Sunday, May 24th, 2026 Roundtable
The Truth About Your Body
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Soul And Body
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
Our home is in Mind, in spiritual consciousness, the eternal harmony of Soul. The builder and maker of this home is Mind. It is built and established in the eternal. Nothing can destroy the harmony of our home. Mind fills it with the glories of the kingdom of God. No fear of sin, sickness, or death can enter this home; no sense of poverty or want. No lack of supply has any presence or place here. These are illusions, nothing but M. A. M. — sin, a belief in a power apart from God. They cannot find us, for we dwell in the secret place of the Most High, God, and we are eternally conscious of the infinite riches and abundance of Love. God is our supply, is inexhaustible. The lie that argues poverty does not know us. We do not know it, cannot see, fear, hear, or manifest it, for we are living in God. God governs our home. Truth fills our household, is recognized, received and sought.
There is no resistance, no rejection, no indifference. Love destroys all unlike itself — removes all that is offensive.
from Collectanea, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 48 of the Addenda
Daily Watch
403 — WATCH that you realize that it is more important to learn what man is, than what man is not. Through the handling of error we learn what man is not, and through the reflection of divine Mind we learn what man is. Students should never become so absorbed in working to learn what man is not, that they do not sufficiently emphasize the sequence, that leads to the recognition of what man is as God’s reflection. Mrs. Eddy saw the danger of placing too much emphasis on the negative side of our work, when she directed the students as follows: “Let your minds go out every two hours, All is peace, good will, love, etc. Say nothing of error; confine your thoughts to the right side.”
Sometimes students work so assiduously for human harmony, that they forget to continue this effort to the point of realizing divine harmony. Human harmony is cleaning a bottle, whereas divine harmony is filling it with the inspiration of good. Many practitioners clean the bottle for their patients and go no further. They have not really done them any good, nor does their work deserve to be called anything but “mind-cure.” The true Christian Scientist never leaves his patient until he has filled the latter’s consciousness, if possible, with the spirit of God.
Discussion points
The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing evil and mistaking fact for fiction, — predicting the future from a groundwork of corporeality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit. It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know the past, the present, and the future.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 84
With the mind’s eye glance at the direful scenes of the war between China and Japan. Imagine yourselves in a poorly barricaded fort, fiercely besieged by the enemy. Would you rush forth single-handed to combat the foe? Nay, would you not rather strengthen your citadel by every means in your power, and remain within the walls for its defense? Likewise should we do as metaphysicians and Christian Scientists. The real house in which “we live, and move, and have our being” is Spirit, God, the eternal harmony of infinite Soul. The enemy we confront would overthrow this sublime fortress, and it behooves us to defend our heritage.
How can we do this Christianly scientific work? By intrenching ourselves in the knowledge that our true temple is no human fabrication, but the superstructure of Truth, reared on the foundation of Love, and pinnacled in Life. Such being its nature, how can our godly temple possibly be demolished, or even disturbed? Can eternity end? Can Life die? Can Truth be uncertain? Can Love be less than boundless? Referring to this temple, our Master said: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” He also said: “The kingdom of God is within you.” Know, then, that you possess sovereign power to think and act rightly, and that nothing can dispossess you of this heritage and trespass on Love. If you maintain this position, who or what can cause you to sin or suffer? Our surety is in our confidence that we are indeed dwellers in Truth and Love, man’s eternal mansion.
from Pulpit and Press by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 2 to 3
Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.
10. 302
…spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all being.
Spiritual Man by Peter V. Ross
4. I Corinthians 6 : 19, 20
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
3. 595 : 7-9 (to ; )
Temple. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and intelligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of Love;
The so-called human body only seems to be material. When correctly understood it is the spiritual body, the only body, imperfectly known because seen through the lens of false material sense. We must understand that the so-called human body and all of its functions, are divine facts expressed, and they appear human or material to us because of our ignorance of the spiritual fact.
Right where body seems to be as matter, is the spiritual body, visible to our consciousness as outline, form, color, substance, function, and permanency. I want to repeat that we should never think of this body, the body we now have, as a material body, and then try to get rid of it or change it. This is a destructive influence. The only thing we want to get rid of is the belief that our bodies are material. …
So, we need never fear that our present heart, or lungs, or kidneys will stop doing what they never have done; and we may rest assured that the divine Mind, the Enactor of all so-called human functions, will go on functioning eternally.
Kidneys, as ideas, must eliminate; brain, as idea, must manifest intelligence; bowels, as idea, must act; heart, as the divine idea that it is, must ever beat and circulate. Why? Because these functions forever reflect the one infinite and only ORGAN, the divine Mind and its functionings. …
Do not fear anything that your present body seems to be doing. Every cell, fiber, tissue, gland, organ, or muscle of the human body exists right now in the one Mind as Idea, and each idea is proclaiming, “I am reflecting God, I am expressing God.” Every cell and fiber of my being is expressing the sovereignty of God, or proclaiming, “I AM.” (See S&H 162:12)
Let error kill itself. It comes to you for life and you give it the only life it has — in belief.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 215
Genesis 2:17
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Question. — What is man?
Answer. — Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God’s image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 475
2. 477 : 19-2
Question. — What are body and Soul?
Answer. — Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love. 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 Indians caught some glimpses of the underlying reality, when they called a certain beautiful lake “the smile of the Great Spirit.” Separated from man, who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man, divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is, there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with God.
12. 14 : 6-22
To be “present with the Lord” is to have, not mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demonstration and understanding of Life as revealed in Christian Science. To be “with the Lord” is to be in obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed by divine Love, — by Spirit, not by matter.
Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, — neither in nor of matter, — and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spiritual Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the hope of the promise Jesus bestows: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; … because I go unto my Father,” — [because the Ego is absent from the body, and present with Truth and Love.]
Be watchful, sober, and vigilant.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 324
Doris Grekel
I honestly forget exactly how I met Doris. It was likely through Paul.
I do know that it was when I found her three volume biography on Mrs. Eddy, that I then had to communicate with her as there were many accounts in those 1600+ pages that I had never heard of, and wished to know their source. Interestingly, Doris had no phone, and never did. She eschewed the use of computers. There were only two ways to get ahold of her: one was to phone her sister (who was a Christian Science practitioner) I think it was, or to write her a letter. I first wrote her a letter and began a 20 year+ correspondence with her. I did actually visit her one time in Awahnee, California, many years ago. I asked Doris more than once where she found the amazing accounts she had included in her landmark biography. She always demurred and said that she simply combed all the issues of the Christian Science Journal, and that was where she gleaned these inspiring facts. I still question if that was the whole of it however.
At one point, when I was established with my own non-profit, Healing Unlimited, and had asked her if she had any other copies of her biography, she said that they were down to a very few. It was then that I capitalized on my association with Aequus Institute of Claremont, CA, and applied to them for a grant to republish her three-volume biography. As I had published a few books by that point, I designed new covers for her books and published them prior to the advent of POD (Print On Demand). Later, when POD became a thing, first with CreateSpace, then later with Amazon Kindle Enterprise Publishing (who bought CreateSpace, as they were the gorilla in the room for POD), Doris’ quintessential biography on Mary Baker Eddy was established on Amazon.
In between all this of course, Doris had been for many years, publishing The Individual Christian Scientist on a quarterly basis. This periodical was really what the Christian Science Sentinel should have been. It was a wonderful publication containing inspiring historical snippets of Mary Baker Eddy and accounts of early workers in the vineyard of Christian Science. There were accounts of healings, and other fascinating tidbits that her readership hungered for. Later, when Doris passed on, and the publishing of this ceased, Healing Unlimited took it upon itself to republish all 30 years of these back issues in six large volumes (there is a seventh, final, volume to be done yet).
Additionally, Doris, published another book, called Principle and Practice. This book too, Healing Unlimited will be publishing to preserve that part of Doris Grekel’s legacy.
Overall, she had a significant impact upon not only a scholarly approach to recording Mary Baker Eddy’s life, but also, and most importantly, knowing exactly how to treat the sacred and inspired history of the greatest woman who ever lived.
Final Readings
“Stand porter” by Nellie Lowther
from the March 14, 1925 issue of the Christian Science Sentinel
THE text, “I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness,” opened up a train of thought to the writer of much practical utility in everyday life. How often one has agreed, theoretically, with the Psalmist, thinking that if it were possible for his poetical words to be translated into experience, who of us, seeking the truth, would not gladly take the position of “a doorkeeper in the house of my God” in preference to dwelling “in the tents of wickedness”! How could one hesitate to choose the safety, the peace, the happiness of the Father’s house, in whatever position, rather than the alternative of “the tents of wickedness”!
Just at that point Mrs. Eddy’s words of admonition, promise, and cheer in “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 392) followed as a natural sequence: “Stand porter at the door of thought.” There came an instant realization that the Psalmist’s words were not mere poetic imagery, but were of very practical import: that we all have the opportunity each day to be doorkeepers,—to guard our thoughts that no undesirable, unbidden guest enter our mental home; and that to be faithful we must never desert our post, for troops of guests—thoughts—are forever knocking at the door of our consciousness for admittance. Idle thoughts block the way of the useful, helpful ones; thoughts of prejudice or resentment shut out thoughts of love; doubt and discouragement take up the place of faith and hope; in short, whether we like to admit it or not, we are choosing to dwell “in the tents of wickedness” when we allow the entrance of any erroneous thought into our consciousness.
If, on the contrary, we “hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true” (Science and Health, p. 261), and think of those things of which Paul speaks when he tells us, “If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think of these things,” which are “honest, … just, … pure, … lovely, … of good report,” we are going far towards establishing in truth the temple or body “whose builder and maker is God.”