Mental walls can restrict, grow like a Berlin Wall, Christian Scientists told

Society's greatest limits may, in fact, be imposed by ''mental walls of restriction,'' Christian Science lecturer James Spencer told church members gathered in Boston for their denomination's Annual Meeting.

Speaking June 8 at an inspirational meeting (related to the actual Annual Meeting of members of The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, held June 7), Mr. Spencer compared the mental challenges of the times to the building of the Berlin Wall.

''The mental walls of restriction may sometimes rise slowly, as did the Berlin Wall, which began with strands of wire, then bricks, then steel, auto traps, dogs, mines, watchtowers.

''Our own walls,'' said Mr. Spencer, Chairman of The Christian Science Board of Lectureship, ''tend to rise into imprisoning barriers if we do not challenge the lie that materialism can tyrannize us.''

Mental threats, said Mr. Spencer, ''would try to deprive the world of Jesus' promise: 'I will not leave you comfortless.' ''

Evil's ''aggressive nature,'' he said, includes a ''desperate attempt . . . to mask its nothingness, to project itself as something, in fact as the only thing.''

Several thousand Christian Scientists from around the world attended the meeting, one of three held under the general theme ''The glorious liberty of God's children.''

Mr. Spencer was introduced by David Kenyon, a federal district court judge from Los Angeles, who spoke out of his experiences dealing with human freedom and restrictions placed upon it.

Judge Kenyon spoke of five years' service in the often-dangerous Watts district of Los Angeles. ''Underlying always was the consciousness that God's love encompassed all mankind. Perhaps more than anything else,'' Judge Kenyon noted, ''was this sense of Love that was my armor, hence the freedom to go about my life'' in safety. The judge cited the historic promise of Christianity that ''nothing from without or within can limit or restrict God's man -- we have God-given freedom to pray and to heal.''

Allison W. Phinney, Manager, Committees on Publication, assured members that ''the spiritual era has come. It isn't at all true that materialism has never been stronger,'' he emphasized.

''In theology,'' said Mr. Phinney, ''the signs of the times point to the recovery of Christian healing by at least a few Christian churches.''

H. Dickinson Rathbun, member of The Christian Science Board of Directors, called on members to go forward from the meetings of the 1982 Annual Meeting week ''with action, instead of words. Let us go out from here and let us pick up our healing work . . . with a fresh sense of working together.''