Sunday, February 9th, 2025 Roundtable
Let Spirit Lead You
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Spirit
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
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
Oh, may the light that is never dim so encompass you, that no night is there. May His angels hold thee in their power, and Songs of Science be heard in the intuitions of thought, till your life is in tune with the rhythm of God.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 224
Daily Watch
40 — WATCH lest you believe that spiritual progress consists in anything but a spiritualization of thought, of which your acts are the honest expression, that your outward life may attest the sincerity of your effort to think right. False theology declares that, regardless of man’s thoughts, his acts are the important thing. Science says that unless man’s thoughts are changed, no change in his outward life or acts weighs aught in the spiritual scale. Since thought is cause, and acts are effect, it is spiritualization that marks spiritual growth.
Discussion points
Golden Text: John 6 : 63
“It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” — Christ Jesus
Quicken
1. Primarily, to make alive; to vivify; to revive or resuscitate, as from death or an inanimate state. Romans 4:17.
2. To make alive in a spiritual sense; to communicate a principle of grace to.
3. To hasten; to accelerate; as, to quicken motion, speed or flight.
4. To sharpen; to give keener perception to; to stimulate; to incite; as, to quicken the appetite or taste; to quicken desires.
5. To revive; to cheer; to reinvigorate; to refresh by new supplies of comfort or grace. Psalms 119:25.
1. To become alive.
2. To move with rapidity or activity.
Romans 8:14 “ For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
Lead: To guide by the hand; as, to lead a child. The sense of drawing as well as of directing. To guide or conduct by showing the way. (Webster 1828)
Unity of Good page 55 “ The way,” in Spirit, is “the way “ of Life, Truth, and Love, redeeming us from the false sense of the flesh and the wounds it bears.”
Matthew Poole commentary
“For as many as are led by the Spirit of God. He doth not say, as many as live by the Spirit, but, as are led by the Spirit; to show (says one) that the Spirit must be the guide and ruler of our life, as the pilot is of the ship, and as a rider is of his horse. The phrase is borrowed (says another) either from those who are guided and directed as a blind man in his way; or from those who, wanting strength of their own, are borne and carried of others: so we are both ways led by the Spirit, for we can neither see our way, unless the Spirit direct us; nor have we strength to walk in it, unless the Spirit assist and draw us along. The Spirit leads and draws us irresistibly and necessarily, and yet not violently or against our wills; though we were unwilling before, yet we are made willing afterwards; so willing, that we desire and pray to be led by the Spirit.”
Benson commentary
“For as many as are led, guided and governed, by the Spirit of God — As a Spirit of truth and grace, of wisdom and holiness; they are the sons of God — That is, they stand related to God, not merely as subjects to their king, or servants to their master, but as children to their father; they are unspeakably near and dear to God, being spiritually begotten of him, and partaking of his nature.”
Quench
1. To extinguish; to put out; as, to quench flame.
2. To still; to quiet; to repress; as, to quench a passion or emotion.
3. To allay or extinguish; as, to quench thirst.
4. To destroy.
5. To check; to stifle; as, to quench the Spirit.
Psalm 23
1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.
I will follow and rejoice
All the rugged way.
Inner Man of Spirit by Peter V. Ross
Virtue Medicine
Gratitude
Courage
Foregiveness
Honesty
Joy
Generosity
Charity
Awe
Awe
1. Fear mingled with admiration or reverence; reverential fear.
2. Fear; dread inspired by something great, or terrific.
5. Romans 8 : 11
11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
The Quickened Life By Jennie M. Stevens
Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, — neither in nor of matter, — and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 14
God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 258
Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 451
3. 468 : 8-15
Question. — What is the scientific statement of being?
Answer. — There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.
Final Readings
You are Spirit’s full awareness and full experience. Let us see exactly what this means. You are the awareness of every quality of Spirit, and you experience every quality and activity of Spirit as your own being.
Spirit is imperishable. Because you are Spirit’s self-experience, your health, your joy, your sight, your hearing, your abundance are permanent and indestructible in all their fulness.
Spirit is glory. On this account you live at the height of prosperity. Your being is a state of divine splendour, excellence and radiant beauty—the full manifestation of the divine nature.
Spirit is majestic. All that is regal, magnificent, noble, grand, sublime is your natural experience.
Spirit is grace. You are the experience of Spirit’s attractiveness and tasteful harmony. The charms of congruity, beauty, and comeliness are your innate charac-teristics.
Spirit has sovereign power and might. You are the experience of the supreme power of Spirit, which means that no other power can operate as your experience. The efficacy, virtue, ability and capacity of Spirit are forever evident as your own being.
Spirit is tangible and natural. All the glorious, immutable qualities of Spirit constitute your character and experience. They are your natural instincts and feelings.
Spirit is tenderness. You are the continuous experience of the gentleness of Spirit, its lovand affection, its kind, careful, considerate nature. This means that harshness, severity, or exaction is never you or your experience.
Spirit is impregnable. For this reason your joy, your harmony, can never be subdued.
Spirit is independent. You are Spirit’s awareness and experience of harmony, abundance, joy and freedom, never contingent on any material condition or on any person. You experience the certainty, the continuity and natural ever-presence of the fulness of good, despite any change of circumstance or any material condition.
Spirit is supernal freshness and fairness. Because of this fact, your original qualities are unimpaired, showing no sign of being faded, tarnished, worn, exhausted, or fatigued. You are a state of briskness, vigour, alacrity—the continuity of heavenly perfection, beauty, and grace.
Spirit preserves and shelters. Hence your perpetual preservation from injury, destruction, hurt or harm of any kind; your natural and continuous awareness of the restful feeling of safety, well-being, security; and your freedom from annoyance.
Spirit is unerring. Your experience is entirely free from any mistake or deviation. You can never be wronged.
Spirit evolves. Man’s capabilities are fully developed.
Spirit is natural everpresence, never localised. The universe of Spirit is so vast that it cannot be measured; yet it is all here as everpresence, all here as your own infinite all-inclusiveness. Where space seems to be, right there is Spirit; hence there is no space. What would otherwise be space is filled with solid Spirit. This accounts for your safety when flying. You cannot fall through space—there is none!
Spirit is the source of supply. Substance is ours, but not through material means. When we realise that Spirit is the infinite source of all substance, then we have the fulness of substance here and now, and thus are free from the mortal suggestion that substance is material and limited. The material sense of existence is the source of all lack, but substance is spiritual, infinite, limitless, present in its measureless nature as your own experience.
The Nature of the Infinite by Doris Henty