1. Date of Lesson

2. Subject, Golden Text, and Responsive Reading

3. Lesson Sermon — The Bible

4. Lesson Sermon — Science and Health

5. The Daily Duties

6. About the preparation of this lesson

Listen to the reading of this Lesson

Watch on YouTube

Watch on Vimeo

This Week's Lesson Forum

PlainfieldCS.com

Subject — Soul

GOLDEN TEXT: Psalm 23 : 3

“He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.”

RESPONSIVE READING: Psalm 139 : 1-10

1.     O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me.

2.     Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

3.     Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

4.     For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether.

5.     Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.

6.     Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

7.     Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

8.     If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

9.     If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

10.     Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

Lesson Sermon

The Bible

1. Psalm 103 : 1-6, 13, 14 (to ;), 15-22

1     Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

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

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

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

5     Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

6     The LORD executeth righteousness and judgment for all that are oppressed.

13     Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

14     For he knoweth our frame;

15     As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

16     For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

17     But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children’s children;

18     To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.

19     The Lord hath prepared his throne in the heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.

20     Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.

21     Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.

22     Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

2. Luke 4: 14-21

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

15     And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

16     And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

17     And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18     The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19     To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20     And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21     And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

3. Luke 13 : 10-17

10     And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.

11     And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.

12     And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.

13     And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.

14     And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.

15     The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering?

16     And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day?

17     And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.

4. Matthew 10 : 1, 5 (to 3rd ,), 8, 20, 28 (to :), 29-31, 42

1     And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

5     These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying,

8     Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

20     For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

28     And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul:

29     Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

30     But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

31     Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

42     And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.

5. I Corinthians 15 : 51-54

51     Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52     In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53     For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54     So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

Science and Health

1. 587 : 5-8

GOD. The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence.

2. 30 : 19-1

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. Only in this way can we bless our enemies, though they may not so construe our words. We cannot choose for ourselves, but must work out our salvation in the way Jesus taught. In meekness and might, he was found preaching the gospel to the poor.

3. 204 : 30-6

The belief that God lives in matter is pantheistic. The error, which says that Soul is in body, Mind is in matter, and good is in evil, must unsay it and cease from such utterances; else God will continue to be hidden from humanity, and mortals will sin without knowing that they are sinning, will lean on matter instead of Spirit, stumble with lameness, drop with drunkenness, consume with disease, — all because of their blindness, their false sense concerning God and man.

4. 70 : 12-9

The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal. The questions are: What are God's identities? What is Soul? Does life or soul exist in the thing formed?

Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.

The identity, or idea, of all reality continues forever; but Spirit, or the divine Principle of all, is not in Spirit's formations. Soul is synonymous with Spirit, God, the creative, governing, infinite Principle outside of finite form, which forms only reflect.

5. 467 : 1-23

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. The second is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established. Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.

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.

6. 170 : 14-17

The demands of Truth are spiritual, and reach the body through Mind. The best interpreter of man's needs said: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink."

7. 259 : 6-14

In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow, — thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea, — perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration.

8. 210 : 11-18

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.

9. 301 : 17-32

As God is substance and man is the divine image and likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter. The belief that man has any other substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material substance, while man is "image" (idea). Delusion, sin, disease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down.

This falsity presupposes soul to be an unsubstantial dweller in material forms, and man to be material instead of spiritual.

10. 280 : 25-30

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.

11. 477 : 22-26

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 is the expression of Soul.

The Daily Duties

by Mary Baker Eddy

Daily Prayer

It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to pray each day: "Thy kingdom come;" let the reign of divine Truth, Life, and Love be established in me, and rule out of me all sin; and may Thy Word enrich the affections of all mankind, and govern them!

Church Manual, Article VIII, Sect. 4

A Rule for Motives and Acts

Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church. In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness. The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously.

Church Manual, Article VIII, Sect. 1

Alertness to Duty

It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind. By his works he shall be judged, — and justified or condemned.

Church Manual, Article VIII, Sect. 6

Take Notice

To Christian Scientists: — See Science and Health, page 442, line 30, and give daily attention thereto.

from Miscellany, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 237

“Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake.”

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, page 422

This Bible Lesson was prepared by Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent. It is composed of Scriptural Quotations from the King James Bible and Correlative Passages from the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 1910 Edition, by Mary Baker Eddy.

Copyright 2022 Plainfield Christian Science Church, Independent

Table of Contents

Sunday, August 14th, 2022 — Subject: Soul

Date of Lesson

Subject, Golden Text, and Responsive Reading

Lesson Sermon — The Bible

Lesson Sermon — Science and Health

The Daily Duties

About the preparation of this lesson