Sunday August 8th, 2021 Roundtable
Beholding the Beauty of the Lord
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Spirit
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayers
It is well to know, dear reader, that our material, mortal history is but the record of dreams, not of man’s real existence, and the dream has no place in the Science of being. It is “as a tale that is told,” and “as the shadow when it declineth.” The heavenly intent of earth’s shadows is to chasten the affections, to rebuke human consciousness and turn it gladly from a material, false sense of life and happiness, to spiritual joy and true estimate of being.
— from Retrospectio nand Introspection by Mary Baker Eddy, page 21
You all heal. You all have demonstrations. Now with regard to long ones, have patience. Keep on and on, living the ·Truth and declaring it. Never give up. Be patient and patience will have its perfect work.
Be vigilant. Be wise. Store your mind with deep treasures. Learn to talk just the inspiration of Truth. Spiritualize your whole being – let this be the outcome of your growth.
— from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 227
Discussion points
108 — WATCH lest you believe that, unless you go through certain scientific arguments, or study the lesson, every morning, some accident, or dreadful catastrophe might happen. Such a mistaken attitude shows an ignorance of the purpose of mental work. One does not fill his automobile with oil every morning. But he does watch the gauge, and replenish the oil when it is necessary to do so. Is divine power like an automobile which will run into something, if we are off guard for a moment?
The student should constantly strive to keep his thought balanced or adjusted on the spiritual side. Then that which emanates from his thought will be constructive and healing. If he finds that he has temporarily lost his balance on the right side, he must make a sincere effort to regain it.
Our Leader forbids the use of formulas. When one uses a formula in his healing work, it means that he has more faith in the letter than in the Spirit. Part of our training and growth is to learn how to formulate through divine guidance, our own scientific tools, or statements, to fit each problem and then to put back of these declarations the expectancy and inspiration that makes them efficacious.
Those who use formulas not only lose the growth that comes of building their own tools, but they erroneously believe that it is the statements which they use that do the healing. In this way they neglect and overlook the need of the Spirit. A correct understanding of Christian Science rules out faith or belief in the efficacy of the letter without the Spirit. Such were vain repetition, such as the heathen use.
— from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
Golden Text — “All things work together for good to them that love God.” — I Romans 8 : 28
Forum post — Hearing the Shepherd’s Voice by Louise
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 true to be real, and so my eye is single. I positively look for the real, the good and true. In Spirit, good vision is natural, and it is irreversible.
— from Notes on True Vision by John Morgan
Article — from Notes on True Vision by John Morgan
To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.
— from Science and Health, 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 15:9-11
Prepared thought is the doorway through which revelation comes.
— from Addresses by Martha Wilcox
And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink. Genesis, 21:19.
The twenty-first chapter of Genesis gives the account of Hagar’s being sent away by Sarah, Abraham’s wife, and though Sarah’s motive for taking this step would furnish a fine opportunity to expatiate on the workings of mortal mind, yet the thought inspiring this article is a very different one.
Hagar is turned away, not knowing where to go for rest and shelter, and after wandering for some time finally becomes discouraged and gives herself and child up to die of thirst. Then God took compassion on her, and we read that “God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water, and was saved.
This gives the position of Christian Science so perfectly, as the writer understands it, that it seems worthy of a few moments’ consideration. Many people object to Christian Science, because they say that the age of miracles is past, holding that what it claims to do can only be done in a miraculous manner, but this position is wrong for two reasons. In the first place, if there was an age of miracles it cannot be past, for what has been done once can be done again; this, however, is not the better of the two reasons. The second, and best, reason is, that Christian Science does not deal with miracles at all, so that we do not have to consider whether they ever existed or not.
According to the teachings of Christian Science, all these things, these wonderful and so-called supernatural things, while they are wonderful to human sense, are not, supernatural at all, but “divinely natural,” as our text-book tells us, and the passage above quoted seems to bring out that fact so plainly that it is incomprehensible that the eyes of the whole world were not opened to see it long ago.
As the Bible gives this account, there was no miracle performed or even indicated. God did not cause a new well of water to gush forth, where before all was barren.—that might have been considered miraculous: He simply opened Hagar’s eyes and she saw something which had, presumably, been there all the time, and which only her lack of perception had prevented her seeing in the first place. Had her spiritual perception been keener, all suffering would have been spared her.
— Excerpt from “True Sight” Christian Science Journal, February 1899 by Gilbert D. Robertson
Forum post — Spiritual Viewpoint by Florence Roberts
The Bible by His revelation is most absorbing. It seems so clear when He teaches! The flesh cannot receive the things of the Spirit. The Spiritual soul never argues; it is only the carnal mind that does so…. God speaks in us. If we live much in the flesh we shall not hear His voice, unless by trials and afflictions; but if we live in the Spirit, we shall, according to the degree we do so, hear His voice minutely and always…. Peace is a fruit of the Spirit, and obtained only by the indwelling of the Spirit … Meditate much in the fruit of the Spirit, and with God’s blessing, you will have done with dark times.
— From Letters of General Gordon