Golden Text
I Thessalonians 5:23
23May the God who gives us peace make you holy in every way and keep your whole being—spirit, soul, and body—free from every fault at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Golden Text is from the Good News Translation in Today's English Version—Second Edition.
Responsive Reading
John 2:13–16 Jesus, 18–22; Romans 8:1
John 2:13. . . Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
14And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;
16And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.
18Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
19Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
21But he spake of the temple of his body.
22When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
Rom. 8:1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Section 1
The Bible
Exodus 6:2, 6, 7 (to :)
2And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the Lord:
6Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:
7And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God:
Leviticus 26:11 I will, 13
11I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
13I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.
Psalms 25:1, 4, 5
1Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
4Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths.
5Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesby Mary Baker Eddy
120:4
Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God’s image.
482:9
As used in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with sense, with material sensation.
335:2
Infinite
Spirit
The theory, that Spirit is distinct from matter but must pass through it, or into it, to be individualized, would reduce God to dependency on matter, and establish a basis for pantheism.
129:11–12
Pantheism may be defined as a belief in the intelligence of matter, — a belief which Science overthrows.
200:4–9
Moses advanced a nation to the worship of God in Spirit instead of matter, and illustrated the grand human capacities of being bestowed by immortal Mind.
Whoever is incompetent to explain Soul would be wise not to undertake the explanation of body.
223:3, 21
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.
Spiritual rationality and free thought accompany approaching Science, and cannot be put down. They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific means and so-called laws.
Section 2
The Bible
Psalms 146:1, 2
1Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul.
2While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
II Chronicles 2:1
1And Solomon determined to build an house for the name of the Lord, and an house for his kingdom.
I Kings 8:22, 23, 27
22And Solomon stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congregation of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven:
23And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart:
27But will God indeed dwell on the earth? behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee; how much less this house that I have builded?
Acts 17:24, 25, 28 (to ;)
24God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;
25Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;
28For in him we live, and move, and have our being;
Science and Health
257:24–27
Inexhaustible
divine Love
Who hath found finite life or love sufficient to meet the demands of human want and woe, — to still the desires, to satisfy the aspirations?
536:11–16
The fall
of error
If man’s spiritual gravitation and attraction to one Father, in whom we “live, and move, and have our being,” should be lost, and if man should be governed by corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead of by Soul, man would be annihilated.
335:20
Because Soul is immortal, it does not exist in mortality. Soul must be incorporeal to be Spirit, for Spirit is not finite. Only by losing the false sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as immortality brought to light.
288:20
The chief
stones in
the temple
The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are to be found in the following postulates: that Life is God, good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no material life, and no death.
535:15–17
When will man pass through the open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul, into the heritage of the first born among men?
Section 3
The Bible
Psalms 42:11
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.
Ezekiel 34:1, 2 (to ;), 4 (to ;), 11, 15, 16 (to :)
1And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God unto the shepherds;
4The diseased have ye not strengthened, neither have ye healed that which was sick, neither have ye bound up that which was broken, neither have ye brought again that which was driven away, neither have ye sought that which was lost;
11For thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.
15I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God.
16I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick:
Jeremiah 32:38, 39, 41
38And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
39And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them:
41Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
Science and Health
13:29
The world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, — blind to the reality of man’s existence, — for the world of sensation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.
279:22–26, 30
Pantheistic
tendencies
Every system of human philosophy, doctrine, and medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic belief that there is mind in matter; but this belief contradicts alike revelation and right reasoning.
Pantheism, starting from a material sense of God, seeks cause in effect, Principle in its idea, and life and intelligence in matter.
240:10–14, 19–21
In the order of Science, in which the Principle is above what it reflects, all is one grand concord. Change this statement, suppose Mind to be governed by matter or Soul in body, and you lose the keynote of being, and there is continual discord.
Progress
demanded
If mortals are not progressive, past failures will be repeated until all wrong work is effaced or rectified.
125:12–16
As human thought changes from one stage to another of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and joy, — from fear to hope and from faith to understanding, — the visible manifestation will at last be man governed by Soul, not by material sense.
294:25–26
Man’s genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is good and true.
Section 4
The Bible
Ephesians 4:4
4There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
Isaiah 43:12 ye
12ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.
Isaiah 42:1 (to :)
1Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him:
John 5:1–9 Jesus (to :)
1Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
3In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
4For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
5And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.
6When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
7The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.
8Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
9And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked:
Lamentations 3:58
58O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.
Science and Health
205:9–12
Creation
perfect
When will it be understood that matter has neither intelligence, life, nor sensation, and that the opposite belief is the prolific source of all suffering?
467:17–23
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.
316:7
Christ, Truth, was demonstrated through Jesus to prove the power of Spirit over the flesh, — to show that Truth is made manifest by its effects upon the human mind and body, healing sickness and destroying sin.
251:15–24
Mortal
mind’s
disappearance
We must learn how mankind govern the body, — whether through faith in hygiene, in drugs, or in will-power. We should learn whether they govern the body through a belief in the necessity of sickness and death, sin and pardon, or govern it from the higher understanding that the divine Mind makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind, and the healer of sin, disease, death.
396:26–30
Keep distinctly in thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man; that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit, outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life and sensation.
194:8
Change of
belief
When one’s false belief is corrected, Truth sends a report of health over the body.
Section 5
The Bible
Psalms 104:35 Bless
35Bless thou the Lord, O my soul. Praise ye the Lord.
Psalms 22:22
22I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
Matthew 9:35
35And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.
John 14:12
12Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
I Corinthians 12:4, 12, 27
4Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.
12For 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.
27Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.
Romans 16:1–3, 5 (to 1st .), 16 The
1I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:
2That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.
3Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:
5Likewise greet the church that is in their house.
16The churches of Christ salute you.
Science and Health
136:1–5
The
Christ-mission
Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught his followers that his religion had a divine Principle, which would cast out error and heal both the sick and the sinning.
328:30–1
The purpose of his great life-work extends through time and includes universal humanity. Its Principle is infinite, reaching beyond the pale of a single period or of a limited following.
335:16–18 (to 1st .)
Soul and Spirit being one, God and Soul are one, and this one never included in a limited mind or a limited body.
256:25, 29–30
A finite and material sense of God leads to formalism and narrowness; it chills the spirit of Christianity.
Finiteness cannot present the idea or the vastness of infinity.
224:22–25
A higher and more practical Christianity, demonstrating justice and meeting the needs of mortals in sickness and in health, stands at the door of this age, knocking for admission.
583:12
Church. The structure of Truth and Love; whatever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.
35:19–25 2nd Our
Spiritual
Eucharist
Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are new-born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love, — casting out error and healing the sick.
Section 6
The Bible
Revelation 21:2, 16 (to :), 22–25
2And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
16And the city lieth foursquare, and the length is as large as the breadth:
22And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
23And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
24And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
25And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
Science and Health
576:3–11, 14
Revelation’s
pure zenith
This heavenly city, lighted by the Sun of Righteousness, — this New Jerusalem, this infinite All, which to us seems hidden in the mist of remoteness, — reached St. John’s vision while yet he tabernacled with mortals.
In Revelation xxi. 22, further describing this holy city, the beloved Disciple writes: —
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
The shrine
celestial
The word temple also means body. The Revelator was familiar with Jesus’ use of this word, as when Jesus spoke of his material body as the temple to be temporarily rebuilt (John ii. 21). What further indication need we of the real man’s incorporeality than this, that John saw heaven and earth with “no temple [body] therein”? This kingdom of God “is within you,” — is within reach of man’s consciousness here, and the spiritual idea reveals it. In divine Science, man possesses this recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his understanding of God.
280:25–30
Sensationless
body
Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient material form, man has a sensationless body; and God, the Soul of man and of all existence, being perpetual in His own individuality, harmony, and immortality, imparts and perpetuates these qualities in man, — through Mind, not matter.
477:26 (only)
Man is the expression of Soul.