for the violation of the most fundamental requisite of Christianity and for the individual's consent to enslavement, instead of claiming and entering into the enjoyment of the liberty of the sons of God.

“The human mind,” writes Mrs. Eddy, “has been an idolater from the beginning, having other gods and believing in more than the one Mind” (S&H, p. 186), and the explanation of this fact was given by St. Paul, when he wrote to the Galatians, “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.” This fact that idolatry always witnesses to ignorance of God, and that men can be saved from it only by gaining a demonstrable apprehension of Truth, is the basic teaching of Christian Science, which is the expression of a natural and eternal order.

Here much Christian teaching has come short, because it has not brought a satisfying sense of the divine nearness and availability; nor yet of the divine integrity. The practical helpfulness of Christian Science awakens a thought of God which begets the habit of thinking of Him and looking to Him in every event and situation of the day. Honoring Him, having Him ever in view, one's false gods are cast down and freedom is gained in fulfilment of the promise, “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.”

Christian Science Journal, September 1888

“Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” This is the first law of the Decalogue. It is usually interpreted as a prohibition of the worship of images and false gods, or idolatry. This it is; but there is another and broader truth underlying and embracing the more material explanation. Jesus said: “God is Spirit.” (John iv:24) Then the first commandment, as interpreted by him, would read: Thou shalt have no other gods before Spirit.

Under this interpretation the command would forbid us from putting the material first in any case, regardless of the shape in which it appears to present itself. Spirit is first, and must be so considered, without regard to consequences.

It is the affirmative form of expressing the same thought when Jesus says: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God.” Whosoever does this will not make a God of his body, to bow down to it and submit to its control.

How we cling to these bodies of ours! We have loved them so long, petted them and watched their whims and caprices, obeyed their behests, and served them so long, that they are the hardest obstacles to overcome; but there is, indeed, only one Substance in the universe, and that is Mind. All that exists is Mind; and matter, in every one of its imagined forms, is naught.

To say, as some do, "There is but one Substance in the universe, differing only in degrees of density," is to admit the reality of matter, as one phase of that Substance. The law is absolute, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me;” and Jesus declared that Me to be Spirit. Jesus also said: “The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you, they are Spirit and they are Life.”

The real individuality is as eternal as the Father; but we can recognize it in its fulness only when “this mortal shall have put on immortality,” and we no longer “see through a glass, darkly, but face to face.”

How we should strive, as far as in us lies, to recognize only Spirit, and put all matter behind us. That which is to be, is far better than the unreal which we now acknowledge with the senses, though “we know not what shall be.”

Christian Science Journal, April 1894

The Mosaic Decalogue has lost none of its significance by lapse of time. It was written for time and for eternity and means as much today as it ever meant. There is deep significance in the fact of its having been written on tablets of stone. This symbolizes its permanency and endless duration. It was written for all mankind, not simply for the Children of Israel.

As commonly interpreted, it has been made the basis of human laws. The legal philosophy of civilized nations is based largely upon it, and all moral codes are constructed more or less upon it. Men have made it the foundation upon which the fabric of human affairs has been built. It is more than a command, it is universal, eternal, divine law. In the fullness of its meaning, it is as boundless as infinity. It is absolutely without limitation or restraint. It is an essential part of human history and will continue to be as long as human history endures.

It may be of benefit to consider the meaning and effect of its first article, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” As a command it is directed against every form and character of idolatry that has clung to mortal man all down the ages, and is the mistaken notion that there is a matter-life, a matter-intelligence, a matter-existence, and a matter-reality. The idol worship of the heathen is but a small part of idolatry. It takes on almost countless forms. One may fancy he can make a god of the almighty dollar, of fame and fortune, — but the divine law is that after all his foolish effort, he can possess, as the real fact of his Being, only the God of Divine Science, the Principle of all true Being. Why is it that “thou shalt have no other gods?” For the overwhelming reason that thou canst have no other. There is no other to have.

Jesus, the great expounder and exemplifier of the Decalogue caught these reverberating thunder tones and lightnings of Sinai, and reemphasized them again and again in word, act, and demonstration: “Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”

Divine Love, through Jesus, demonstrates its infinity with the perfection of patience, step by step. By speech, by pleading admonition, by rebuke and denunciation, by every act and deed possible to one appearing in the semblance of the flesh, did this demonstrator of infinite Love, seek to arouse mortals from the false dream, that they were having gods many, to a knowledge of the grand reality that they could have but one. Jesus’s parting assurance was that he would not leave his followers comfortless, but would send them “another Comforter.”

Have they been left comfortless? Are we who are living in at least the partial apprehension of that Divine Science, without hope in the world? Is not infinite Love still infinite? Is not God yet reaching out his great strong arm and inviting us to conscious communion with Him? Are we not living in the Light of a glorious dispensation; a dispensation which has led us to understand that God is Love, and that there is none beside Him?

We declare then, out of the pages of Holy Writ, out of the thunderings and lightnings of Sinai, out of the infinite depths of the Decalogue, out of the angelic song of Bethlehem, out of the sweet cadences of the Sermon on the Mount, out of the brightness of the Transfiguration, out of the earthquakings of Calvary, out of the divine utterances of the resurrected Christ, out of the illuminated pages of our mighty textbook, “Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures,” — that wondrous book, each word of which finds its basis in the Decalogue and Sermon on the Mount, — out of all the inspired writings of our Leader that “Thou shalt have no other gods before” the God of the Decalogue, the one and only God.

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;

And give us not to think so far away

     as the uncertain harvest;

Keep us here all simply in the springing of the year.

“As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.” (Psalm 133:3)

Like the dew upon Mount Hermon,

 Will the Lord His blessing pour

Upon his true and faithful servants,

 Even life for evermore.

Like the dew upon Mount Hermon

 God to Israel will be;

He shall grow up as the lily,

 Emblem chaste of purity.

All enduring as the oak-tree,

 Lasting as its sapling shoots;

Strong as Lebanon's grim Cedars

 Shall be Israel's mighty roots.

As the dewdrops, so God's doctrine,

 Over all the world must pass;

As the rain on tender flow'rets,

 As the showers upon the grass.

Gentle dews that come from heaven

 Earth to water, man to feed,

Cause the trees to bud and flower;

 To the sower give the seed.

So shall be God's word that goeth

 Forth from His almighty mouth;

Sown and reaped to feed the hungry

 East and west, and north and south.

With that precious dew of Hermon

 We may hope to grow in grace,

Till the day we 're reckoned worthy

 To meet Jesus face to face.

Back to the top of the page

Items By and About Mary Baker Eddy

Christian Science Journal, September 1889

Mistaken views are much worse than dissolving views, since whatever is false should disappear. That human love guided by the divine Principle, which is Love, is partial, unmerciful, or unjust, is a misapprehension of the Principle that is Love and its workings in the human heart.

A person said to me: “I felt the influence of your thought upon my mind and it produced a wonderful illumination, peace, and understanding,” naming the time of this occurrence. But I had not thought of them especially, as I recollect, for quite a season, but had a clear consciousness that they were doing well, and my affections were continually and involuntarily flowing out towards them and all the world. Another may speak of an opposite belief of my influence upon them of which I am totally ignorant and innocent.

When will the world cease to judge from a personal sense of things, conjectural and misapprehensive? When my thoughts dwell in God — and they do not dwell elsewhere to my consciousness only when wrung with grief — I must benefit those who hold a place in my memory, whether they be friend or foe, and each shares alike the benefit of that radiation from the infinite source of Love. This individual state of blessedness and blessing is universal love, not self-guided, and emits light because it is light, and all who are receptive share it equally.

This is neither a mistaken nor a transient view of the mind's action governed by the Principle of Divine Science. But to conclude that mind governed thus is forced into personal channels, affinities, self-interests or obligations, is a grave mistake. It dims the true sense of God's reflection and darkens the understanding that demonstrates above human motives, unworthy aims and ambitions. Too much and too little is attached to me as authority, to qualify other people's thoughts and actions. A tacit acquiescence with general views is often construed as direct orders, or at least delivered as such. I have an equal desire for the growth and prosperity of all my students, and the whole world, and each person has equal opportunity to be benefited by my thoughts and writings. If they are not it is not my fault and far from my desire; it is the irony of fate which the spirit of Christian Science has not yet overcome. I would sooner rob myself of a blessing to bestow it upon others than deprive them of it. Let the false views however engendered relative to the true and unswerving course of a Christian Scientist dissolve into thin air, and the dew of heaven fall gently upon the hearts and lives of those who have been worthy to be taught the Truth in Divine Science, energizing, refreshing, and consecrating them.

To station justice and gratitude as sentinels along the lines of Christian Science is the solution of the problem: it counteracts the influence of malicious or envious minds on the uninformed consciousness, that keeps not watch over its emotions and conclusions.

Fragments Gathered from Unpublished Items, pages 115-116

Hold on and persist for good, because there is never a hopeless situation. When error meets with resistance, it begins to be scattered. Where a situation seems unbearable, it is because error is letting go.

Mortal mind has no intelligence to direct; presence to manifest; nor power to convey an attack on man, who is always hid with Christ in God. Troubles hang down their heads before a brave heart.

God is with us in this and every crucial hour, when we are with Him. Mind plans every detail of our affairs; nothing can obstruct the path of Truth, — the only path in our consciousness.

Truth is peaceful and certain. It leads us with a loving hand. The voice of Truth never pains or causes any despair or doubt to him whose affections are fixed on God. The realization of this rule will enable you to detect and uncover the enemy.

All a Christian Scientist needs in order to remove mountains is the occasion, for God furnishes the power.

Fragments Gathered from Unpublished Items, page 201

When the attacks on our Leader grew to the point where the men in the household were aroused, John Salchow stepped forward, determination and righteous anger in his bearing and face, and said, raising his fist in the air, “Mother, if they were men, they would never do a thing like that. I’m telling you here and now that I’ll go to New York and find that reporter, and give him the beating he deserves!” There was silence for a moment; then Mrs. Eddy, who had been looking at the carpet suddenly looked up and said, with a slight twinkle in her eyes, “And I really believe you could do it, John, I really do!” Then she showed the household how to handle the error impersonally, and said, “God blesses righteous anger, but righteous prayer is still more precious in His sight.”

I cannot falter, I cannot fail,

With God at my right hand.

I am God’s child; His perfect child,

On this great Truth I’ll stand!

Thoughts of doubt and discord,

May try to darken my day, but —

I’ll never cease to “know the Truth,”

I’ll never cease to pray!

Back to the top of the page

History Corner

In 1910 after Mrs. Eddy’s passing, the Board of Directors, sought, like Asa of old, not unto the spiritual interpretation of her By-Laws, but unto the lawyers and their legal ruling. This bound them to a method which has ever been bearing fruit after its own kind. This was the matter of violating the By-Laws in the Manual by waiving, as though they did not exist, those By-Laws that require Mrs. Eddy’s written consent and approval.

Recognizing the inherent tendency of the human mind to domination, Mrs. Eddy had established two separate and distinct authorities — the Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of the Publishing Society, two brothers who were to work together. Then turning again to the lawyers, the Great Litigation ensued, and the Board of Directors took control.

Herbert Eustace was chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Publishing Society at that time, and he was excommunicated by the Directors shortly after the decision of the court was handed down. Peter V. Ross, an editor of the periodicals, was excommunicated; Rev. Kratzer was forced to resign; the Carpenters, John Doorly, and other loyal, good Christian Scientists, were excommunicated.

The Field was astounded and shocked at the removal of Peter V. Ross, first as an editor of the periodicals, then from the Lecture Board, and from the Journal. The Board had found it necessary to discipline Mr. Ross. For his failure to write scientifically? No. For failure to teach scientifically? No. For failure as a lecturer or practitioner? No. But the Board had affidavits. It had been collecting them for a long time. They had gotten them from persons who watched Mr. Ross, persons who investigated Mr. Ross’s personal habits. They got what they were looking for. The watchers watched and they got evidence. They made affidavits. They brought them to the Board and the Board judged. The charges against Mr. Ross were probably as true as the charges made against Joseph by Potiphar’s wife, but the Board convicted and the Board punished. But Mr. Ross was not the only sufferer; all of Mr. Ross’s students suffered also; just as Mr. Doorly’s have, and Mr. Carpenter’s and students of other teachers whom the watchers have watched and brought in affidavits about for one charge or another. Affidavits were also used against Plainfield Church in 1977, and the entire church was excommunicated.

What Mr. Ross had given his students has, without question, been pure Science. The whole proceeding is inconsistent with the love and principle of fair play that are indigenous to Christian Science. It can be explained only as evidence of animal magnetism influencing persons to attempt to protect an organization of human beings from crumbling, — under the pretext of safeguarding the Truth, which needs no protection.

Each lecturer is required by the by-laws to mail a copy of the lecture to the clerk of The Mother Church before delivering it from the platform. Mr. Ross deviated from the script of his lecture and spoke extemporaneously, and it was reported to the Board of Directors. He had written several books on Christian Science, and was asked to withdraw from lecturing. He continued in the practice, even after his name was removed from the Journal, writing to his students, “You and I have only to go on quietly and sensibly with our affairs, which in these turbulent days is quite enough.” It became clear to Mr. Ross that he would not be reinstated, and his Association was disbanded, — “the outward formalities of material organization.” Many of his students that he counted on drifted away when he failed to fight back. He passed on a broken man.

But Mr. Ross’s writings live on. They continue to bring comfort and healing. We at Plainfield Church love Mr. Ross and his writings. Below is one of his many articles that are featured on the Plainfield website.

Compiled from: Support for the Christian Science Board of Directors, by Karl M. Smith and Walter H. Wilson; Christian Science Today, by Charles S. Braden, Southern Methodist University Press 1958

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

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

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

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

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

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

Now that power which runs the universe, and it is some power, you know, runs you, and runs everything in and about you. It is a living, and understanding power, and it searches every avenue of your being, and propels every function regularly and constantly. Can you not feel it at work right now? Sit quiet a moment and you will.

Leaves of Healing by Peter V. Ross, p. 91

Christian Science Sentinel, July 5, 1924

I thought I had a stony path;

And wearied by my load,

I sighed because the enemy

Had strewn thorns in the road.

But when I ceased my murmurings

And planned my path no more,

I found the wayside filled with flowers

I never saw before.

Back to the top of the page

Interesting Squibs

We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not on the power of governments — far from it. We have staked the whole of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves according to the commandments of God. The future and success of America are not in its Constitution but in the laws of God upon which this Constitution is founded.

The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: it connected in one indissoluble bond the principles of civil government and the principles of Christianity.

My custom is to read four or five chapters of the Bible every morning immediately after rising. It seems to me the most suitable manner of beginning the day; it’s an invaluable and inexhaustible mine of knowledge and virtue.

Every day brings fresh opportunities, and reveals new truths. It’s up to us to apply this spiritual knowledge to our daily experiences.

Animating me is the unconquerable vigor of the Eternal. He has appointed me to do His will. He has endued me with the capacity and endurance to establish the work of His hands. The untiring forces of His universe are with me.

The reason that Christianity is the best friend of government is because Christianity is the only religion that changes the heart.

Every right idea is an expression of God and carries with it all the power of God.

Watch your motive before God; have no other motive in prayer than to know Him.

Oswald Chambers

In the morning, prayer is the key that opens to us the treasures of God’s mercies and blessings; in the evening, it is the key that shuts us up under His protection and safeguard.

Anon.

Though we cannot by our prayers give God any information, yet we must by our prayers give Him honor.

Whate’er we leave to God, God does and blesses us.

Henry David Thoreau

In my view, the Christian religion is the most important and one of the first things in which all children, under a free government, ought to be instructed. ... No truth is more evident to my mind than that the Christian religion must be the basis of any government intended to secure the rights and privileges of a free people.

Example isn’t another way to teach — it is the only way to teach.

Life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.

When you see that everything and everybody is governed by God, that is the Ark, and there is safety.

Back to the top of the page

From the Early Workers

Christian Science Journal, March 1920

The harmony or inharmony of our lives depends upon our view of every circumstance, condition, person, or thing which comes within the circle of our experience. We cannot control people or events; but we can so learn to know God, good, as to be undisturbed by either.

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus has said, “If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy judgment of it.” How true it is that a circumstance which appears to one to be a mountain, may be to another a very small matter.

A simple illustration of this was shown in the conduct of a small group of boys when, unexpectedly and apparently without reason, a passing lad struck the hats from their heads, one after another in rapid succession. The first boy, possibly fearing lest a worse thing come upon him, took to flight; the second, feeling his sense of honor had been assailed, pulled off his coat and prepared to defend his injured dignity; another began to cry and to feel quite sorry for himself. Only one classified the incident correctly; that is, as of small moment, worthy of little attention; for with a good-natured smile he picked up his hat and went his way whistling. In each case the incident was the same, but there was a great difference in the way it was viewed.

If every Christian Scientist in the world resolved each morning that he would endeavor to keep the First Commandment, the Golden Rule, and the Beatitudes, what wonderful works might be accomplished! Can we rightfully lay claim to the name of Christian Scientist if we are doing less? Sooner or later we must, as Mrs. Eddy says, “drop the false estimate of life and happiness, of joy and sorrow, and attain the bliss of loving unselfishly, working patiently, and conquering all that is unlike God.” (S&H p. 262)

If after a day of honest endeavor to view man and the universe as spiritual at all times, we see, as we lie down at night, that we have gained and reflected a little more love, a little more wisdom, have helped lessen the burdens of those with whom we are associated, it has been a large day in the truest sense; for in Science and Health (p. 584) we read: “Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This unfolding is God's day, and ‘there shall be no night there.’”

Christian Science Sentinel, November 15, 1913

When Daniel, at the command of Darius the king, had been cast into the den of lions, we are told that the king, after a night of anxiety and fasting, went very early in the morning to see what had taken place. The outlook was not promising. Without was the great stone, sealed with the royal signet and laid before the mouth of the den, while within were the hungry lions; yet there must have been in the thought of the king some faint shadow of hope that somehow his friend would yet be alive.

The day before, when he had reluctantly pronounced sentence upon his trusted counselor, he had said, “Thy God whom thou servest continually, he will deliver thee.” This shows that his thought is upon some higher power than any which he himself has ever known. “O Daniel,” he cries, “servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” We remember the brave, sweet answer: “O king, live forever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me.”

In addressing Daniel the king twice referred to him as one who served his God “continually.” This steadfastness on Daniel's part, in the midst of persecution, intolerance, and ignorance, had evidently impressed Darius, and was an important factor in securing Daniel's speedy release from his most trying situation.

It was easy for Daniel to turn quickly to God in his trouble, for his mental processes required but little readjustment. With other Hebrew youths he had been brought, a prisoner, into one of the most corrupt and demoralized courts on earth; but he had not eaten the king's meat, neither had he partaken of wine at the king's table. He had been in the world, but not of it, like the disciples for whom Jesus prayed, “Not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” Surely it was no hard thing for him who had been in the habit of opening his windows thrice daily “toward Jerusalem,” to look up through the little window of his prison and realize the omnipotence of good, of infinite Truth and Love.

As Christian Scientists we have undertaken a great and holy task, even the amelioration of sin, sickness, and death; shall we therefore be less earnest, less devoted, less steadfast than was this Hebrew captive of old?

This intrepid Daniel, mingling quietly with his fellows, making the best of a bad situation, living in peace even among a race of aliens and idolaters, but never allowing anything to interfere with the serving of his God continually; for to serve as he did is to think right always. He who “shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” is he who “dwelleth in the secret place of the most High,” not he who goes there only when he is in trouble. The true Christian Scientist dwells so constantly in Mind's abiding presence that his thoughts spontaneously go out in unconscious healing. He does not always need to speak; he lives in an atmosphere of right thinking, which speaks for itself, like the fragrance of a summer garden, silently abloom.

The true Christian Scientist is one who often blesses without knowing it. No one can even casually meet him without feeling better. He does not have his moments of rapturous exaltation, followed by the swing of the pendulum to the other extreme, but is ever poised, alert, awake, listening for the Father's voice, ready to go, to come, to wait, to speak or to keep silent, as the Father wills. He is the Daniel of the twentieth century; and when he is cast into the den of lions, — as he sometimes is, — we know that after his night of vigil the quiet hour of dawn will come, when he will serenely look up into the anxious face of his would-be persecutor and say, as did that other one who served continually: “O king, live forever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions' mouths, that they have not hurt me.”

Christian Science Sentinel, November 10, 1917

In the fifth chapter of Acts we read of the healing work done by the apostles, as evidenced by this statement: “And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people; ... insomuch that they brought forth the sick into the streets, and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.”

A minister used the last sentence of the above quotation for his text, and his point was that it was not voluntary, conscious efforts put forth by anyone which really counted, but the unconscious influence for good or ill which revealed a person's true character and determined his effect upon his fellow men.

This Scripture, in the light of Christian Science teaching, has proved helpful and inspiring. One may say mentally that it seems most unfair that our daily voluntary efforts to put down self, to speak the truth in word and deed, to resist temptation, to be loyal to our highest conception of right, — steps which we often take with unshed tears, — should go for nothing, and that we should be judged by some involuntary act or word.

Do we realize that there never would be any unconscious influence without the voluntary effort? The homely, brown roots of the rose bush, buried in the earth, ever reaching out for moisture and nourishment for the plant, are yet in large measure responsible for the fragrance at the heart of the perfect blossom in the sunshine. So it is with the true essence of spirituality. As mortals rise above material belief and their thought advances spiritually, their real influence becomes less and less a part of their human selves and more and more a power of which they are personally unconscious.

On page 8 of the Message for 1900 Mrs. Eddy says, “As in the floral kingdom odors emit characteristics of tree and flower, a perfume or a poison, so the human character comes forth a blessing or a bane upon individuals and society.” And again, on page 9 of Rudimental Divine Science, we read, “The spiritual power of a scientific, right thought, without a direct effort, an audible or even a mental argument, has oftentimes healed inveterate diseases.” This explains the healing influence of Peter's shadow. Going about his gentle ministry to the sick and sinful, absorbed in the contemplation of the Christ-ideal, it is possible that he did not even know of many who were benefited by his clear reflection of the truth. Purified by sorrow and sincere repentance, uplifted by his Master's never failing love, his real self became more and more manifest, and reflected that spirituality which tells of the divine ever presence.

So it was with the instantaneous healing of the sick woman who touched but the hem of Jesus' garment. Her humble faith and reverence were uplifted to touch, or recognize, that spiritual atmosphere in which the Christ forever dwells, and she was “made whole.” Each one who has felt the healing power of Christian Science has had the same experience, and can testify that personality and human will had nothing to do with it. And countless are the healings of sorrow, sin, and pain by the unconscious reflection of Love in God's ideas around us.

Then, instead of feeling discouraged because our efforts seem so futile, and barren of the results we hope to achieve, let us remember it is not for us to say that they are barren. We know nothing about the sweet incense from earnest effort and unselfish thought which is blessing those who come within the radius of our lives. When we shall, like Peter, have learned by our mistakes, and because of them desire and work to forget our material selves entirely, — when our thought is filled with the love and tenderness of the Christ, — then will our unconscious influence right the wrongs of the world.

Christian Science Journal, November 1887

(Letter to one suffering from reflections of discord in those about her.)

You seem to be going through the Red Sea of fear, and looking too much at the waters on each side. You are no doubt trying, though unconsciously to yourself, to overcome mortal conceptions; and in so doing, you are making something of them. Do not try to walk the waters, or go through Jordan; for when you are equal to it there will be no Jordan to pass, and no waters to walk upon.

Science, received through the understanding, will lead you calmly and peacefully all your journey through. Obstacles which now seem insurmountable will sink to nothingness. The golden gates of promise will swing open to your coming. Let Love be your prompter in every action; and the reflection therefrom will be soothing and mild. Sweet rest will surely follow; for nothing but harmony can come from the hallowed influence of unselfish Love.

There is, in Truth, no antagonism. All the universe reflects God and nothing else, and with the armor of Love about us, we may never see the darts of the enemy, nor feel their poisonous sting. Striking the breastplate of Love, triple-plated with Wisdom, Intelligence, and Truth, these darts recoil upon themselves, and slay the aimer. Keep your armor on! Fear no evil! Many have passed the Rubicon before you. Many are passing it now, and many will follow after. Never seek to create a chemical in your treatment, but rather to realize nothing but harmony. Remember, “The measure you mete shall be measured to you again, pressed down and running over.” “Cast thy bread upon the waters, and it will return unto you after many days.”

I am glad now that you were alone during that severe reflection; for if we have a lesson to learn, we might as well learn it first as last. Each must learn to stand alone; for alone we are, though thousands press around us. Yet we are not alone; for there is One, the ever-present Intelligence, upon whom we must all, sooner or later, learn to depend for our support. This is the true presence of Mind, — the consciousness of the ever-presence of the True Mind. This Mind is the embodiment of all Good (God), forever coming to us, pure as the fountain, unsullied in its stream, and saying to us, in thoughts of solace: “No harm shall come nigh thy dwelling,” “None shall take you out of My hands,” for “His truth shall be thy shield and buckler,” “Nothing shall be impossible unto you;” and, “Whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the Word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

Christian Science Sentinel, January 6, 1917

In addressing the Ephesians Paul uncovered a general human weakness when he wrote, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.” The stupor of self-ease and the slumber of self-satisfaction may be reckoned among the sicknesses hard to heal. The sleeper does not even recognize that he is asleep. He who while asleep believes himself to be awake, does not cooperate with the one who seeks to awaken him. If disturbed, he is apt to repeat the words of the insane man: “What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.” Such an evil state of thought is only fit to return to its original affiliation with the herd of swine.

Under the lethal influence of self-complacency men and nations can be turned against their best friends, perhaps their only friends, and made to welcome their worst enemies with open arms. While they sleep, their greed, held in check during their waking moments, are aroused to magnify trifling losses into disasters, and unintentional elbowings into monstrous wrongs. While under the influence of this stupefying mental drug, they may be made to acquiesce in palpable injuries to others, to indulge sudden incomprehensible hatred, and to become parties to crime while glossing it over as an unavoidable occurrence. Such sleepwalkers among men and nations utterly lose the sense of proportion, minimizing outrages, making mountains out of mole-hills. Under the repeated strokes of unresisted mental suggestion men and nations lose their mental integrity and lapse into the coma of moral idiocy.

What must the end be? An awakening must sometime, somehow break the spell of esoteric magic, and this awakening is terrible in its grotesque features. Then arises the cry, Why did not someone warn us? Why were we left to sleep while the enemy was preparing our destruction? Pitiable beyond words is the recognition that while we were held in a state of arrested development, others grew to maturity, others fought and won, others kept themselves provided with oil and were ready to meet the bridegroom with lighted lamps.

Warnings without number have been uttered in the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the two preachers of modern times, against the dangers of self-complacency in the hour of material prosperity. Moses sang of Jeshurun, the symbolical name of Israel, “Thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.” The psalmist said of his enemies, “They are enclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.” Paul, in writing to the Romans and describing the condition of those Israelites who would not believe, quoted Isaiah's severe arraignment of those who submit to “the spirit of slumber.”

Christian Science teaches that sleep, apathy, mesmerism, the Adam-dream, darkness, disease, death, hypnotism, and illusion are all phases of the belief in another life than God. The sleep in the garden of Gethsemane was the prelude to the crucifixion on Calvary. One of the shortest sentences in Science and Health, and in this hour one of the most pregnant with self-questionings for Christian Scientists, is this, on page 48, “His students slept.” Many years ago Mrs. Eddy also wrote, on page 95, “Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours.”

Can it be that the world is not yet awake after fifty years of Christian Science activity? The dawn of a new day came in 1866. Now is the hour of high noon. Christian Scientists who are reading the signs of the times do not permit the enemy to sow tares while they sleep; they are conscious of the supposititious activities which intoxicate one individual or one nation with aggressive mental suggestion, stupefy another with the fumes of intemperance, and fatten still others for a future sacrifice. They rejoice in the protection and power which spiritual understanding brings to those who follow loyally the teachings of Mrs. Eddy.

Christian Science Journal, December 1892

With joy and unalloyed delight,

We greet thee, Christian Science;

And gladly join thee in the fight,

That bids disease defiance.

That bids mankind look up and hope,

God’s truth at last revealing.

In Darkness we no longer grope,

Our troubles thou art healing.

We bless thee for the happy homes,

That thou art daily making,

That through thy teachings gladness comes;

And light at length is breaking.

May thy good works bring hope and cheer,

To every land and nation,

Dispelling sorrow, pain and fear;

And proving man’s salvation!

Thus may mankind the world behold

Restored from utter blindness,

To joy and happiness untold,

Through goodness, love and Kindness !

Of Christian Scientists the Chief,

Is our great healer, Jesus!

From fetters, fears and unbelief,

Let faith in Him release us!

Back to the top of the page

Current Articles

With the elections coming up, we seem to be bombarded with accusations of failure — failures of our financial system, failures of our government, failures of individuals, and all kinds of failures. I used to be very concerned about elections, and I would often think, well, with so many things wrong we really have to elect the right person to every office. I would get riled up and very disappointed if the right person wasn’t elected.

Since coming to Plainfield, Christian Science has taught me that that is not the right way to look at things; that politics is not the answer. The only place to turn for the solution of our problems is to God, and to following God’s laws.

One of the things that I found many years ago, and that was very helpful to me in this regard, was an article written by Clarence Chadwick in 1905. There is a sentence where he writes, “We can truly welcome the failures of all false systems to bring health and harmony to earth, for these very failures can teach but one lesson and that is, that the only real help comes from God.” This has been very helpful in stopping me from getting all riled up about politics or any other human activities, and to realize that the answer is not to replace one broken human system with another human system. The answer is not to give up our individual freedoms so that another bureaucrat can tell us what to do. Those are not the answers. The answer is to individually and collectively obey God’s law. And if, individually or collectively, we need to experience failure to bring us closer to God, then that failure is a good thing.

I am so grateful that I no longer fear the failure of any of these human systems around us, because anything that brings us closer to God is a good thing. I look forward to me, and everyone in this world, getting closer to God no matter how they get there. I’m so grateful for Christian Science for teaching me to place all of my confidence only in God and in nothing or no one else.

Last November, a few days after Hamas attacked Israel, I was traveling on a ferry from Denmark to Germany. I went out on the deck and met a group of young Palestinians, one of whom came up to me and asked me in a very friendly way where I was from and where I was going. We started talking and, as a Palestinian and a patriot, he tried to justify the attack of Hamas and I replied that violence can never be justified, not even by the long history of violence between Israel and Palestine, and then suddenly he asked me if I could give him some advice for his life. After a brief moment of surprise, a clear voice entered my heart and I answered: Love your neighbour as yourself.

He was very surprised and I explained to him that there was literally no other way out of this decades-long conflict because any form of violence would always be met with violence, a deadly spiral. He kept insisting that the Israelis were in the wrong.

I asked him if there were people he deeply loved, and of course he said yes, and we got into a conversation about love. We talked about how love, real, deep love from the human heart, is an active divine gift, is always reciprocated, and that we must trust, and can trust, in a great solution of every conflict based on the divine love.

His initial great resistance melted and I noticed that he was very thoughtful. Suddenly he took me in his arms, embraced me, and kissed me on the cheek. I then also kissed him on the cheek, called him my brother and we said goodbye. We had both had an encounter with divine Love, with the Christ, with the Truth.

Deep gratitude fills me and never leaves me, gratitude for Christian Science, for the love of the Christ, for the genius, the patience and the meekness of Mary Baker Eddy, for the wonderful people who surround us, and for the great work done for and by Plainfield Christian Science, Independent.

Once in a while I am reminded of some event from my past, and I am always grateful to find that God was right there with me, even if I didn't realize it at the time.

One example was from many years ago: At the time I lived on a short dead-end street which had recently been repaved, and on a hot day I went out to replace my brakes. I was about halfway through when the jack sank down a bit into the asphalt and then fell over, which allowed the car to drop onto my ankle. In a bit of shock, I cried out for help, but everyone on the street was at work. This was in the days before cellphones, so I just sat back and closed my eyes, wondering what to do.

Just then I felt like I was given a plan on how to get myself free. I reached over and grabbed the jack, which was the old style that lifted the car up from the bumper, and I was just able to put it in place. The tire iron had gone flying, so I had to just use my hand to crank it up, and slowly it worked until I was finally free. What a wonderful feeling that was, to be free. I limped for a few days, but nothing was broken.

When I thought of this today, I also thought of Christ Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:7: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you,” and to know that God’s protecting power is always with us, ready to save and to heal.

I moved to a small town on the first day of the so-called pandemic. My dog and I took long walks in quiet neighborhoods, along streams, in parks. So little noise and so much nature, it was wonderful. For me, that is. My dog, however, rarely wanted to go on those peaceful quiet walks. She preferred walks on Main Street. It was as if she had walked into Dog Heaven. The scent of other dogs on every corner — she knew who of her friends had been there.

A few weeks ago, I underwent a physical and mental challenge during which I continually listened for the blessing and the lesson I needed to learn. I didn’t have quite enough pep in my step to take my dog to Main Street. When I finally did, her utter joy at pulling me from one pee message to the next brought a huge aha!

Why does my dog love dirty streets instead of nature and clear streams? The same reason I listen to mortal mind’s lies and forget that I live in the clear stream of divine Love.

During this challenging time, I witnessed how easy it is to let my daily practice of Christian Science become lax. Whenever the thought came: How about stopping and turning to God? What about prayer? It was amazing how easily I’ll do it later came. At night, the thought came, Let’s do something mindless. I did! Three hours later, I went to bed even more disconnected than at the start of the day.

Why couldn’t I shift out of this horrible loop? For the same reason my dog drags me from trash can to fire hydrant to filthy wall.

For the longest time, something Mary Baker Eddy wrote in Science and Health confused me: “If mortal mind knew how to be better, it would be better.” I thought that meant I should help mortal mind to be better. Then I heard something in a Roundtable discussion that shifted everything: “Mortal mind is a killer.”

Um, duh! That’s why it’s called MORTAL mind. Mortal mind’s entire raison d’être is to make us believe that we begin in painful birth and we end in unwanted death. So good luck trying to improve mortal mind! Mortal mind can’t be better; it’s in the business of mortality.

That came through loud and clear with the help of my practitioner, showing me that whatever seems real — this symptom going around the neighborhood, this touchy colleague at work, this global conflict, whatever — is just a different plot or character in the ongoing miniseries called “Mortal Mind.”

That’s why we have to fill our lives with Truth, Life, Love, Good, God. When we do, the fascination with mortal mind’s suggestions fades, because the only good comes from God. What looks like healing comes because Truth is waking us up to Good and Love. And wake up we will, because any lie — no matter the form — is only a lie. And lies have no power.

I feel so grateful for these lessons we are learning about the practice of Christian Science here at Plainfield.

During the week I had a phone call from a young family member living away from home who was feeling rather anxious and flat, or as they described it, "under the influence of the black dog."

It was a cry for help, and as we learn at Plainfield, it was an attempt of evil, animal magnetism, to claim or suggest that there was an influence or power apart from almighty God — not possible!

I shared some ideas: As children of God we reflect only good, and we are under His protection in His Kingdom, as His reflection we express the divine Mind that is all-knowing, comprehending, understanding, the source of all ideas, knowledge and wisdom.

In the Bible, the Psalms are songs of praise, and are a good antidote to sadness. In Psalm 91 we read, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” and “He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.” Those angels are communications from God, so we need to listen for His guidance.

How important it is to give gratitude throughout the day for all the good that is going on, and to acknowledge the continuous presence of God, reversing, denouncing, and crushing all negative thinking.

The Lesson sermon “Ancient and Modern Necromancy, Alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism Denounced” contained a quote from Ephesians 6:13: “Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” The spiritual signification of different elements of the armour, like the breastplate of righteousness and the helmet of salvation, are helpful to consider, as are the healing and inspiring hymns.

There was calmness and a sense of peace now, and I was grateful for the opportunity to share the Truth of God's care and love for us all.

I love Mary Baker Eddy’s writing of “An Allegory,” found in Miscellaneous Writings on page 323. It tells of a Stranger who encourages the people in the valley to climb with him the mountain to “a city set upon a hill.”

It means so much to be in this Church, and to have the opportunity to experience the Allegory happening to people who connect here. How Christ is present and guides His children, seeks them out, and as they seek Him, find Him, they are given, and find the way to Heaven on Earth. To know Him and to be able to do as He says, and to be successful, happy, healthy, and I will add wise, is the greatest gift there could ever be. This has always been a great church, and still is.

I’m so grateful to have learned that heaven is within us. It is what we are all seeking; peace, contentment, joy, good health, and love. It’s already within us. To think that this already exists within everyone, but only our habits of wrong thinking block our view from seeing what gracious gift of goodness God has already given all of us, is wonderful. The Bible tells us that in Matthew. For example, in Matthew 6, we learn that we cannot serve two masters, God and mammon at the same time. We need to choose and walk on that narrow way, stay in that secret place and let God’s love shelter us. We do not make heaven with our thinking, but how glorious it is that we can feel ourselves in heaven when we change our wrong thinking of selfishness, resentfulness, revengefulness and self-righteousness, which only block our view so that our view can be clear enough for us to see the heaven that we all seek and that it awaits us.

I cannot thank God enough for all the workers who have kept His truth going so that our brothers and sisters elsewhere, everywhere really, can also feel the same and have the same view awakened in them. I am so grateful for Christ Jesus’ example. He showed us how connected in one union he was with God all the time, everywhere he went. I thank Mrs. Eddy for allowing this, for being so pure in thought that this Truth for the world could come through her and bless us all. I am so grateful for those working currently and actually living this truth that our examples might bless others.

I remember the first time I read the article from Miscellaneous Writings by Mrs. Eddy, “Put up Thy Sword.” I had been raised in Science most of my life, but I had never read Prose Works and never read that article. I remember being dumbfounded; I couldn’t believe it. I thought I was supposed to be peaceful all the time. As a child my favorite beatitude was “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” (Matt. 5:9) So I always worked at trying to be very peaceful. As some people say, how did that work for you? Well, it didn’t work for me. I wasn’t being honest in addressing any situation. I would often stifle what I felt and what I thought.

When I read this I realized that yes, as Christian Scientists we do have to carry a sword, the sword of Spirit, the sword of Truth; and as this article explains, it’s the sword that cuts off the head of false beliefs. The false beliefs are things we think to be true; but because they are not of God, they are not true! Of course, we have to carry this sword.

I love it where Mrs. Eddy says, “My students are at the beginning of their demonstration; they have a long warfare with error in themselves and in others to finish, and they must at this stage use the sword of Spirit. They cannot in the beginning take the attitude, nor adopt the words, that Jesus used at the end of his demonstration.” (Mis. page 215)

Once learning that lesson, I began to realize that peace is earned, and it’s earned by raising that sword and sometimes maybe raising a little ruckus, doing whatever we need to do to correct the situation with the truth. But it is always done with the motive of love, to bless and to heal. With that motive it does bless and heal, and the situation changes, and true healing takes place. Also, true peace takes place, the real peace, “the peace that passeth all understanding.” (Phil. 4:7) That peace is an amazing, wonderful part of Christian Science that we all can experience.

Back to the top of the page

Letters of Gratitude

I wish to express my deep gratitude to the Plainfield Weather Committee for praying for Kenya.

We were having a drought and I asked the Weather Committee to pray for rain for us. I also prayed that God lovingly governs Kenya and that "Divine Love" would meet our human needs.

With all the beautiful prayers of the Weather Committee, the rains came and refreshed the earth. Now everything looks so lovely and green.

I and others are so grateful for the inspiration, and the time spent by this Weather Committee in prayer for Kenya. I believe there are now 20 participants on this Weather Committee. How wonderful!

Thank you so much again!

Dear Plainfield CS,

I just listened to your testimonies and am beyond thankful for the lift I feel in my mind. I rejoiced when someone from Australia spoke about how they used the lockdowns and hardships to shut down their ranting and complaining. I'm totally on board. God governs His universe perfectly, and when I rant, I suggest otherwise. What an eye-opener and what beautiful testimonies, all in all. Thank you.

I just wanted to send a sincere thank you for a recent testimony about family members - that no one “owns” another, and that we are all children of our heavenly Father, rather than our human parents. This was such a welcome reminder that we do not need to feel any false sense of responsibility for family, and the same Truth means that we have not “inherited” any defects, problems, or traits from family members either. I was very grateful for this, which will inspire my prayers for members of my wider family, and when praying for myself about health challenges.

I was also interested to hear about the idea of the Shorts that can be viewed on YouTube. I think these are a really nice idea, especially if some could eventually be in some different languages too.

We’ve had some quite spring-like days recently, and the early bulbs are all in flower. Such a lovely time of the year. Much gratitude and love to you all.

Thank you very much for a lively Bible Study on Saturday. There was a great lesson in Bible history and a divinely intelligent conversation on the lesson of “the woman at the well.” So much good comes out of these Bible lessons. This church truly illustrates the correct and pure teaching of Mrs. Eddy’s Christian Science. This saves us from being carried about with every wind of doctrine and gets us centered in Truth. Thank you, Plainfield Independent Christian Science Church for all that you’re doing to heal, bless, and save all mankind.

I never anticipated the trials and tests could be so challenging and so consistent. I thank God and all of you at Plainfield who have labored so relentlessly to help us. It has literally saved my life more than once in experiences I could not have overcome without the tools learned from Plainfield. I’m so grateful for all the information available on your website. I thank God every day and almost every moment.

Recently my husband and I have been reading Henry Drummond’s “The Greatest Thing in the World.” Two of the things that immediately caught my attention were, first, how badly I measured up and secondly, Drummond’s assertion that we have a thousand opportunities every day to put love into practice. I can see this is true, and includes praying about whatever unlike good comes to mind or into my experience.

Thank you, God, and Plainfield, for reminding us of this book and for having it in the Plainfield store.

Good day to the Plainfield Christian Science church. Thank you for your dedication to representing Christian Science as discovered and founded by Mary Baker Eddy. What a strong lesson on the Christ is presented by your Bible Lesson Committee for this week. Thank you and appreciation to you all who belong to and support this church.

Thank you very much to your practitioners all.

I’ve been listening again to the Roundtable from February 16th, 2023, “The Law of Recovery,” and would like to thank you all very much for this excellent session with so many lessons.

When you were speaking about loving our neighbor to restore our own happiness, I was reminded of part of a television program talking about loneliness in older people. They interviewed a gentleman who had been referred to a particular charity because he was so lonely and housebound. The charity provides a friendship service, whereby a volunteer will call once a week for a chat. He was so helped by this service that he soon signed up as a volunteer himself, and now gets a great deal of joy from telephoning a number of people in need of a weekly chat. He feels useful and has made new friends. How lovely that there are always ways that we can express Love.

Thank you so much again, and much love,

I'm very grateful for all that I am learning through the teachings of this church. Much gratitude for this beautiful service and the grand lesson on Life, and for the Roundtable discussion on the true meaning of strength and moral courage.

Thank you to our all good, God!

Every week we are blessed with a performance of a solo during our Sunday church service. I wanted to express my appreciation to the makers of this music, the accompaniment from the keyboard and the singers. Last Sunday, in particular, the singing of the “Lord is my light’ brought me to tears of joy and as the congregation was clapping, I was already texting my practitioner, Bravo! Bravo! Thank you, Plainfield music makers, for touching our hearts in a way that only music can.

“God is the strength of my life!” I have carried those words with me all week.

Enclosed is my monthly contribution to support the dynamic and healing activities of this Independent church! With more and more outreach to help and inspire all those around the globe who seek to do God’s will and love their fellowman, I praise God and thank each one who has a part in this endeavor! From a favorite hymn (#51), “God’s will is done; His kingdom come”!!

Thank you, God, for the Plainfield Christian Science Church and its members, workers, and practitioners.

It is an oasis and abundance of thought, word, and deed furthering the manifest reach of the Science of Christ as discovered and founded by Mary Baker Eddy.

The Bible lessons, Wednesday night readings, Roundtables, and support of the practitioners are such a blessing. Thank you too for the weekly Watches.

I am grateful for dear Christ Jesus, our forever Leader Mary Baker Eddy, and for this great church in all the good that God is working through them. I'm so grateful and touched by God for the many blessings that I have received and the blessings I've seen in others. Truly our God comforts the lonely heart, and He continues to test our faith and endurance in that we may be strong in Him for future duties that He has for us all. I know this church and its members shall continue to stand to fight the good fight for the furtherance of this excellent Cause and its virtues. Thank you, dear Plainfield, for your healing influence and for the holy practitioners and members.

Thank you, Plainfield Independent, for the holy power in this Roundtable! Only pure Christian Science teaches the Truth of the Adam dream — that it is a pretense of intelligence named mortal mind that must be guarded against and resisted by the divine Mind. We are Christian soldiers when we claim this absolute Truth in Christian Science. We must entertain no argument, no reasoning, no agreement with mortal mind. We must have not one moment of audience with mortal mind! Through studying the Bible and Science and Health, and through Watching, we find that the only thoughts that can enter the Christ consciousness are God’s thoughts; announcing themselves as holy uplifting peace and power; or divine Love. Any thought that does not feel like divine Love is not from God; hence we cast it out as LIE and LIAR. This evil is now exposed, is vigilantly resisted, and so will be utterly destroyed by God Almighty, for “Truth bruises the head of error — destroys error.” (Mary Baker Eddy)

Like other testifiers have stated, I am so grateful for what I am learning at this Plainfield Christian Science Church independent.

An experience I had earlier this week brought this home to me. A dear friend, not a Christian Scientist, has been sending me updates about things going on in our community. A day ago, I noticed that I was reacting to news of some nearby criminal incidents.

In the past, I would have accepted and entertained depressing thoughts coming to me from this type of news; but since becoming part of this Plainfield Church, I have realized the importance of being alert to these wandering thoughts. Upon becoming aware that these were not my thoughts about man, I was able to counter them with what I know about the man God created. After putting my hand in God’s and asking what to do, the answer came immediately, to “magnify the Lord in all you do.” For me this meant, that while I was engaged in God’s work for the day, I needed to see his love and goodness magnified to those around me, and then to all mankind.

The day turned out to be an awesome day filled with a continual thanksgiving to God. With so much gratitude going on, there was no room for any thought, but those of love and well-being for mankind.

I’m so grateful to have this Plainfield Church in my life, for all the people who make the services possible and provide a refuge, where we, who like “tired children” find ourselves in “the arms of divine Love.”

Back to the top of the page

Testimonies of Healing

from I. H. in Australia

I would like to share a healing that happened to me when quite a child, before I yet knew Christian Science. I had always loved God and I remember with fondness a very early prayer where I would pray our dear Heavenly Father’s protection to be over all my loved ones. Just a sincere prayer of a little child who wanted more than anything in the whole wide world, for everyone just to love everyone. Well in this situation, I was a child of around seven years of age and some mistakes had been made. Things had progressed to the point that I needed an urgent and immediate operation.

When the medications given to me caused a serious reaction, a team of specialists was brought in. Unbeknownst to me, and told to me later by the people involved, as I lay unconscious and drugged on the operating table, I got up and stood on the operating table and threw my arms around each one of the medical team. I kissed them smartly on the cheek, each one. And I told them each that I loved them. Apparently, this so moved the team that they asked the preeminent visiting specialist (of whom we could never have afforded) to perform the emergency surgery. As this was conveyed to me afterwards, this visiting specialist was so moved with God’s love — the love that he saw in an unconscious little child telling everyone that she loved them — that he performed the entire operation without fee, and did all in a way that was so expert as to leave almost no scar.

That unspeakable Love that caused this child to love that medical team whilst unconscious is the same Love that called me to this precious Church! It was not my love that moved on the waters of the human mind to reverse the mistakes that had been made. Although I have no memory of embracing that medical team, even my childhood family had to remark on how grateful and kind the team were to them and to me, and to comment on the almost total lack of scarring when compared to what others had experienced in that same ward in that little outback Australian hospital in the ‘80s when the watch prayers were going out from Plainfield Church!

This mighty power of God’s Love has guided my entire life — through famine, through poverty, through violence, through accident, through lack. And it has brought me into Love, joy, peace, abundance and fulfillment in finding this precious Church so that I may serve God in any way that He would so require.

Our beautiful, True and forever Loving Father-Mother God is known to all of us. And He is responsible for all of the good that has ever been done in all of the world and in all of time.

from a Sunday School student

One day I didn’t invite a friend to my birthday party and she was hurt. She ignored me for a month or so. I didn’t invite her because she was bossy and mean. This went on since second grade. We prayed about this in Sunday School.

Then she came to her senses this year and she apologized to three people who didn’t like her. They accepted her apology and started to talk again, and we talked it out, and we are friends again.

from C. H. in New Jersey

I am grateful for all that I am learning and for the support of my kind and faithful practitioner.

About a week ago, I was sitting, waiting alone in my friend's truck. I had the door open because it was a warm day, and the engine was not on so I couldn't open the window.

My foot was on the metal part where the door closes when suddenly a huge gust of wind slammed the door on my foot! Pain shot through my whole body; but I remembered that Mrs. Eddy said something like, when something happens, get right up and declare that it never happened. So I got up on my feet and declared this truth for myself. The pain stopped immediately, I walked back to the truck, and sat quietly. A little later I looked at my foot and there was no mark at all.

I am very grateful for this healing.

from D. W. in Virginia

Anyone who has turned to God for help, or studied Christian Science and strived to obey the law of our good, loving God, knows the beautiful peace that can be had.

When pregnant with our second child, I worked with a dedicated Christian Science practitioner in my branch church throughout the pregnancy. A very kind doctor was located to deliver the baby. In fact, because I wanted to have a natural delivery, he arranged to stay at the hospital from midnight all through the next day, which was his day off, because he said another doctor may not want to have that kind of a delivery. The baby came within an hour after midnight, and the birth was completely harmonious.

Some time after I was back home, and very busy with a two-year-old and my nursing baby, I started having trouble with my hands “going to sleep” at night and becoming quite painful. The condition worsened and happened during the day, too. This, of course, really concerned me, and I called the same practitioner for help. The practitioner asked, “How’s church?”

Well, that wasn’t exactly what I was expecting her to say, but since I had consistently been very active in many capacities of church work, and now I wasn’t even getting to church services, BINGO, she hit the nail on the head. Where had God gone out of my priorities? I immediately got back on track by putting God first, and that very day my hands were fine, and the condition never reappeared.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy has written, “Better the suffering which awakens mortal mind from its fleshly dream, than the false pleasures which tend to perpetuate this dream.” When I was awakened and turned my focus back to God, I found my peace.

from J. P. in New Jersey

In the years before I came to Plainfield, I didn't talk much and I was at my best when I was doing work that I could handle by myself. The only time I had to talk to the public was if they needed to hear the technical details of the work I was doing. From an early age my family members would make fun of how socially inept I was, and I thought it was something that would never change.

When I arrived here, my practitioner knew how I was, but she did not accept that story at all. She had me make phone calls and arrange lunches and do other things I had never done. In time it got easier and I started to look forward to being relied upon in that way. And now here we are almost eleven years later, and it is so clear that Christian Science and practitioner support have worked to completely change me in ways that nothing else could or would.

I would say I am probably still socially inept, but this is only because being “social” was not at all what my practitioner was trying to teach me to be. What she taught me was to reflect God's love on all who came into my experience. During the end of this past week, I had an opportunity to spend time with visitors to the church, and somewhere in the middle of all that I had this thought that the old “me” could never be trusted in such a way, and in that moment I saw the enormity of how much Christian Science has changed me.

I am so very thankful for Christian Science and for practitioner support all these years, and for every healing. It is a constant blessing to be a member of this church.

from M. E. in Canada

I am very thankful for this church and my amazing practitioner, who shows me that I can stamp my foot and demand error to leave.

When I was preparing the readings for a Wednesday Testimony meeting, some things were happening, and I felt bad. Thoughts were coming that said, “you are too late, you can’t do it, you don’t have enough time, it is all too much.” But then I remembered to say: “The hell you say,” to the error. And I remembered a Roundtable discussion that pointed out that “‘I am,’ means, ‘I can.’” I was able to finish the readings and send them in on time.

I am very grateful to be learning to be more instant in Truth and not let myself get off the good track with God.

from N. B. in Texas

Recently one of my small dogs began spitting up large amounts of blood. It was on the weekend and the nearest emergency clinic is an hour away. So my husband and I began to pray earnestly. We refused to accept all of the suggestions of “she’s an old dog so just put her down” and “this is very serious,” etc. I remember holding on to the truths I’ve learned from my study of Christian Science, especially the article by Bicknell Young titled “Individual Consciousness,” which is on the Plainfield website. She continued to lose blood over several hours, but we also continued to hold to the truth about her. All of a sudden, the bleeding stopped. In a couple of hours, she was back to her old self, barking to be fed. It was such a lovely sound to our ears.

I am very grateful to God for this demonstration of perfect health, for Christ Jesus for his gift of Christianity, for Mary Baker Eddy and her establishment of Christian Science, and for Plainfield Independent and all who work tirelessly here.

Back to the top of the page

Announcements

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

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

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!

Back to the top of the page

Tenets of Christian Science

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”