November 13–19, 2023
Soul and Body
Golden Text
Ephesians 4:4
4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Click to open the research contentResponsive Reading
Ezekiel 18:1–4 (to :); Psalms 42:1–4, 8 the, 11; 146:1
Ezek. 18:1The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying,
Click to open the research content2What mean ye, that ye use this proverb concerning the land of Israel, saying, The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge?
3As I live, saith the Lord God, ye shall not have occasion any more to use this proverb in Israel.
4Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine:
Ps. 42:1As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.
Click to open the research content2My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?
3My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is thy God?
4When I remember these things, I pour out my soul in me: for I had gone with the multitude, I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holyday.
8. . . the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.
11Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.
146:1Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.
Section 1
The Bible
Psalms 11:1
1In the Lord put I my trust: how say ye to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain?
Click to open the research content Click to open the Bibles contentPsalms 90:1, 2, 16
1Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.
Click to open the research content Click to open the Bibles content2Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
16Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children.
Psalms 139:14
14I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Click to open the research content Click to open the Bibles contentScience and Health with Key to the Scripturesby Mary Baker Eddy
477:6–7
Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself spiritual.
478:3–4, 6–8, 12
What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you within mortality?
What basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except the claim of mortal belief?
Who can see a soul in the body?
466:20–21
Soul or Spirit signifies Deity and nothing else. There is no finite soul nor spirit.
477:19–2
Question. — What are body and Soul?
Reflection
of Spirit
Answer. — Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to Spirit.
Man
inseparable
from Spirit
Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught some glimpses of the underlying reality, when they called a certain beautiful lake “the smile of the Great Spirit.” Separated from man, who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man, divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is, there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with God.
335:18–20 Nothing, 22
Soul and
Spirit one
Nothing but Spirit, Soul, can evolve Life, for Spirit is more than all else.
Only by losing the false sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as immortality brought to light.
Section 2
The Bible
Exodus 3:1–5, 14
1Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
Click to open the research content2And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
4And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
5And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
14And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Ephesians 4:4
4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
I Corinthians 15:10 by (to 1st :)
10by the grace of God I am what I am:
Click to open the research contentScience and Health
588:9–19
I, or Ego. Divine Principle; Spirit; Soul; incorporeal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind.
There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; man and woman unchanged forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle. All the objects of God's creation reflect one Mind, and whatever reflects not this one Mind, is false and erroneous, even the belief that life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and material.
305:6
Human
reflection
Man, in the likeness of his Maker, reflects the central light of being, the invisible God. As there is no corporeality in the mirrored form, which is but a reflection, so man, like all things real, reflects God, his divine Principle, not in a mortal body.
208:25–29 A
Sickness as
only thought
A material body only expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal man possesses this body, and he makes it harmonious or discordant according to the images of thought impressed upon it.
264:13
Self-
completeness
As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness.
506:18
Unfolding
of thoughts
Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose in order that the purpose may appear.
Section 3
The Bible
Deuteronomy 10:12–14
12And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,
Click to open the Bibles content13To keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
14Behold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's thy God, the earth also, with all that therein is.
Science and Health
467:1–7, 17–23
Question. — What are the demands of the Science of Soul?
Answer. — The first demand of this Science is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual.
Soul not con-
fined in body
Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and God as not in man but as reflected by man. The greater cannot be in the lesser. The belief that the greater can be in the lesser is an error that works ill. This is a leading point in the Science of Soul, that Principle is not in its idea. Spirit, Soul, is not confined in man, and is never in matter.
282:23
There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is material is a material, human, mortal thought, always governing itself erroneously.
428:8
To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear, — this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, “whose builder and maker is God.”
Section 4
The Bible
Psalms 84:1–4
1How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
Click to open the research content2My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
3Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.
4Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee.
I Kings 17:1, 8–19, 22–24
1And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.
Click to open the research content8And the word of the Lord came unto him, saying,
9Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.
10So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
11And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
12And she said, As the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth.
15And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
16And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah.
17And it came to pass after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.
Click to open the research content18And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance, and to slay my son?
19And he said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into a loft, where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed.
22And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.
23And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother: and Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.
24And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.
Science and Health
307:25–26 The
The divine Mind is the Soul of man, and gives man dominion over all things.
14:16–18
Sorrow is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spiritual Life, Truth, and Love.
249:32
Philosophical
blunders
We run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind, then mind to be in matter and matter to be a lawgiver, unintelligence to act like intelligence, and mortality to be the matrix of immortality.
311:14–17, 19
Soul
impeccable
Through false estimates of soul as dwelling in sense and of mind as dwelling in matter, belief strays into a sense of temporary loss or absence of soul, spiritual truth.
So long as we believe that soul can sin or that immortal Soul is in mortal body, we can never understand the Science of being. When humanity does understand this Science, it will become the law of Life to man, — even the higher law of Soul, which prevails over material sense through harmony and immortality.
427:1
Life not
contingent
on matter
If it is true that man lives, this fact can never change in Science to the opposite belief that man dies. Life is the law of Soul, even the law of the spirit of Truth, and Soul is never without its representative. Man's individual being can no more die nor disappear in unconsciousness than can Soul, for both are immortal. If man believes in death now, he must disbelieve in it when learning that there is no reality in death, since the truth of being is deathless. The belief that existence is contingent on matter must be met and mastered by Science, before Life can be understood and harmony obtained.
114:23–27
Causation
mental
Christian Science explains all cause and effect as mental, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and body. It shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought.
261:4, 24
Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.
Immutable
identity
of man
Breaking away from the mutations of time and sense, you will neither lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own identity. Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a skyward flight.
Section 5
The Bible
Ezekiel 18:1, 4 (to :)
1The word of the Lord came unto me again, saying,
Click to open the Bibles content4Behold, all souls are mine; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine:
Matthew 4:1–11, 24
1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Click to open the research content2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.
3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
24And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
Science and Health
333:26–27
The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God.
309:24–26
The Science of being shows it to be impossible for infinite Spirit or Soul to be in a finite body or for man to have an intelligence separate from his Maker.
428:3–6 A
Vision
opening
A demonstration of the facts of Soul in Jesus' way resolves the dark visions of material sense into harmony and immortality.
6:23–24
Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before he cast it out.
7:1–2
The only civil sentence which he had for error was, “Get thee behind me, Satan.”
136:5–6
He claimed no intelligence, action, nor life separate from God.
91:5, 16
Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated from God, and obey only the divine Principle, Life and Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true spiritual growth.
Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spiritual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed the material senses.
239:16–18, 20
To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and obey as God.
The objects we pursue and the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show what we are winning.
Section 6
The Bible
Psalms 103:1
1Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.
Science and Health
249:31 (only)
Man is the reflection of Soul.
© 2023 The Christian Science Publishing Society. Unless otherwise noted, references above are from the Bible (King James Version) and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science. The design of the Cross and Crown is a trademark owned by The Christian Science Board of Directors and is used by permission. Christian Science Quarterly™ is a trademark owned by The Christian Science Publishing Society.