500 WATCHING POINTS for ADVANCING STUDENTS of CHRISTIAN SCIENCE Written in Providence, R.I. During the period, 1929-1942 by Gilbert Congden Carpenter, C.S.B. Introduction OUR TEXTBOOK, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, covers every human need, and sets forth the means whereby every problem may be solved. Each student, however, _ is left to make his own application of its teachings, especially in relation to that phase of error which would claim to prevent the student, either from understanding the true import of the teachings that are in the Bible, and in his textbook, or from making that broader application of his understanding, which alone brings final salvation. Students who lived in our Leader's home testify that no phase of human experience was so insignificant that it did not require them to apply to it the rules of God, and to seek His help. Many of the misunderstandings that occurred, arose from the fact that students had a limited conception of the application of truth, in contrast to their Leader's extended use of it. There were some who considered that Mrs. Eddy was over-punctilious about unimportant details but she was only demanding right thinking from her students in the smallest matters as well as in the greatest. She was never known to rebuke or criticize a student for making a demonstration of a humanly unimportant matter. Your teacher intends these watching points to constitute a timely hint to his students, to broaden their demonstration of Christian Science as Mrs. Eddy set the example in her home, especially as such effort relates to any suggestion of mesmerism that would claim to becloud their comprehension of the deeper meanings of the Bible and Science and Health. Is it not error to cherish the notion, that the ability to comprehend the deep things of God is a developed quality attained through stud-y and application alone? True, such study and application are needed in order to know what it if that prevents students from expressing and voicing the Mind that was in Christ Jesus, a thing divinely and scientifically natural to the one whose thought is freed from the influence of mortal mind. The student's higher task is to empty his thought so that the deep things of God may flow in. The Bible depicts the victories, as well as the defeats of those who sought to follow the leadings of truth. With such notable examples before you, you will not think it amiss if your teacher humbly seeks to emphasize some of the lessons which he himself has learned. He hopes that they may be of value to another in pointing the path. It is truth that illumines the dark places in this human dream; yet one pilgrim may share his light with another. The first and foremost watching point, which really covers the entire ground, is to watch lest the human errors touched upon in the following pages—because they coincide with the world's belief in evil as real— establish themselves in your consciousness as real, or cause you to believe that you are dealing with aught but illusion, the effect of unscientific thinking. Remember that wrong thinking and its effects are in God's sight unreal; what mortal man is afraid of and what he is afraid with, are interchangeably mythical. 1—WATCH lest you attempt to do anything in Christian Science from any standpoint except that of joy. Our Leader's hymn admonished us to follow and rejoice all the rugged way. Work in Christian Science that is done joyously, has a power and effectiveness that work done as a solemn duty never has. If you seem to have lost your joy, obey Mrs. Eddy's command, "If your joy is 106t, handle animal magnetism." If this is properly done, your joy will return, and you can again take up your work. Our Leader once wrote to George Kinter, "Gladness and rejoicing are divine in essence, and their reward is manifold in its effect." If you should fall through the ice, you would become further imprisoned if you attempted to swim at once for the shore. The first thing to do is to rise. Then you can clamber onto the surface of the ice and walk to shore. This rising to the surface symbolizes the lightening of thought necessary, in preparation for all effort in Christian Science. "The hope of the righteous shall be gladness." Prov. 10:28. 2—WATCH lest you fail to recognize the necessity for gaining the higher significance and meaning of terms used in Christian Science, rather than accepting mortal mind's definitions. It requires watchfulness in order to do this, since the human meaning attached to them has become fixed. A few examples of such words are: prayer, love. work, mind, obedience, heaven, hell, service, duty, belief, worship, loyalty, sin, health, sickness, harmony, immorality. On page 249 of Miscellaneous Writings we read of students expelled from Mrs. Eddy's College for immorality. What do you calculate their sin was in the sight of God? 3—WATCH lest, in reading; the Bible, Science and Health and other writings by Mary Baker Eddy, you accept and adopt a literal meaning which uninspired thought would read into the text, instead of establishing in your own thought the same inspirational sense possessed by the authors, in order that the true meaning may unfold to you. 4—WATCH lest your familiarity with the text of the Bible and Science and Health cause you to believe that any part of it is self-evident, or self-explanatory, or that the meaning is readily discernible, because it appears to be obvious. The true meaning of inspired words can never be gained by the process of human reasoning. 5—WATCH lest you set your affections on the peephole, rather than on the sunlight that is pouring through it. If one reflects lovable qualities, or reflects the truth that heals, it is because, as Mrs. Eddy says, divine Mind is passing through him as light passes through a windowpane. If one feels attracted to the person, rather than to the divine Love being reflected, there is a danger of personalizing good, which inevitably results in personalizing evil. This limits good and gives temporary power to evil. Judas unquestionably personalized the good the Master reflected. Then when he betrayed him, the logical conclusion was that the evil was personal with him. So in order to destroy the evil, he had to kill himself. Had he impersonalized it, he would have killed the evil and released himself. Once a student declared, "To the degree to which we cease to own good, we cease to own evil." This admonition applies and extends to our attitude towards others. 6—WATCH lest the old theological teaching and training as to what constitutes sin, prevent you from realizing that fundamentally sin is cause, rather than effect, wrong thinking rather than wrong acting. The primary sin is sin against the Holy Ghost, or against that which unites man to his Maker. What the world calls sin is the outward result of this fundamental belief, or error of yielding to mesmerism. 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. When a mortal finds that his actions are sinful, he is apt to become dissatisfied with himself and with material existence, so that he yearns for God; whereas the self-satisfied follower of creeds and doctrines feels very little spiritual hunger, or dissatisfaction with matter. We conclude, therefore, that self-righteousness is the more dangerous state of thought as far as spiritual growth is concerned. No one eats until he is hungry. Hence the attitude of the self-righteous scribes and Pharisees of to-day precludes any definite spiritual hunger, which causes mortal man to reach out for the divine. 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. It is reported that Mrs. Eddy once declared that she would rather have a church member to work with who was forty per cent good, than one ninety-five per cent good. Such a statement would be anomalous unless we interpret it to mean human good. In reality Mrs. Eddy was only putting into her own words the saying of the Master, "I come not to call the righteous, hut sinners to repentance." The human must finally be eliminated, whether it seems good or bad. The greater the percentage we consider bad, the greater the effort we will make to throw it off; hence the less of a sinner we are in God's sight, since to Him sin is believing in and clinging to the human. The rich young man who came to Jesus was an example of one Mrs. Eddy would have called ninety-five per cent good. He was sad when the Master told him that he must get rid of all that he possessed, no matter how good it appeared to him to be. Had he possessed less treasure in the human, or matter, he would not have been so sad. Thus his belief in human good was a sin against the Holy Ghost.