IN THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE BIBLE LESSON August 9, 2010 Issue

FULL OF SINGING

BETH CAREY

THIS WEEK'S Bible Lesson offers a great way to learn more about God as Soul. The word soul sometimes seems confusing and obscure. Science and Health clarifies the concept by explaining that "... Soul is properly the synonym of Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with sense, with material sensation" (p. 482, citation 2).

The Golden Text and Responsive Reading make it clear how to express Soul. They use such action words as "rejoice," "praise," "bless." And they recommend that we give thought to "thanksgiving," "singing," "gladness," and being "joyful."

The whole Lesson is full of these qualities. When we aren't feeling them, the Lesson lets us know why: If today we're not full of singing, joy, and thanksgiving, it's that we are in an illusion, thinking that we live in body and in matter. Science and Health explains, "Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter instead of in Spirit" (p. 223, cit. 8).