Welcome to the PlainfieldCS Bulletin Board. You will need to log in before you can post here. Click here to log in if you already have an account. If you do not have an account, please contact jeremy@plainfieldcs.com. Thank you!
The Bulletin Board is for gratitude for Christian Science and the Church, as well as timely excerpts from the Bible, the works of Mrs. Eddy, and the early workers that help and encourage. We are very grateful for all posts that conform to these guidelines, but will edit or remove anything that the Practitioners feel is not in complete accord with pure Christian Science or in any way disrespectful of it.
We also ask that you keep your postings as concise as possible. If you quote the Bible, please use The King James Version, as this is what Mrs. Eddy used. Thank you!
Thank you, Nancy; every thoughtful comment uplifts us all!
Mr. Rieke’s Association Address may be found on the carousel, on the main page; scroll over 19 places.
Thank you for this post!
In Science and Health, it says, “The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man.” (284:31-32)
And in the March 12, 2022 Bible Study, it says regarding Divinity School, God teaches each one individually.
And Mary Baker Eddy counsels in her article entitled, “Day”:
“I tell you truth when I say there is only one source of all good — God. The conscious recognition and acceptance of this fact acknowledged by every activity of the mind, not two or three times a day — but every few moments all day long — no matter what the outer self is doing, and this maintained, will enable anyone to express his perfect freedom and dominion over all things human.”
Thank you for these Lessons, and the light that everyone shines on them!
Many thanks for this post!
Dale A —
From the Home Page, go to “Readings and Music”
then scroll down to “Songs that Warm Our Hearts”
then scroll down to “Hymns with lyrics by Mary Baker Eddy” (this comes after “Sunday Bell
Preludes”) click on “Click here for the whole list”
on this page, you can listen to each one. : )
Thank you so much for this post! It reminded me to re-read passages in these wonderful books. They are so precious and grounding in our study and practice of Christian Science. They show the authenticity and signs that this Revelation is the Truth; that Mary Baker Eddy is the witness spoken of in the Bible. From all the evidence we find in this trilogy of books: THE DISCOVERY, THE FOUNDING, THE FOREVER LEADER by Doris Grekel, we are enabled to go forth to study, proclaim, and live this Science for the benefit of all mankind!
Thank you for this post! I’ve been using these definitive words you found for “power” — it really brings it home in every circumstance, every phase of life, that God is the only power!!
It makes me think of a statement from Science and Health (544:14), “No mortal mind has the might or right or wisdom to create or to destroy.” This statement was included in a healing experience I read. It was held to and resulted in the overcoming of a very dangerous situation, lives were transformed, and many turned to Christian Science.
Thank you for this post! I’ve always loved these verses from Deuteronomy in the Lesson, and the promise they give: to keep God’s statutes, “that it may be well with thee.” Keeping God’s words upon thine hand and frontlets between thine eyes is preceded by securing them in our heart; dedicated and complete love for God is our anchor in practicing, by thoughts and deeds, our accord with the law of God. And by doing so we will not be tempted to fall down to a false god; God gives to all His children discernment!
Thank you so much for sharing what you did from the Roundtable; and adding that wonderful exchange between William R. Rathvon and Mrs. Eddy. It made me go to my copy of We Knew Mary Baker Eddy Third Series, to re-read Joseph Mann’s first healing in Christian Science — it is found in “Some Precious Memories of Mary Baker Eddy” by Calvin C. Hill (pp. 28-37). It is so inspiring, telling of his being accidentally shot in the heart (the doctors concluded that “from excessive bleeding, both internally and externally, and the peculiar color of the blood, the ball had touched the heart, and was probably lodged in the pericardium.” (This occurred in November 1886.) He was given up by four doctors (eminent physicians, including a skillful surgeon), and was at the point of death, when Christian Science was admitted; within 15 minutes his body began to warm, his breath returned, and he became conscious. He later sat up in bed to eat; the second day he was up and dressed, and the third day up bright and early as if nothing had happened.
If this can happen to one of God’s children, is not this possible for all? This inspired me so much many years ago that I have always wanted to live Christian Science and share it with others. Thank God for this Independent church, which is teaching Mrs. Eddy’s pure Christian Science, and sharing it with the world.
Thank you — such good examples!
“…seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”(Matt. 6:33)
“[I] will hear no other voices, [I] would heed no other call;” (hymn 58)
Parthens, thank you for this post. It is beautiful!
Thank you for this post! It reminds me of Christ Jesus’ prayer to the Father, “I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.” (John 17:15) He was praying for his disciples and “…for them also which shall believe on me through their word;” (John 17:20) To see and to claim and to hold on to our Oneness with the Father, right where we are!
Thank you for your post! Thank you for your interpretation. Even though it says he put them all out, what you say makes more sense, and upon digging, found this additional statement in Matthew Henry:
“He took none with him but Peter, and James, and John, that triumvirate of his disciples that he was most intimate with, designing these three, with the parents, to be the only spectators of the miracle, they being a competent number to attest the truth of it.”
Thank you again!
Need to make a correction: the Fruitage in the Sunday service was from Miscellaneous Writings; so grateful that we have many sources of testimonies of healing and declarations of Truth in Mrs. Eddy’s writings!
Thank you for this breakdown; makes it very clear what to guard against and be alert to, to maintain our oneness with Mind, God.
In the First Edition of Science and Health, page 295, Mrs. Eddy gives the spiritual signification of this line of the Lord’s Prayer:
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,”
“And lead man into Soul, and deliver him from personal sense,”
Again, many thanks!
Thank you very much for these posts, so helpful! And how wonderful to find Mrs. Eddy’s writings in “Mary Baker Eddy Papers” — spending time here has been a great boon. Thank you for sharing this resource!
Thank you so much for this post! What a debt of gratitude is to be paid to those faithful warriors who have come before us, led on by their desire for freedom, their love for God, and their compassion for their fellowman. From this wonderful post can be seen the powerful impetus that God has put on the heart of man for the betterment of all mankind.
In the link (attached): Harriet Beecher Stowe: An Appreciation by Mary Church Terrell, on page 15, can be found this quote:
“After seeing what a miraculous power her book possessed, Mrs. Stowe repeatedly disclaimed the authorship of this child of her heart and brain. ‘I could not control the story, it wrote itself,’ she said, ‘I, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin? No indeed, the Lord himself wrote it, and I was but the humblest instrument in his hands. To him alone should be given all the praise.’”
This brought to mind what Mary Baker Eddy wrote:
“I should blush to write of ‘Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures’ as I have, were it of human origin, and were I, apart from God, its author.” (Miscellany, p. 115:4)
“The works I have written on Christian Science contain absolute Truth, and my necessity was to tell it; . . . I was a scribe under orders; and who can refrain from transcribing what God indites, and ought not that one to take the cup, drink all of it, and give thanks?”
(Miscellaneous Writings, p. 311:23)
Thank you Parthens for sharing this! What we find through our obedience and gratitude is priceless. Grateful for the reminder to spend time with John 14, 15, and 16.
Thank you for this post!
It reminds me of the following information gathered for a previous Bible Study.
Regarding Mary Baker Eddy’s place, Rev. G. A. Kratzer has some very interesting notes in connection with the book of Revelation, chapter 12, verse 6.
Verse 6. “And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three score days.”
“Coincidently with the disappearing of pure spiritual truth from the activities of the visible world, the love of pure truth, divine love, the ‘woman,’ disappeared, for the most part, from the world of men. Such sense of truth and love as they had was adulterated, after the second or third century, with belief in material powers, love thereof, and with reliance upon material means for healing the sick, etc. When Jesus, near the commencement of his ministry, was not active in the visible world, preaching and healing, but was absent from the stage of active affairs for a period of forty days, he was spoken of as being ‘in the wilderness.’ There is no probability that he was in an unpopulated place during this period, but he was simply ‘withdrawn from the world,’ withdrawn from material sense into spiritual sense. Likewise this ‘woman,’ this spirit of divine love, is represented as being ‘withdrawn from the world,’ and so ‘in the wilderness’ from the standpoint of the world’s activity, for ‘a thousand two hundred and threescore days.’ As before mentioned in these Notes, this is the period or length of time repeatedly spoken of by St. John as the period during which the dragon, or evil, is to have marked and undoubted ascendency in the mental realm and in the world, so far as men are concerned.*
“*It is interesting to note that one Bible commentator has described this period as a period of 1,260 ‘years’ lasting ‘from A. D. 606, when the Pope of Rome was, by Phocus the Emperor, constituted the universal Bishop of the Christian church, to A. D. 1866’ (The Self Interpreting Bible.) This commentator does not call attention to the fact, and probably did not know, that 1866 was the date when Mrs. Eddy discovered Christian Science, that reappearance of pure spiritual truth in the world, which undoubtedly presages the early fall of the dragon and of all those human institutions, organizations, and forms of government which derive their power largely from the dragon. Coincidently with the reappearing of the pure spiritual truth among men, the ‘woman,’ the love of pure truth, divine love, comes out of the wilderness, out of the ‘place prepared of God’ for her temporary protection, and becomes active again on the stage of human affairs.”
(Taken from pp. 254-255, Revelation Interpreted by Rev. G. A. Kratzer)
Thank you, Susanne, for sharing your inspiration on this — very helpful!
Lovely! It makes me think of the hymn that begins, “In atmosphere of Love divine, We live, and move, and breathe…” How important it is to acknowledge and declare God’s ever presence and control of every aspect of our lives. Thank you for this post!
Thank you for these posts; they are great to have!
Thank you so much for sharing this! I will share this — God’s great love — with others!
Thank you for this very inspiring post! It makes me very grateful for this Independent Church, whose dedicated members work to advance Mary Baker Eddy’s pure revelation of Christian Science, following her only so far as she followed Christ (to paraphrase her own words), and following Christ Jesus in his protestations of Truth, not working up to God, but out from God.
Thank you both for these posts! What a clear picture this gives!
Thank you for this post! I love this; shows where our heart and mind should be. Speaks to the fact that we (I) have no selfhood apart from God, but with Him, all things are possible.
And thank you to the Lesson writer for this Lesson!
Thank you for this post, and for the references to work with! It is true that we must be alert to any negative that tries to intrude in our lives, and to the saving grace that we have Truth at our side always to combat and nullify it!
Yesterday’s email featured the reading of “On The Way There” by Katherine M. Yates; listening to this (after having read it a number of times), was really helpful in recognizing ways to be alert and not fall down to the negative, the nothing!
Thank you for these posts. It reminds me of the first sentence in the Preface of the 1875, First Edition of Science and Health, “Leaning on the sustaining Infinite with loving trust, the trials of to-day are brief, and to-morrow is big with blessings.”
Thank you for this post! Makes “the way” and its reward very clear!! : )
Thank you so much for sharing this! Unlimited good, in unlimited ways, is open to us when we acknowledge that with God all things are possible!
Thank you Parthens for this post, and for including the link to the Bible verses related to “The Mind of Christ.” I love 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” How wonderful that we can release fear from ourselves because God never gave it! And to embrace the power of God, through love, and to do it in the right way, at the right time, because we reflect that “sound mind” – our reflection of the one Mind!
Thanks very much for this reminder, and to act upon it moment by moment!
And thank you, Florence, for the practical examples of what to be alert to in our daily lives.
This is indeed an important and timely Bible Lesson this week – thank you!
This is beautiful; thank you for this post.
In Watches, Prayers, and Arguments given by Mary Baker Eddy, there is a morning prayer and an evening prayer, which I’ve found very helpful.
“MORNING PRAYER IN MRS. EDDY’S HOUSEHOLD
This is God’s spiritual household. Nothing can enter to annoy or destroy. Nothing can enter to manifest sin, sickness or discouragement, for God, good, keeps this household in perfect peace.” (The complete prayer may be found on page 140 on the website.)
I also extend this morning prayer to include my family, community, state, our nation and the world.
“EVENING PRAYER
Before you are ready to close your eyes in sleep, be sure you are not holding anything unlovely in your consciousness, anything unlike God; laying aside every fear, put yourself entirely in His charge. Quiet yourself with the thought that He who has all power will protect you, give you health, and all you need in abundance, and know that whether sleeping or waking, you are safe, because your life is hid with Christ in God.” (The complete prayer may be found on page 70 on the website.)
Thank you for this post. I love: “Life is not a race. God is not in a rush to unfold our present perfection. He unfolds what we can handle because he is Love.”
How comforting to know and acknowledge that we have what we need every moment, and that God is working with us – what is there to fear?
Thank you for these posts. It is a comfort to know that, as we diligently do this work, the blessings go out to all mankind.
Love these thoughts — thank you for this post!
From quote from Martha Wilcox:
“…we flood our consciousness with the understanding of omnipresent reality, and our concepts of these things appear brighter and brighter unto their perfect Reality.”
Thank you so much for sharing! I love that idea!
Thank you for this post. It makes me think of this paragraph from the Dixon Letter (found on the carousel):
You are perhaps aware that three very high caste wonder-workers from India came some years ago to Boston for the purpose of killing Mrs. Eddy. Their order had been angered by the fear of being superseded by the achievements of Christian Science. Not succeeding at first, one of the workers went to Mrs. Eddy’s home, obtained entrance into her presence alone, where he thought she might be destroyed by the mental power more readily. Her insight and understanding uncovered his thought and purpose. It even brought about his repentance and reformation and she taught him Science. He returned to Calcutta a Christian Scientist to work for the Truth which would render the evil he had practiced powerless.
Mrs. Eddy not only disarmed the evil, but blessed this individual and set him on the right course to God!
Thank you for these posts. Our Bible Lessons and the readings from the desk at our Wednesday evening testimony meetings have been leading us with comforting and powerful statements, telling us of this oneness and giving us practical tools to use in everyday life. In this week’s Responsive Reading, Paul tells us, “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” In this church, we’re taught man’s real being is spiritual and immortal, and to look always for that man, to see God in everyone — how wonderful is that, a blessing to us and to everyone we behold!
Thank you for this Lesson!
May I add my grateful thanks, as well, for the continual teaching and support in this church. After being in Christian Science all my life, it is here that I’m learning what it means to really practice this Science. It is not to make our lives better, but to put God first and make the world better. It is being alert, as is pointed out in this week’s Lesson, to Principle and to not react to or accept error in any form, whether it comes through a person or a false law. There are challenges in the world every day, but it is through practicing and obeying the law of God that victories come, and therefore, joy and peace.
Thank you for these posts — good reminders!
That is beautiful; thank you for this post!
Thank you for these posts. Regarding number 3, there’s an excellent article on this church website, which is very helpful to me; it is: “Elisha and the Reliable Now” by PARTHENS.
And thank you for all we have to work with here!
Yes, thank you for all the inspired readings in Sunday’s service (6/12/16), the message of protection and promise in each of the hymns (99,246,226,71), and the beautiful and very moving piece, “The Prayer” sung by Faith and Jon — all truly a gift to the world.
Thank you for all these examples of seeing God’s likeness everywhere — a wake-up call to not be dismayed when things go wrong, but see it as an opportunity to correct it and prove God’s allness right here, right now.
And thank you for this Lesson on trusting and listening to God!
Thank you for these posts. Seems we are all blessed with the same thought, as I planned to post the following!
There’s a Bible verse (Zeph. 3:17) in this week’s Lesson, which has given me much comfort, also a call to action! It is:
“The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice
over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.”
If this is what the ever-present and all-powerful God is doing, then I (and all of us), as His reflection, have the opportunity, authority, and privilege of doing the same! Today I will rejoice in the safety of God, I will rest in His love, and I will express my joy and gratitude to God and the world!
Thank you!
When I read this in the Lesson, it brought to mind what Matthew Henry said regarding seeking God first and being present with the Lord:
“…the true Christian soars like the lark, higher and higher, forgetting the things that are beneath.”
Who would not want to soar above the false pictures which God never made?!
Thank you for this post! Very clearly shows that our connection to God and understanding His allness, is what makes us sound, healthy and strong, and joyful!
Thank you for citing all these examples of Jesus’ compassion, and the compassion of the Good Samaritan, and the father of the Prodigal Son; all examples of love in action, love reflecting Love. All these instances happened long ago, but the lessons they teach are timeless — know one, good God, and man as His reflection; practice the Golden Rule of doing unto others as you would have them do unto you; do not be put off or dismayed by erroneous pictures, but correct each lie with the truth; be still, and ask God to lead you in the right way; and love, love, love more. These are all things that I am learning in this church, and it’s enabling me to more and more put love in action!
Thank you for these posts. I love the lesson of the prodigal son, where the father says, “Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.” (Luke 15:31) Recognizing God as the only source of good, ever present, supplying all His children’s needs is vital. And how much better is the prospect for all, when we look to an infinite, eternal source!
Thank you for this post. And I thank each one for last evening’s sharing of readings and testimonies, for each one is a tremendous blessing! Every time I’ve come prepared with a testimony, even if there’s not time to share it, I have a good feeling; but if not prepared and don’t give a testimony, I feel terrible! And yes, there are no excuses — the thought of trying to make an excuse to God is a real wake up call for me!
Thank you for these posts! And for this very important Bible Lesson, making it clear what our duty is and who it is that we serve! Also, am so grateful for the Bible questions (for the Bible Study), that require us to look further into the parable that Jesus told, starting Luke 19:12. I ask myself, would I have realized that the nobleman that Jesus speaks about is symbolic of Christ Jesus? and that it is the kingdom of God that he is going to receive? and that the pounds, which he gave to his servants, are the talents, the spiritual gifts — the Holy Ghost — which each one of us has today and which we have the opportunity and obligation to improve?
Also, thank you for mentioning that God knows who will serve Him rightly as President of our nation — we don’t have to listen to personalities or isms, but trust that God’s government reigns. The watches have been tremendously helpful in this.
Thank you so much for sharing this, and thank you to Jacob! It is so logical and makes so much sense. We need to find God with our heart — love Truth so much that we cannot be turned aside, no matter what. After all, as it says in the Bible Lesson, the Lord says, “…Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love…” (Jer. 31:3). It’s up to me to keep my part of the covenant.
Thank you for this Bible Lesson.