Sunday, August 11th, 2024 Roundtable
God is Ever Present and All Powerful
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Spirit
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Morning Prayers
The peace of Love is published, and the sword of the Spirit is drawn; nor will it be sheathed till Truth shall reign triumphant over all the earth. Truth, Life, and Love are formidable, wherever thought, felt, spoken, or written, — in the pulpit, in the court-room, by the wayside, or in our homes. They are the victors never to be vanquished.
— from Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 185
May the allness of God, Love, and the nothingness of aught else serve to cover the question of your protection, and the allness of good, and the powerlessness and non-existence of evil be the reality of your thought.
— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 79
Discussion points
116 — WATCH lest, when you have entered into the conflict inaugurated by Science, and have made some successful demonstrations by crossing swords with error, you be tempted by a sense of stagnation, and feel that you have gone stale, or that your spiritual desire is waning, since you no longer enjoy the fruits of victory as you did formerly.
It is possible that you may find that you no longer take the satisfaction in church activity, that you once enjoyed. So you conclude that you have gone backward and need a return to your first love.
… but what is our first love, but our love for Spirit — our entire allegiance to it — which antedates any belief in Egypt, or loving anything human or material? The satisfaction in overcoming error must give place to the higher joys of Spirit, as we are weaned from the milk of the Word, and are ready for the meat.
— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
GOLDEN TEXT: PSALM 139 : 7, 8
“Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”
Book from Unity of Good by Mary Baker Eddy
“Things to handle daily” — by Mary Baker Eddy
“Chapter Twenty-one” from Her Spiritual Footsteps by Gilbert Carpenter
“Article” from Three Rules for Treatment by Bicknell Young
Final Readings
SPIRIT is the only true conception of being, quite separate from the human concept and always correcting it. Correcting the view is a function of Spirit, and so spiritual clear-sightedness is natural to me, distinguishing all things as they really are.
Through Spirit I see all things rightly, clearly, correctly, distinctly, spiritually. This gives me discernment, so that I differentiate between one idea and another, also between true and false. This firmament of Spirit gives me perception, perceptiveness, perspicacity. It opens the eyes of my understanding. It shows me what is real, and what is unreal.
The clear sight of Spirit does not blind me to faults and errors. Rather I detect them more clearly — but as unrealities. I discern only the good and the true to be real, and so my eye is single. I positively look for the real, the good and the true. In Spirit, good vision is natural, and it is irreversible.
Because Spirit is forever unfolding reality, my vision is daily increasingly clearer. I am glad to see old concepts and false opinions disappear. Spirit brings me new views, the true, new idea, and so brings to birth in my vision the new man.
It is Spirit that does the seeing, not flesh, and the senses of Spirit are indestructible and perfect. My outlook is always positive, never negative, because my vision is spiritual.
— from Notes on True Vision by John Morgan