Responsive Reading: Psalm 23 : 1-6

1.     The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2.     He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3.     He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4.     Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5.     Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6.     Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

1. John 3 : 16 (God), 17

16     God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17     For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

2. John 4 : 1, 3-7, 9-11, 13-26

1     When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,

3     He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee.

4     And he must needs go through Samaria.

5     Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

6     Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

7     There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

9     Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

10     Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

11     The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

13     Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

14     But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

15     The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

16     Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

17     The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

18     For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

19     The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

20     Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

21     Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

22     Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

23     But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

24     God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

25     The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

26     Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

3. John 12 : 44-50

44     Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me, believeth not on me, but on him that sent me.

45     And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me.

46     I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

47     And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.

48     He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.

49     For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

50     And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

4. I Timothy 1 : 1 (to 2nd ,), 12 (I)-16

1     Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the commandment of God our Saviour,

12     I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

13     Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

14     And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

15     This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

16     Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

5. I Corinthians 15 : 50-57

50     Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

51     Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52     In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53     For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54     So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

55     O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

56     The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

57     But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

1. 42 : 26 (in)-28

…in Christian Science the true man is governed by God — by good, not evil — and is therefore not a mortal but an immortal.

2. 295 : 5-15

God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them. Mortal mind would transform the spiritual into the material, and then recover man's original self in order to escape from the mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals, created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all, mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact and disap-pear, and the real sense of being, perfect and forever intact, will appear.

3. 190 : 14-20

Human birth, growth, maturity, and decay are as the grass springing from the soil with beautiful green blades, afterwards to wither and return to its native nothingness. This mortal seeming is temporal; it never merges into immortal being, but finally disappears, and immortal man, spiritual and eternal, is found to be the real man.

4. 476 : 1-5, 10-20, 28-32

Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals. They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil, which declares that man begins in dust or as a material embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are inseparable as divine Principle and idea.

Hence man is not mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and immortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen children of God. They never had a perfect state of being, which may subsequently be regained. They were, from the beginning of mortal history, "conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity." Mortality is finally swallowed up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must disappear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal man.

When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal.

5. 296 : 4-13

Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suffering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off. Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.

6. 496 : 20-27

"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law," — the law of mortal belief, at war with the facts of immortal Life, even with the spiritual law which says to the grave, "Where is thy victory?" But "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

7. 428 : 22-29

The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We must hold forever the consciousness of existence, and sooner or later, through Christ and Christian Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence of man's immortality will become more apparent, as material beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being are admitted.

8. 246 : 27-31

Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.

9. 247 : 10-18

Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion form the transient standards of mortals. Immortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its own, — the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness which transcend all material sense.

10. 76 : 22-31

The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, — constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence is scientific and intact, — a perfection discernible only by those who have the final understanding of Christ in divine Science. Death can never hasten this state of existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to, before immortality appears.

11. 495 : 14-24

When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.

12. 288 : 27-28

Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses.