Responsive Reading
Isaiah 45:5 (to 1st :); Isaiah 42:1 (to 2nd ;); Psalms 119:65, 68, 77, 81, 88 (to ;), 94, 129, 140, 165 (to :), 167, 169, 171, 173, 174
Isa. 45:5I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me:
42:1Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth;
Ps. 119:65Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O Lord, according unto thy word.
68Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.
77Let thy tender mercies come unto me, that I may live: for thy law is my delight.
81My soul fainteth for thy salvation: but I hope in thy word.
88Quicken me after thy lovingkindness;
94I am thine, save me; for I have sought thy precepts.
129Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.
140Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
165Great peace have they which love thy law:
167My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.
169Let my cry come near before thee, O Lord: give me understanding according to thy word.
171My lips shall utter praise, when thou hast taught me thy statutes.
173Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts.
174I have longed for thy salvation, O Lord; and thy law is my delight.
Section 1
The Bible
Leviticus 19:2 Ye
2Ye shall be holy: for I the Lord your God am holy.
Leviticus 26:11, 12
11And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you.
12And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people.
Psalms 84:1, 2
1How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
2My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
Psalms 51:12
12Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Psalms 66:8, 9
8O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard:
9Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.
Psalms 147:5
5Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.
Science and Health with Key to the Scripturesby Mary Baker Eddy
300:23 (only)
Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter.
302:1 (only)
Soul is not compassed by finiteness.
330:11–12
God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man.
344:1
Strong
position
It is objected to Christian Science that it claims God as the only absolute Life and Soul, and man to be His idea, — that is, His image. It should be added that this is claimed to represent the normal, healthful, and sinless condition of man in divine Science, and that this claim is made because the Scriptures say that God has created man in His own image and after His likeness. Is it sacrilegious to assume that God’s likeness is not found in matter, sin, sickness, and death?
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.
427:2–7
Life not
contingent
on matter
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.
Section 2
The Bible
Psalms 138:3, 5 great
3In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul.
5great is the glory of the Lord.
Psalms 43:3
3O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.
Exodus 3:1, 7, 10, 11
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.
7And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
10Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
11And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
Exodus 4:10 O my, 11 (to 1st ?), 12
10O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.
11And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth?
12Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
Science and Health
72:9–12 As
Spirits
obsolete
As light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God, is the only truth-giver to man.
295:16
Goodness
transparent
The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality — much error — in order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides the sun.
89:14–24
If one believes that he cannot be an orator without study or a superinduced condition, the body responds to this belief, and the tongue grows mute which before was eloquent.
Scientific
improvisation
Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them. Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent. We are all capable of more than we do. The influence or action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phenomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips.
258:13–15, 21
God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.
The human capacities are enlarged and perfected in proportion as humanity gains the true conception of man and God.
Section 3
The Bible
II Peter 3:8 one day
8one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
Jeremiah 33:22 the (to :)
22the host of heaven cannot be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured:
Jeremiah 32:15 thus (to ;), 40 I will (to ;), 41
15thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
40I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good;
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.
Daniel 12:3
3And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.
Science and Health
120:4
Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God’s image.
598:21–24, 30
“One day is with the Lord as a thousand years.” (II Peter iii. 8.)
One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity.
Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which is the solar year. Eternity is God’s measurement of Soul-filled years.
246:10–13
The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, undimmed by a declining sun.
236:29–10
While age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth.
A little girl, who had occasionally listened to my explanations, badly wounded her finger. She seemed not to notice it. On being questioned about it she answered ingenuously, “There is no sensation in matter.” Bounding off with laughing eyes, she presently added, “Mamma, my finger is not a bit sore.”
It might have been months or years before her parents would have laid aside their drugs, or reached the mental height their little daughter so naturally attained.
584:4–6
The objects of time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded.
247:13–15
Eternal
beauty
Immortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its own, — the radiance of Soul.
Section 4
The Bible
Isaiah 42:1, 6
1Behold my servant, whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him: he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
6I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;
Isaiah 55:3 (to ;)
3Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live;
Matthew 14:14
14And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.
Mark 7:32–37
32And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
33And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;
34And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.
35And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.
36And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;
37And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.
Science and Health
210:11
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. Jesus healed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical process.
316:12 (only), 20
Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of God.
Christ presents the indestructible man, whom Spirit creates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that blending with God, his divine Principle, which gives man dominion over all the earth.
428:3–6 A, 22
Vision
opening
A demonstration of the facts of Soul in Jesus’ way resolves the dark visions of material sense into harmony and immortality.
The present
immortality
The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We must hold forever the consciousness of existence, and sooner or later, through Christ and Christian Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence of man’s immortality will become more apparent, as material beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being are admitted.
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.
488:23–24, 27
Mind alone possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension.
If it were possible for the real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce them in all their perfection; but they cannot be disturbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind, not in matter.
395:6–10
Divine
authority
Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false evidences of the corporeal senses and to assert its claims over mortality and disease.
Section 5
The Bible
I Peter 2:11
11Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
Titus 2:11 the, 12
11the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
12Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Psalms 34:3, 8, 12, 14, 18, 22
3O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.
8O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
12What man is he that desireth life, and loveth many days, that he may see good?
14Depart from evil, and do good; seek peace, and pursue it.
18The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.
22The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
Psalms 23:3
3He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
Psalms 41:12 thou
12thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.
Science and Health
311:7–9, 12, 19
Soul is immortal because it is Spirit, which has no element of self-destruction. Is man lost spiritually? No, he can only lose a sense material.
It is a sense of sin, and not a sinful soul, which is lost. Evil is destroyed by the sense of good.
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.
310:18–23 We (to 1st .)
Soul
imperishable
We are commonly taught that there is a human soul which sins and is spiritually lost, — that soul may be lost, and yet be immortal. If Soul could sin, Spirit, Soul, would be flesh instead of Spirit. It is the belief of the flesh and of material sense which sins.
405:5–11, 18
Mental
conspirators
Christian Science commands man to master the propensities, — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with honesty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success.
The good man finally can overcome his fear of sin. This is sin’s necessity, — to destroy itself. Immortal man demonstrates the government of God, good, in which is no power to sin.
263:7–11
Mortal man
a mis-creator
When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence with the spiritual and works only as God works, he will no longer grope in the dark and cling to earth because he has not tasted heaven. Carnal beliefs defraud us.
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.
140:8–12
We shall obey and adore in proportion as we apprehend the divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no more over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence of our God.
Section 6
The Bible
Mark 12:30 thou (to :)
30thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength:
Jeremiah 29:11 I know, 13
11I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
13And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
Psalms 116:7–9
7Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.
8For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.
9I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.
Science and Health
335:20–21, 22
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.
9:17
Practical
religion
Dost thou “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”? This command includes much, even the surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master, and material sense and human will have no place.
125:12–17
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. Reflecting God’s government, man is self-governed.
477:26 (only)
Man is the expression of Soul.