Daily Watch for the week of June 9th, – June 16th, 2024
From 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
6 — WATCH The primary sin is sin against the Holy Ghost, or against that which unites man to his Maker.
What the world calls sin does not shut man off from God as effectually as what the world calls goodness, which is largely self-righteousness.
Self-righteousness may be called the sin against the Holy Ghost, since it is a sin against man’s spiritual nature, and is far more serious than those sins against society, for which mortal mind has decreed punishment. The most dangerous sin from God’s standpoint must be that which tempts man the most to be satisfied, and to feel secure apart from God.
The prodigal son was perhaps forty percent good, in contrast to the ninety-five percent good of his elder brother. Yet behold the latter’s attitude when the prodigal returned! He malpracticed on him, was jealous of the way he was received, and acted as if he wished that his brother had never been redeemed; when as a matter of fact, the Egypt experience was the necessary process through which the prodigal learned the worthlessness and nothingness of all materiality. Since nothing concerning the claim of evil could be learned in the Father’s house, and this knowledge was necessary in order to help poor humanity, it had to be learned in Egypt. Then when the prodigal returned, he was ready to be united to his Father’s purpose and work with Him in redeeming mankind. The Father and son working together would symbolize divine Science and Christian Science, one the truth in heaven, and the other the truth brought to earth. See Science and Health, 471:29.
Mrs. Eddy had many experiences with the elder brothers in her church work. She knew that they make most of the trouble. Many times she saw them attempt to throw back into the stream of mortal mind those valiant swimmers struggling to reach the shore, — perhaps the very ones she was striving to save. Who can blame her for crying out against this most heinous of all sins, namely, the belief in human good — when the only true goodness is divine?
Click here to listen to the unabridged Watching Point:
from Watches, Prayers, and Arguments, as given by Mary Baker Eddy, page 49
“Hear, O Israel, for the Lord, our God, is one God.”
You are not to come in your own name to pray.
You are not to control any mind.
You are to come only in the divine strength, and know that God will rule and does, and that hypnotism and evil minds cannot, and do not, control men or governments.
All power is God, good.
This is my only formula to Christian Scientists for prayer, and God will give you faith that will remove mountains.