Responsive Reading: Psalm 103 : 1-4 • Psalm 29 : 2, 11 • Psalm 96 : 6V

1.     Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2.     Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3.     Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

4.     Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

2.     Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

11.     The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.

6.     Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.

1. Job 5 : 8, 24

8     I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:

24     And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace; and thou shalt visit thy habitation, and shalt not sin.

2. Isaiah 54 : 14, 17

14     In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.

17     No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.

3. II Chronicles 19 : 1

1     And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem.

4. II Chronicles 20 : 2 (to thee), 3, 4 (to :), 13 (to 1st ,), 14 (to Jahaziel), 14 (came), 15 (to 1st ,), 15 (Thus), 16 (to :), 17 (to 3rd ,), 17 (for), 18, 20 (to 1st ,), 21, 22, 24, 29, 30

2     Then there came some that told Jehoshaphat, saying, There cometh a great multitude against thee …

3     And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

4     And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the Lord:

13     And all Judah stood before the Lord,

14     Then upon Jahaziel … came the Spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation;

15     And he said, … Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

16     To morrow go ye down against them:

17     Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, … for the Lord will be with you.

18     And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.

20     And they rose early in the morning,

21     And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for his mercy endureth for ever.

22     And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

24     And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.

29     And the fear of God was on all the kingdoms of those countries, when they had heard that the Lord fought against the enemies of Israel.

30     So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet: for his God gave him rest round about.

5. Isaiah 61 : 10 (to 2nd ,), 11

10     I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation,

11     For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

6. Matthew 8 : 18

18     Now when Jesus saw great multitudes about him, he gave commandment to depart unto the other side.

7. Matthew 9 : 2-8

2     And, behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed: and Jesus seeing their faith said unto the sick of the palsy; Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee.

3     And, behold, certain of the scribes said within themselves, This man blasphemeth.

4     And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?

5     For whether is easier, to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and walk?

6     But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (then saith he to the sick of the palsy,) Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house.

7     And he arose, and departed to his house.

8     But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men.

8. Luke 17 : 20, 21

20     And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

21     Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

9. Romans 8 : 2 (the law of the), 6, 9 (to 1st .), 14-17 (to 2nd ;)

2     …the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

6     For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

9     But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.

14     For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

15     For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16     The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17     And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;

10. Revelation 21 : 3 (I), 4

3     I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4     And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

1. 477 : 22-26

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.

2. 587 : 25-27

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

3. 15 : 25-32

Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God. Self-forgetfulness, purity, and affection are constant prayers. Practice not profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthiness is the foundation of enlightened faith. Without a fitness for holiness, we cannot receive holiness.

4. 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.

5. 482 : 3-12

Human thought has adulterated the meaning of the word soul through the hypothesis that soul is both an evil and a good intelligence, resident in matter. The proper use of the word soul can always be gained by substituting the word God, where the deific meaning is required. In other cases, use the word sense, and you will have the scientific signification. As used in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with sense, with material sensation.

6. 269 : 14-16

Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.

7. 240 : 27-32

In trying to undo the errors of sense one must pay fully and fairly the utmost farthing, until all error is finally brought into subjection to Truth. The divine method of paying sin's wages involves unwinding one's snarls, and learning from experience how to divide between sense and Soul.

8. 209 : 21 (all)-24, 31-32

…all must give place to the spiritual fact by the translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In proportion as this is done, man and the universe will be found harmonious and eternal.

Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God.

9. 63 : 5 (In)-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.

10. 470 : 32-5

The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.

11. 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.

12. 135 : 11-15

The same power which heals sin heals also sickness. This is "the beauty of holiness," that when Truth heals the sick, it casts out evils, and when Truth casts out the evil called disease, it heals the sick.

13. 210 : 16-18

Jesus healed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical process.

14. 242 : 9-14

There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality — to have no other consciousness of life — than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses.

15. 273 : 10-15, 18 (Man)-20

Divine Science reverses the false testimony of the material senses, and thus tears away the foundations of error. Hence the enmity between Science and the senses, and the impossibility
of attaining perfect understanding till the errors of sense are eliminated.

Man is harmonious when governed by Soul. Hence the importance of understanding the truth of being, which reveals the laws of spiritual existence.

16. 248 : 26-32

We must form perfect models in thought and look at them continually, or we shall never carve them out in grand and noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love — the kingdom of heaven — reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.

17. 393 : 8-15

Mind is the master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.

18. 171 : 4-8 (to 4th ,)

Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free.