Responsive Reading: Ephesians 1 : 3, 10, 17-19

3.     Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

10.     That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:

17.     That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:

18.     The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

19.     And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.

1. Exodus 20 : 3-6

3     Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

4     Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:

5     Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;

6     And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

2. I Kings 12 : 1, 28 (to 2nd ,), 29, 30, 32 (So) (to :)

1     And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.

28     Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold,

29     And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan.

30     And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

32     So did he in Beth-el, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made:

3. I Kings 13 : 1, 3-6

1     And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord unto Beth-el: and Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

3     And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord hath spoken; Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.

4     And it came to pass, when king Jeroboam heard the saying of the man of God, which had cried against the altar in Beth-el, that he put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against him, dried up, so that he could not pull it in again to him.

5     The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

6     And the king answered and said unto the man of God, Intreat now the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again. And the man of God besought the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.

4. Lamentations 3 : 22-24, 26

22     It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

23     They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

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

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

5. John 4 : 1-4, 6 (to :), 7 (to :), 19-21, 23, 24, 27 (to :), 31, 32, 34

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

2     (Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)

3     He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee.

4     And he must needs go through Samaria.

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

7     There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water:

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.

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.

27     And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman:

31     In the mean while his disciples prayed him, saying, Master, eat.

32     But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that ye know not of.

34     Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.

6. Hebrews 13 : 5, 9 (to ;)

5     Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

9     Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace;

7. I Peter 2 : 11-16

11     Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

12     Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.

13     Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;

14     Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.

15     For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:

16     As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

1. 241 : 19-30

The substance of all devotion is the reflection and demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and destroying sin. Our Master said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

One's aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is revealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its demonstration.

2. 466 : 21 (Soul)-31

Soul or Spirit means only one Mind, and cannot be rendered in the plural. Heathen mythology and Jewish theology have perpetuated the fallacy that intelligence, soul, and life can be in matter; and idolatry and ritualism are the outcome of all man-made beliefs. The Science of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright, and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and its divine Principle, making mankind better physically, morally, and spiritually.

3. 535 : 10-18

Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed material foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idolatry. A belief in other gods, other creators, and other creations must go down before Christian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in sickness and death. When will man pass through the open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul, into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is indeed "the way."

4. 186 : 28-5

Mortal mind is ignorant of self, or it could never be self-deceived. If mortal mind knew how to be better, it would be better. Since it must believe in something besides itself, it enthrones matter as deity. The human mind has been an idolater from the beginning, having other gods and believing in more than the one Mind.

As mortals do not comprehend even mortal existence, how ignorant must they be of the all-knowing Mind and of His creations.

5. 480 : 26-5

The Bible declares: "All things were made by Him [the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything made that was made." This is the eternal verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness, and death were understood as nothingness, they would disappear. As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."

6. 351 : 27-4

The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow. They thought to worship Spirit from a material standpoint, but this was impossible. They might appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently understand God to be able to demonstrate His power to heal, — to make harmony the reality and discord the unreality.

7. 404 : 3-15

If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and destroy these errors with the truth of being, — by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering which his submission to such habits brings, and by convincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appetites. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body. Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked motives which produce them. If the evil is over in the repentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on the individual, you can remove this disorder as God's law is fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime.

8. 346 : 29-2 (to ?)

Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both God and mammon at the same time; but is not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says: "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." Who is ready to admit this?

9. 167 : 11-19

We cannot serve two masters nor perceive divine Science with the material senses. Drugs and hygiene cannot successfully usurp the place and power of the divine source of all health and perfection. If God made man both good and evil, man must remain thus. What can improve God's work? Again, an error in the premise must appear in the conclusion. To have one God and avail yourself of the power of Spirit, you must love God supremely.

10. 140 : 16-22

We worship spiritually, only as we cease to worship materially. Spiritual devoutness is the soul of Christianity. Worshipping through the medium of matter is paganism. Judaic and other rituals are but types and shadows of true worship. "The true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth."

11. 340 : 15-29

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri-unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal. One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.