Bible Study for Saturday, November 1st, 2025
How Unity is Achieved
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Everlasting Punishment
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Bible Study Questions and Readings
I praise Thee, Lord, for blessings sent
To break the dream of human power;
For now, my shallow cistern spent,
I find Thy font and thirst no more.
I take Thy hand and fears grow still;
Behold Thy face and doubts remove;
Who would not yield his wavering will
To perfect Truth and boundless Love?
That Truth gives promise of a dawn
Beneath whose light I am to see,
When all these blinding veils are drawn,
Thy love has always guided me.
Topic: Lift up your hands and bless the Lord (Psalm 134 : 2)
Moderator: Thomas from NY
Readings:
Psalm 127 : 1, 2 (link)
Psalm 131 : 1-3 (link)
Psalm 128 : 1-6 (link)
Psalm 133 : 1-3 (link)
Questions:
- What do we know about Samuel Johnson? (Hymn 138)
- Can you do the right thing without God and make it work? (Psalm 127 : 1, 2)
- Can a person remain content both when life goes well and when it does not? (Psalm 131 : 1-3); How does this kind of contentment relate to one who fears the Lord and walks in obedience? (Psalm 128 : 1-6)
- How is unity achieved? (Psalm 133 : 1-3)
Notes from the Discussion
I have taught natural religion; its intimations of God and duty and immortality;… the strength and sweetness of its life in God; its gospel of the soul’s essential relations to eternal rectitude; its hold on the everlasting through noble uses of nature and life; its root in present Deity; the inspiration that interprets and judges the past.
Psalm 127
1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Labor of Love by William D. McCrackan
Rushing around smartly is no proof of accomplishing much.
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 230
There is no excellence without labor; and the time to work, is now. Only by persistent, unremitting, straightforward toil; by turning neither to the right nor to the left, seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which cometh from God, can you win and wear the crown of the faithful.
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 340
“Not matter but Mind satisfieth.” — Mary Baker Eddy’s quote on the souvenir spoons
Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 385
Without God we are nothing. Great houses have been erected by ambitious men; but like the baseless fabric of a vision they have passed away…
Because the Lord is mainly to be rested in, all carking care is mere vanity and vexation of spirit. We are bound to be diligent, for this the Lord blesses; we ought not to be anxious, for that dishonours the Lord, and can never secure his favour. Some deny themselves needful rest; … Hard earned is their food, scantily rationed, and scarcely ever sweetened, but perpetually smeared with sorrow; and all because they have no faith in God, and find no joy except in hoarding up the gold which is their only trust. …
Through faith the Lord makes his chosen ones to rest in him in happy freedom from care. The text may mean that God gives blessings to his beloved in sleep, even as he gave Solomon the desire of his heart while he slept. The meaning is much the same: those whom the Lord loves are delivered from the fret and fume of life, and take a sweet repose upon the bosom of their Lord. He rests them; blesses them while resting; blesses them more in resting than others in their moiling and toiling. God is sure to give the best thing to his beloved, and we here see that he gives them sleep—that is a laying aside of care, a forgetfulness of need, a quiet leaving of matters with God: this kind of sleep is better than riches and honour. Note how Jesus slept amid the hurly burly of a storm at sea. He knew that he was in his Father’s hands, and therefore he was so quiet in spirit that the billows rocked him to sleep: it would be much oftener the same with us if we were more like HIM.
Psalm 131
1 Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.
2 Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.
3 Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth and for ever.
Psalm 128
1 Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways.
2 For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.
5 The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.
II Corinthians 12:10
Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Refrain:
It is well with my soul,
It is well, it is well with my soul.
Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.
My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!
For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.
But, Lord, ’tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh, trump of the angel! Oh, voice of the Lord!
Blessed hope, blessed rest of my soul!
And Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.
It Is Well with My Soul by Horatio G. Spafford
Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
It is one of the shortest Psalms to read, but one of the longest to learn.
What the heart desires the eyes look for. Where the desires run the glances usually follow.
See how lovingly a man who is weaned from self thinks of others! David thinks of his people, and loses himself in his care for Israel.
Psalm 133 : 1-3
1 Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!
2 It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;
3 As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.
Matthew 22 : 36-39
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Isaiah 2:11
The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.
Unity
The mathematics of metaphysics are undeniable and demonstrable. Ethically and hygienically they are Yea and Amen. Neither conservatism, sin, nor a single error can enter them and they remain metaphysics or Christian Science. Their etymology differs from that of material numbers or arithmetic, in this — there is no division of numbers — all its numerals are one. It does not count thus — one, two, three, four, five — but it does numerate as follows: one once, one twice, one thrice, one four times, and so on.
Here the eternal, universal, and forever one is seen and understood in the order of Science. Any departure from oneness is leaving Science and accepting the evidence and testimony of the senses in direct opposition of Science.
Now the student perceives readily this mathematical rule of metaphysics as applied to healing the sick. He sticks tenaciously to the fact of man’s inseparability from God, good — the eternal coincidence of divine Principle and divine idea being carried out in a healthy God and a healthy man — and his adherence to this unerring rule of being demonstrates the statement, Truth, for it heals the sick, and this sequence proves the premise, Science, and unchanging order of God.
But does the student see the rule of moral and spiritual mathematics as imperative, yea, more imperative, a stronger demand upon the example that works out the great problem of Life in its harmony, grandeur, perpetual goodness, and immortality?
from Essays and Other Footprints, (the “Red Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 15
For students to work together is not always to cooperate, but sometimes to coelbow! Each student should seek alone the guidance of our common Father — even the divine Principle which he claims to demonstrate, — and especially should he prove his faith by works, ethically, physically, and spiritually. Remember that the first and last lesson of Christian Science is love, perfect love, and love made perfect through the cross.
I once thought that in unity was human strength; but have grown to know that human strength is weakness, — that unity is divine might, giving to human power, peace.
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 138
Ways That Are Vain, from Miscellany by Mary Baker Eddy
The Joy of Unity by Jane Beilby Carey