Sunday, February 15th, 2026 Roundtable
Outward, Upward, and Heavenward
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Soul
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Morning Prayer
It is necessary to keep your eye single to the light, and your whole body will be full of light. Don’t look at self, look at Soul. Be not self-willed, but individually thinking your thoughts straight from God, and not from mortals. It is just as erroneous to be governed by other people’s wills as to be self-willed, for there is only one common foe, our self-will, not a human will in you and one in another, but our common self-will as opposed to the spiritual will, which is the persistent keeping of the eye single to the light.
Hold on to your Life. Let nothing rob you! Rise not by will-power, but rise in exaltation. God loves you, He will not let you fall.
from Essays and Other Footprints, (the “Red Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 76
Daily Watch
425 — WATCH lest, when you read that Mrs. Eddy promised to give the course in Divinity to students who came to live with her (Manual, page 68), and then find out that according to the testimony of many of these students, she never taught it, that you believe that she broke her promise.
The very name, course in Divinity, indicates that it is a course taught by Divinity, or by God Himself. It is a God-taught course; hence God must be teaching it continually, and man’s part is to listen for His voice, to realize his ability to take the course, before he can take it.
Mrs. Eddy gave the students in her home the teaching that would enable them to hear God’s voice. She knew that if they were faithful in practicing what she taught them, they would receive this God-taught course. Hence she fulfilled her promise to teach the course in Divinity when she taught her students how to be taught of God, how to listen for His voice. She could not teach the course, since only God can do that.
The course in Divinity, …is received through spiritual sense. Since this faculty lies dormant, it must be resurrected. Therefore, Mrs. Eddy gave lessons in cryptic and sketchy form, in order that the students would be forced to ponder their meaning, not with the human intelligence, but with spiritual sense. She knew that in this way they would develop this soul faculty, and so be enabled to be taught of God.
Discussion points
Course in Divinity and General Collectanea, (the Blue Book), compiled by Richard F. Oakes
Various books on mental healing have since been issued, most of them incorrect in theory and filled with plagiarisms from Science and Health. They regard the human mind as a healing agent, whereas this mind is not a factor in the Principle of Christian Science.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page x
Wisdom is not gained of knowledge that brought sin and death into the world; …
from Science and Health, 1875, by Mary Baker Eddy
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.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 259
Deuteronomy 4 : 36
“Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice, that he might instruct thee.”
One Soul, from The 1936 Primary Class by Bicknell Young
Golden Text: Psalm 25 : 1
“Unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.”
I lift up my soul;
”Lifting up the soul” is an expression of deep trust and dependence on God. It signifies offering one’s innermost being to God, seeking His guidance, protection, and mercy. This act of lifting up the soul is a form of worship and surrender, acknowledging God’s sovereignty and the psalmist’s need for divine intervention. The imagery of lifting up the soul can be connected to other scriptures that speak of seeking God with one’s whole heart (Psalm 86:4, Psalm 143:8). It also foreshadows the New Testament call to present oneself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God (Romans 12:1).
Gotthold, in his Emblems, says, “Doves have been trained to fly from place to place, carrying letters in a basket fastened to their necks or feet. They are swift of flight; but our prayers and sighs are swifter, for they take but a moment to pass from earth to heaven, and bear the troubles of our heart to the heart of God. These messengers no hostile force can detain; they penetrate the clouds, never linger on the way, and never desist until the Most High attends. A tyrant may shut up a godly man in the deepest dungeon, immure him between massive walls, and forbid him all intercourse with his fellow men, but these messengers he cannot restrain; in defiance of all obstacles they report to the Omniscient the affliction of the victim, and bring back to him the Divine consolation.”
from Bible Hub
Romans 8:35
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
True prayer may be described as the soul rising from earth to have fellowship with heaven; it is taking a journey upon Jacob's ladder, leaving our cares and fears at the foot, and meeting with a covenant God at the top. Very often the soul cannot rise, she has lost her wings, and is heavy and earth-bound; more like a burrowing mole than a soaring eagle. At such dull seasons we must not give over prayer, but must, by God's assistance, exert all our power to lift up our hearts.
Commentary on Psalm 25:1
Luke 17:21
Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
Mrs. Eddy is dealing with this absolute concept of man when in her prayer on page 10 of Pulpit and Press she writes: “Divine Presence, breathe Thou Thy blessing on every heart in this house. Speak out, O Soul! This is the newborn of Spirit, this His redeemed; this, His beloved. May the kingdom of God within you, — with you alway — reascending bear you outward, upward, heavenward.” …
It is as we allow our thoughts to turn inward and thus downward and hellward, …
Outward, Upward, Heavenward by Herbert Reike from his 1952 Association Address
The Burden of Being Ungrateful by Suzanne Hadley Gosselin
Romans 12:11
11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
Joshua 24:15
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.
10. 9 : 17-23 (to 2nd ,)
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,
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 192
Everything that comes to me to-day brings me a blessing. There is no mortal mind to see me to-day or know me to-day; or think it can through any of its so-called laws of malpractice rob me of all good or hinder me from being conscious here and now of my birthright which is dominion.
Rise if the past detains you,
Her sunshine and storms forget;
No claims so unworthy will hold you
As those of vain regret.
Sad or bright she is lifeless ever;
Cast her phantom arms away,
Nor look back but to learn the lesson
Of a nobler strife to-day.
from Collectanea, by Mary Baker Eddy