Sunday, August 17th, 2025 Roundtable
The Beauty of Holiness
This week’s Lesson Sermon Subject: Soul
Click here to play the audio as you read:
Morning Prayer
How blessed it is to think of you as “beneath the shadow of a great rock in a weary land,” safe in His strength, building on His foundation, and covered from the devourer by divine protection and affection. Always bear in mind that His presence, power, and peace meet all human needs and reflect all bliss.
from Miscellaneous Writings, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 263
Cultivate the habit of trust by daily repeating, ‘I am led by the spirit of infinite wisdom. I consecrate my will, my judgment, my desire, and all my faculty to the direction of the all-wise One. I shall hear. I shall know. I shall do right.’
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 116
Daily Watch
194 — WATCH lest you believe that you can ever really lose your spiritual ability to reflect God, which is a gift of God to each of His children. In this dream of mortality it is possible to lose sight of it, just as children sometimes close their eyes while riding on a train, and imagine that they are going backwards. Sometimes they can make themselves feel all the sensations of going in the direction opposite to the one in which they actually are going. To correct the error, they need only open their eyes.
Discussion points
Question. — What is the scientific statement of being?
Answer. — There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.
from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 468
The body and you are not one. You are not in the body, talking to it, and it cannot talk of itself. You are spiritual, not material; you are my good, faithful, follower of Christ — the image of God. Indeed, you are this idea and have no strife with the flesh. You reflect God, and His image is like unto Spirit, not matter. The flesh has no connection with you. Realize this, and you are master of the situation.
from Divinity Course and General Collectanea, (the “Blue Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 117
10. 125 : 2-20
What is now considered the best condition for organic and functional health in the human body may no longer be found indispensable to health. Moral conditions will be found always harmonious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction nor overaction is beyond God’s control; and man will be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought, and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than he was in the prior states which human belief created and sanctioned.
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. When subordinate to the divine Spirit, man cannot be controlled by sin or death, thus proving our material theories about laws of health to be valueless.
1. 477 : 26 only
Man is the expression of Soul.
Golden Text: Psalm 96 : 9
“O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.”
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 244 to 248
Mind And Nature By Rev. G. A. Kratzer
The one who is demonstrating Soul will not seek to do it, but the beauty of his Soul will be manifested in his surroundings.
Soul particularly stands for the things that beautify human experience and make life more enjoyable. Soul is a word that signifies beauty, happiness, harmony, peace, and so on. Soul indicates a higher attainment of Science than Mind. Mind signifies reasoning faculties. Soul is the spontaneity of knowing without process. Soul is the ISNESS of ALL.
Soul is the substance of all beauty, the principle, the activity, the law of all that is beautiful. It is the impulsion of all true expression. Man is a state of revelation, spontaneously showing forth Soul.
He who believes that he has a soul in his body will have to get rid of that belief; there is nothing to that at all. There is just one Spirit, one Soul, and that is God. Soul is the divine Mind, and it is that particular quality of Infinity that expresses itself in infinite beauty and grandeur throughout creation.
Soul is all there is to music and the arts. Everything that is beautiful, noble, and grand, has its origin in Soul, in divine Mind.
from 1937 College by Bicknell Young
If you wish to be happy, argue with yourself on the side of happiness; take the side you wish to carry, and be careful not to talk on both sides, or to argue stronger for sorrow than for joy.
from Christian Healing, by Mary Baker Eddy, page 10
2. Daniel 4 : 37
37 Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment: and those that walk in pride he is able to abase.
“The Genius Of Christian Science” By George C. Duff
The Bad Little Sheep by John Randall Dunn
Love is a Shepherd who goes forth into the darkness of the night, into the storm and wind, to find the lost sheep. This Shepherd of Love leaves the beaten path, searches the wood and marsh, pushes aside the brambles, and seeks until the lost is found; then He places it within His bosom and returns to heal and restore.
Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy by Irving Tomlinson, page 90
Watching Point 398, from 500 Watching Points by Gilbert Carpenter
7. II Peter 1 : 2-8
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
“Until the day dawn, and the day-star arise in your hearts.” By M. W.
Diligence, from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
Faith, from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
Virtue, from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
Knowledge, from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
Temperance, from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
Patience , from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
Luke 21:19
In your patience possess ye your souls.
Godliness , from the 1828 Webster’s Dictionary
Final Readings
Beauty and Business
My thought turned to the company surroundings. The premises had been neglected during the war years and looked uninviting and dull to say the least. Again the irresistible urge to beautify came over me. But there seemed to be no way of paying even the smallest amount for such an undertaking.
My Bible companion book, Science and Health, had told me that ‘Beauty is a thing of life, which dwells forever in the eternal Mind and reflects the charms of His goodness in expression, form and colour’. (S&H p. 247)
This Mind, which I had learned to trust and listen to, I felt would point the way. By this time I had also begun to grasp the idea that there is a law of God which supports every normal human footstep for improvement and progress. This law of good, I found out later when I was asked by others to help them with business problems, can be applied to any legitimate business large or small. It is set forth most clearly in the Bible in the first three verses of the first Psalm –
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season: his leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
Well, my attention was soon drawn to a row of black and white photograph enlargements mounted on the wall of the reception room. One was of a soldier drinking from a cup. I felt this photo enlargement had to go since the war was now over. It was replaced with an attractive photo, coloured by a young woman of great talent and ability.
The result was that the remaining black and white photos in the display now appeared unattractive and and old-fashioned. These had to be replaced. And so it progressed! As one thing was renewed the next thing would cry out for beautifying. We had our own carpenter who made display stands for photographic work, and in his slack hours, he would do the work of rejuvenating our premises. And money for this purpose became available as we went along. Soon the reception room was a glory of colour and beauty, with new desks, built in seats for clients, and a large coloured illuminated mural of an orchard in full blossom. There were also beautiful arrangements of fresh flowers to feast the eyes on.
At that time it was impossible to move into other premises because of government building restrictions. Other businesses, as an aftermath of the war, found themselves in the same circumstances we had been in, with neglected showroom and office premises. This right idea, to beatify our surroundings, had immediate consequences for good. A General Motors automobile agent came to see me about some photographc work, and expressed amazement at the transformation that had taken place. He asked if we could do the same for his premises.
Suddenly we found ourselves with a brand new lucrative type of work requiring the cooperation of builders, artists, designers, architects and planners, in addition to our original staff. We received contracts to remodel banks, showrooms, tourist bureaus milk bars, and even the interior of a train.
from The Ultimate Freedom by John H. Wyndham, page 90