“Losing the false sense of Soul”

This week’s Bible Lesson deals with “Soul and Body,” and in section 1 we read from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, founder and disoverer of Christian Science, “Only by losing the false sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as immortality brought to light.” (p. 335:22)

In her article “Soul” from the Christian Science Sentinel (April 13, 1929), Sylvia F. Metcalf explains, “A clarified view of man's true nature is gained when we begin to understand that Soul and a material body is an impossible combination. There is no Soul in matter, because there is no Life in matter. The real man reflects Soul or God. This spiritual reflection cannot in the smallest degree be in, or belong to, the flesh.”

The following passages from Science and Health also deal with the idea of Soul:

“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.” (p. 311:14–17)

“The body does not include soul, but manifests mortality, a false sense of soul.” (pp. 318:32–1)

And in Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy explains, “The misnamed human soul is material sense, which sinneth and shall die; for it is an error or false sense of mentality in matter, and matter has no sense.” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 76:22–25)

Further in Miscellanous Writings it’s explained, “The supposition that Soul, or Mind, is breathed into matter, is a pantheistic doctrine that presents a false sense of existence, and the quickening spirit takes it away: revealing, in place thereof, the power and perfection of a released sense of Life in God and Life as God. (p. 189:15–20)

No and Yes, also by Mrs. Eddy, concurs that, “Mortal man has but a false sense of Soul and body.” (p. 29:4–5)

In the Christian Science Hymnal, a helpful verse from hymn 64 reads:

“From sense to Soul my pathway lies before me,

From mist and shadow into Truth’s clear day;

The dawn of all things real is breaking o’er me,

My heart is singing: I have found the way.”

(No.  64:1)

Kenneth Foster, CS