Responsive Reading: Isaiah 42 : 5-9 • Deuteronomy 32 : 6 • Psalm 100 : 3 • Psalm 95 : 6

5.     Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

6.     I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles;

7.     To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.

8.     I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

9.     Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.

6.     Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee, and established thee?

3.     Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

6.     O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

1. Isaiah 44 : 24

24     Thus saith the Lord, thy redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself;

2. Isaiah 43 : 1 (Fear)-3 (to :), 10-13, 15

1     Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

2     When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

3     For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour:

10     Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen : that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

11     I, even I, am the Lord; and beside me there is no saviour.

12     I have declared, and have saved, and I have shewed, when there was no strange god among you: therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.

13     Yea, before the day was I am he; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand: I will work, and who shall let it?

15     I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King.

3. John 1 : 1-5, 10-14

1     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2     The same was in the beginning with God.

3     All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4     In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5     And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

10     He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11     He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12     But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13     Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14     And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

4. II Corinthians 1 : 2-4

2     Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

3     Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;

4     Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

5. John 5 : 2 (to 1st ,), 5, 8, 9, 15, 16 (to 1st ,), 17-20, 24, 26

2     Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool,

5     And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

8     Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

9     And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

15     The man departed, and told the Jews that it was Jesus, which had made him whole.

16     And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus,

17     But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

18     Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

19     Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

20     For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel.

24     Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

26     For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

6. Matthew 23 : 9-12

9     And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.

10     Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ.

11     But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.

12     And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.

7. Luke 10 : 21, 22

21     In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight.

22     All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal him.

8. Isaiah 51 : 1 (to 3rd ,)

1     Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,

1. 63 : 5-11

In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being.

2. 31 : 4-11

Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh. He said: "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Again he asked: "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren," implying that it is they who do the will of his Father. We have no record of his calling any man by the name of father. He recognized Spirit, God, as the only creator, and therefore as the Father of all.

3. 555 : 16-32

Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self-existent and eternal. Only impotent error would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this sham unity man, as if man were the offspring of both Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Creation rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity, when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus was able to present himself unchanged after the crucifixion.

4. 544 : 13-17

In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might or right or wisdom to create or to destroy. All is under the control of the one Mind, even God.

5. 262 : 27-6

The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly. Every concept which seems to begin with the brain begins falsely. Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, in mortal mind, or in physical forms.

Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to be independent workers, personal authors, and even privileged originators of something which Deity would not or could not create. The creations of mortal mind are material. Immortal spiritual man alone represents the truth of creation.

6. 547 : 19-22

Material evolution implies that the great First Cause must become material, and afterwards must either return to Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.

7. 524 : 28-29

Could Spirit evolve its opposite, matter, and give matter ability to sin and suffer?

8. 69 : 2-7

The scientific fact that man and the universe are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease. Mortals can never understand God's creation while believing that man is a creator.

9. 178 : 8 only, 18-27

Heredity is not a law.

Mortal mind, acting from the basis of sensation in matter, is animal magnetism; but this so-called mind, from which comes all evil, contradicts itself, and must finally yield to the eternal Truth, or the divine Mind, expressed in Science. In proportion to our understanding of Christian Science, we are freed from the belief of heredity, of mind in matter or animal magnetism; and we disarm sin of its imaginary power in proportion to our spiritual understanding of the status of immortal being.

10. 259 : 22-31

Mortal thought transmits its own images, and forms its offspring after human illusions. God, Spirit, works spiritually, not materially. Brain or matter never formed a human concept. Vibration is not intelligence; hence it is not a creator. Immortal ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious results.

11. 257 : 12-21

Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the substance of an idea is very far from being the supposed substance of non-intelligent matter. Hence the Father Mind is not the father of matter. The material senses and human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into material beliefs, and would say that an anthropomorphic God, instead of infinite Principle, — in other words, divine Love, — is the father of the rain, "who hath begotten the drops of dew," who bringeth "forth Mazzaroth in his season," and guideth "Arcturus with his sons."

12. 135 : 9-10

Spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of divine power.

13. 264 : 13-31

As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness.

Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being. Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit. Sin is unsustained by Truth, and sickness and death were overcome by Jesus, who proved them to be forms of error. Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.

When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God's creation, — all the glories of earth and heaven and man.