Responsive Reading: Psalm 34 : 1-5, 22

1.     I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

2.     My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

3.     O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.

4.     I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

5.     They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

22.     The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

1. Psalm 121 : 1-8

1     I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

2      My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

3     He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

4     Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5     The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6     The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7     The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8     The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

2. Joshua 22 : 1 (Joshua)-6

1     Joshua called the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh,

2     And said unto them, Ye have kept all that Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, and have obeyed my voice in all that I commanded you:

3     Ye have not left your brethren these many days unto this day, but have kept the charge of the commandment of the Lord your God.

4     And now the Lord your God hath given rest unto your brethren, as he promised them: therefore now return ye, and get you unto your tents, and unto the land of your possession, which Moses the servant of the Lord gave you on the other side Jordan.

5     But take diligent heed to do the commandment and the law, which Moses the servant of the Lord charged you, to love the Lord your God, and to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and to cleave unto him, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul.

6     So Joshua blessed them, and sent them away: and they went unto their tents.

3. Joshua 23 : 1-6, 14

1     And it came to pass a long time after that the Lord had given rest unto Israel from all their enemies round about, that Joshua waxed old and stricken in age.

2     And Joshua called for all Israel, and for their elders, and for their heads, and for their judges, and for their officers, and said unto them, I am old and stricken in age:

3     And ye have seen all that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the Lord your God is he that hath fought for you.

4     Behold, I have divided unto you by lot these nations that remain, to be an inheritance for your tribes, from Jordan, with all the nations that I have cut off, even unto the great sea westward.

5     And the Lord your God, he shall expel them from before you, and drive them from out of your sight; and ye shall possess their land, as the Lord your God hath promised unto you.

6     Be ye therefore very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that ye turn not aside therefrom to the right hand or to the left;

14     And, behold, this day I am going the way of all the earth: and ye know in all your hearts and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all are come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.

4. Isaiah 58 : 10 (if)-12

10     …if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

11     And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

12     And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

5. Matthew 16 : 21-28

21     From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.

22     Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

23     But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

24     Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

25     For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

26     For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

27     For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

28     Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.

6. Lamentations 3 : 24-26

24     The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

25     The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

26     It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

1. 6 : 14-16

To reach heaven, the harmony of being, we must understand the divine Principle of being.

2. 120 : 4-6

Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God's image.

3. 477 : 22-29

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."

4. 587 : 25-27

Heaven. Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere of Soul.

5. 390 : 4-11

We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, simply because, to the mortal senses, there is seeming discord. It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.

6. 311 : 7-25

Soul is immortal because it is Spirit, which has no element of self-destruction. Is man lost spiritually? No, he can only lose a sense material. All sin is of the flesh. It cannot be spiritual. Sin exists here or hereafter only so long as the illusion of mind in matter remains. It is a sense of sin, and not a sinful soul, which is lost. Evil is destroyed by the sense of good.

Through false estimates of soul as dwelling in sense and of mind as dwelling in matter, belief strays into a sense of temporary loss or absence of soul, spiritual truth. This state of error is the mortal dream of life and substance as existent in matter, and is directly opposite to the immortal reality of being. So long as we believe that soul can sin or that immortal Soul is in mortal body, we can never understand the Science of being. When humanity does understand this Science, it will become the law of Life to man, — even the higher law of Soul, which prevails over material sense through harmony and immortality.

7. 427 : 2-7

Life is the law of Soul, even the law of the spirit of Truth, and Soul is never without its representative. Man's individual being can no more die nor disappear in unconsciousness than can Soul, for both are immortal.

8. 307 : 25 (The)-30

The divine Mind is the Soul of man, and gives man dominion over all things. Man was not created from a material basis, nor bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never made; his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher law of Mind.

9. 302 : 15 (harmonious)-24

…harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and is always beyond and above the mortal illusion of any life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact, not fable. The Science of being reveals man as perfect, even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind, of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all being, and because this real man is governed by Soul instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called laws of matter.

10. 322 : 3-13

When understanding changes the standpoints of life and intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or Truth, in its divine Principle. This must be the climax before harmonious and immortal man is obtained and his capabilities revealed. It is highly important — in view of the immense work to be accomplished before this recognition of divine Science can come — to turn our thoughts towards divine Principle, that finite belief may be prepared to relinquish its error.

11. 60 : 24-11

An ill-attuned ear calls discord harmony, not appreciating concord. So physical sense, not discerning the true happiness of being, places it on a false basis. Science will correct the discord, and teach us life's sweeter harmonies.

Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real enjoyment.

The good in human affections must have ascendency over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happiness will never be won. The attainment of this celestial condition would improve our progeny, diminish crime, and give higher aims to ambition. Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway of our God may be prepared in Science.

12. 210 : 11-16

Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation.

13. 9 : 17-24

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, and material sense and human will have no place.

14. 273 : 18 only

Man is harmonious when governed by Soul.