Spirit - 2/11/1917

​SPIRIT
February 11, 1917

Golden Text
I Cor 12:7 the
the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. 


Responsive Reading
I Cor 12:1,4-6,8-13
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. 

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. 

For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. 


Section I
( 1)   Ezek 36:23 
And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. 

( 2)   Act 2:1-4,6,12-18 
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 

Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. 

And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What meaneth this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine. But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words: For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 


( 1)   281:14 
    The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is infinite individuality, which supplies all form and comeliness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual spiritual man and things. 

( 2)   258:13-15,19 
    God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis. 

    The infinite Principle is reflected by the infinite idea and spiritual individuality, but the material so-called senses have no cognizance of either Principle or its idea. The human capacities are enlarged and perfected in proportion as humanity gains the true conception of man and God. 

( 3)   259:22-24,26 
    Mortal thought transmits its own images, and forms its offspring after human illusions. God, Spirit, works spiritually, not materially.  

Immortal ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious results. 

( 4)   72:17 
    Perfection is not expressed through imperfection.  Spirit is not made manifest through matter, the antipode of Spirit. Error is not a convenient sieve through which truth can be strained. 

( 5)   70:5-9 
Whatever is false or sinful can never enter the atmosphere of Spirit. There is but one Spirit. Man is never God, but spiritual man, made in God's likeness, reflects God. In this scientific reflection the Ego and the Father are inseparable. 


Section II
( 3)   Ezek 36:25 
Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. 

( 4)   Gal 5:16,19,20,22,23,25 
This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. 

If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 


( 6)   281:28-1 
Our false views of matter perish as we grasp the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the inspiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be lost. 

( 7)   282:14-17 
    A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly, matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter. 

( 8)   319:13-20 
    Throughout the infinite cycles of eternal existence, Spirit and matter neither concur in man nor in the universe. 
    The varied doctrines and theories which presuppose life and intelligence to exist in matter are so many ancient and modern mythologies. Mystery, miracle, sin, and death will disappear when it becomes fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and man has no Mind but God. 

( 9)   355:32-16 
    Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in support of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so antagonistic that the material thought must become spiritualized before the spiritual fact is attained.  So-called material existence affords no evidence of spiritual existence and immortality. Sin, sickness, and death do not prove man's entity or immortality. Discord can never establish the facts of harmony.  Matter is not the vestibule of Spirit. 
    Jesus reasoned on this subject practically, and controlled sickness, sin, and death on the basis of his spirituality. Understanding the nothingness of material things, he spoke of flesh and Spirit as the two opposites, - as error and Truth, not contributing in any way to each other's happiness and existence.  Jesus knew, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing." 


Section III
( 5)   Ezek 36:26 
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 

( 6)   Is 61:1-3,10,11 
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. 

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. 

( 7)   I Pet 4:10,11 
As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever.  Amen. 


(10)   510:2 
How much more should we seek to apprehend the spiritual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual. 

(11)   509:24 
The periods of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness  - yea, the divine nature - appear in man and the universe never to disappear. 

(12)   241:23 
    One's aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is revealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its demonstration. 

(13)   366:3 
    In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus attain the spiritual freedom which will enable him to cast physical evils out of his patient; but heal he cannot, while his own spiritual barrenness debars him from giving drink to the thirsty and hinders him from reaching his patient's thought, -  yea, while mental penury chills his faith and understanding. 

(14)   99:23 
    The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man. 


Section IV
( 8)   Ezek 36:27 
And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them. 

( 9)   I Cor 2:1,4,11-14 
And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. 

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 

For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 


(15)   203:13 
Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth. 

(16)   510:9 
    Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose "light shall we see light;" and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense. 

(17)   223:2 
Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh." Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter instead of in Spirit. 

(18)   406:11-16, 20-25 We 
    The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth.  Then error disappears. Sin and sickness will abate and seem less real as we approach the scientific period, in which mortal sense is subdued and all that is unlike the true likeness disappears. 

We can, and ultimately shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direction of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go on until we arrive at the fulness of God's idea, and no more fear that we shall be sick and die. 

(19)   470:32 
    The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history. 


Section V
(10)   Ezek 36:28 
And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God. 

(11)   Rom 8:1,5,6,14-17 
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 

For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. 


(20)   339:20-25 
    XXXII.  As the mythology of pagan Rome has yielded to a more spiritual idea of Deity, so will our material theories yield to spiritual ideas, until the finite gives place to the infinite, sickness to health, sin to holiness, and God's kingdom comes "in earth, as it is in heaven." 

(21)   264:28-1 
    When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God's creation, - all the glories of earth and heaven and man. 
    The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings, and its government is divine Science. 

(22)   547:25-8 
The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development.  Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal. 
    It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.  "The Spirit and the bride say, Come! . . . and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christian Science separates error from truth, and breathes through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of life, substance, and intelligence. In this Science, we discover man in the image and likeness of God. We see that man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal harmony. 

(23)   208:20 
Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, - the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain forever unseen. 


Section VI
(12)   Ezek 36:29,33,35,36 
I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you. 

Thus saith the Lord God; In the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded. 

And they shall say, This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I the Lord build the ruined places, and plant that that was desolate: I the Lord have spoken it, and I will do it. 

(13)   Ps 34:8-10 
O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him. O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for there is no want to them that fear him. The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing. 

(14)   II Cor 9:8,11 
And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work: 

Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. 


(24)   298:2-4,13-20 
Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in spiritual understanding. 

    Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal.  When the real is attained, which is announced by Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. 

(25)   512:8,20-21 
    Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These angels of His presence, which have the holiest charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of Mind, and consequently reproduce their own characteristics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their natures are allied to God's nature; and spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding. 

    Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and perfect ideas. 

(26)   76:22-29 
    The sinless joy, - the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, -  constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence is scientific and intact, - a perfection discernible only by those who have the final understanding of Christ in divine Science.