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 study 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.
Healing Unlimited has 500 Watching Points available for download in PDF format here or on our "Resources" page (653K). The powerful statements in this book resonate with the love that "inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way," the love and understanding necessary for healing. The introduction to 500 Watching Points is presented below the quote generator.