Soul

Section 1

The Bible

1Genesis 12:1, 2, 4 (to ;)

1Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

2And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

4So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him;

2Genesis 17:1, 3–5 and God (to ;)

1And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

3and God talked with him, saying,

4As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

5Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham;

3Psalms 62:5

5My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesby Mary Baker Eddy

171:7

Soul is synonymous with Spirit, God, the creative, governing, infinite Principle outside of finite form, which forms only reflect.

2477:22

Reflection
of Spirit

Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to Spirit.

3359:14

The evidence of the existence of Spirit, Soul, is palpable only to spiritual sense, and is not apparent to the material senses, which cognize only that which is the opposite of Spirit.

4308:14

The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth, and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man.

5298:13–15, 19–20, 22

Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality.

When the real is attained, which is announced by Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat.

Spiritual ideas lead up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual sense of being.

Section 2

The Bible

4Psalms 116:16

16O Lord, truly I am thy servant; I am thy servant, and the son of thine handmaid: thou hast loosed my bonds.

5Psalms 25:1, 2 (to :)

1Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.

2O my God, I trust in thee:

6Psalms 40:11

11Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

7John 8:31–34, 36, 38, 39, 56

31Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

33They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?

34Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.

36If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

38I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

39They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham’s children, ye would do the works of Abraham.

56Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.

8Mark 6:34, 56

34And Jesus, when he came out, saw much people, and was moved with compassion toward them, because they were as sheep not having a shepherd: and he began to teach them many things.

56And whithersoever he entered, into villages, or cities, or country, they laid the sick in the streets, and besought him that they might touch if it were but the border of his garment: and as many as touched him were made whole.

Science and Health

630:19–28

Rebukes
helpful

As the individual ideal of Truth, Christ Jesus came to rebuke rabbinical error and all sin, sickness, and death, — to point out the way of Truth and Life. This ideal was demonstrated throughout the whole earthly career of Jesus, showing the difference between the offspring of Soul and of material sense, of Truth and of error.

If we have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of material sense to allow Soul to hold the control, we shall loathe sin and rebuke it under every mask.

7191:16–17

The human thought must free itself from self-imposed materiality and bondage.

858:12 (only)

There is moral freedom in Soul.

9224:22–3

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. Will you open or close the door upon this angel visitant, who cometh in the quiet of meekness, as he came of old to the patriarch at noonday?

Mental
emancipation

Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner is the Soul-inspired motto, “Slavery is abolished.” The power of God brings deliverance to the captive. No power can withstand divine Love. What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God? Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves man is opposed to the divine government.

10227:16 (only), 23–24

God made man free.

Standard
of liberty

Jesus marked out the way.

Section 3

The Bible

9Isaiah 40:5

5And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

10Matthew 12:18

18Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the Gentiles.

11Luke 4:14

14And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

12Luke 11:1–4, 9, 10

1And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

2And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

3Give us day by day our daily bread.

4And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

9And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

10For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Science and Health

1116:7–11

The prayer of
Jesus Christ

Our Master taught his disciples one brief prayer, which we name after him the Lord’s Prayer. Our Master said, “After this manner therefore pray ye,” and then he gave that prayer which covers all human needs.

1214:22

The Lord’s Prayer is the prayer of Soul, not of material sense.

132:15–16, 18, 26 Shall

Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it.

The mere habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as humanly circumscribed, — an error which impedes spiritual growth.

God’s
standard

Shall we plead for more at the open fount, which is pouring forth more than we accept? The unspoken desire does bring us nearer the source of all existence and blessedness.

1460:29–31

Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul.

1515:14–18

Effectual
invocation

In order to pray aright, we must enter into the closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and silence the material senses. In the quiet sanctuary of earnest longings, we must deny sin and plead God’s allness.

1685:2

It is the illumination of the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the capacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the divine Mind.

Section 4

The Bible

13Psalms 103:2–4

2Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

4Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

14Matthew 4:23

23And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

15Matthew 9:18 there, 19, 23–30 (to ;)

18there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.

19And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.

23And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,

24He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.

25But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.

26And the fame hereof went abroad into all that land.

27And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.

28And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

29Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

30And their eyes were opened;

Science and Health

17316:12 (only), 20–21

Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of God.

Christ presents the indestructible man, whom Spirit creates, constitutes, and governs.

18428:3–8 A

Vision
opening

A demonstration of the facts of Soul in Jesus’ way resolves the dark visions of material sense into harmony and immortality. Man’s privilege at this supreme moment is to prove the words of our Master: “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.”

19167:1–6

Should we implore a corporeal God to heal the sick out of His personal volition, or should we understand the infinite divine Principle which heals? If we rise no higher than blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, and Soul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not comprehended.

20120:4

Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God’s image.

21302:3–8

Identity
not lost

The material body and mind are temporal, but the real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the real man is not lost, but found through this explanation; for the conscious infinitude of existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and remains unchanged.

22420:28–32

Awaken the
patient

If it becomes necessary to startle mortal mind to break its dream of suffering, vehemently tell your patient that he must awake. Turn his gaze from the false evidence of the senses to the harmonious facts of Soul and immortal being.

23210:11–16

Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation.

2441:6

Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being.

Section 5

The Bible

16Psalms 121:7, 8

7The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

17Acts 5:12 (to ;)

12And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders wrought among the people;

18Acts 20:9–12

9And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.

10And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.

11When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.

12And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.

Science and Health

25306:21–31

Thought-
forms

The myriad forms of mortal thought, made manifest as matter, are not more distinct nor real to the material senses than are the Soul-created forms to spiritual sense, which cognizes Life as permanent. Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle, — is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal.

God’s man, spiritually created, is not material and mortal.

26397:12–22

When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, “I am hurt!” Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real.

Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be.

27302:19

The Science of being reveals man as perfect, even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind, of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all being, and because this real man is governed by Soul instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called laws of matter.

28303:30–14

When the evidence before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from God, from the sweet sense and presence of Life and Truth.

Man
inseparable
from Love

It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and goodness. Understanding this, Paul said: “Neither death, nor life, . . . nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God.” This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death.

29335:18–21 Nothing, 22

Soul and
Spirit one

Nothing but Spirit, Soul, can evolve Life, for Spirit is more than all else. Because Soul is immortal, it does not exist in mortality.

Only by losing the false sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as immortality brought to light.

Section 6

The Bible

19Psalms 92:13, 14 (to 1^st ;)

13Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

14They shall still bring forth fruit in old age;

20Genesis 5:23, 24

23And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:

24And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.

21Hebrews 11:5

5By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

22Isaiah 58:11

11And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Science and Health

30598:30

Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which is the solar year. Eternity is God’s measurement of Soul-filled years.

31492:3–4, 7–12

For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence.

Mind one
and all

Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, will uplift the physical and moral standard of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy all error, and bring immortality to light.

32247:13–15

Eternal
beauty

Immortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its own, — the radiance of Soul.