Responsive Reading: Psalm 27 : 3-5, 8, 11, 13  •  Psalm 23 : 6

3.     Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

4.     One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.

5.     For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me: he shall set me up upon a rock.

8.     When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.

11.     Teach me thy way, O Lord, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

13.     I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

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. Proverbs 12 : 28

28     In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.

2. Deuteronomy 33 : 1 (to Israel), 12 (The beloved), 25, 27 (to :), 29

1     And this is the blessing, wherewith Moses the man of God blessed the children of

Israel …

12     The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him; and the Lord shall cover him all the day long, and he shall dwell between his shoulders.

25     Thy shoes shall be iron and brass; and as thy days, so shall thy strength be.

27     The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:

29     Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee; and thou shalt tread upon their high places.

3. Numbers 13 : 1, 2, 25-28 (to :), 33

1     And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

2     Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel: of every tribe of their fathers shall ye send a man, every one a ruler among them.

25     And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

26     And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.

27     And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.

28     Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great:

33     And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

4. Numbers 14 : 6-9, 20 (to ,), 22, 23 (to ,), 24, 36-38

6     And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:

7     And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.

8     If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.

9     Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the Lord is with us: fear them not.

20     And the Lord said,

22     Because all those men which have seen my glory, and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice;

23     Surely they shall not see the land which I sware unto their fathers,

24     But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereinto he went; and his seed shall possess it.

36     And the men, which Moses sent to search the land, who returned, and made all the congregation to murmur against him, by bringing up a slander upon the land,

37     Even those men that did bring up the evil report upon the land, died by the plague before the Lord.

38     But Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of the men that went to search the land, lived still.

5. Joshua 14 : 6-12 (to ;), 13, 14, 15 (And the land)

6     Then the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him, Thou knowest the thing that the Lord said unto Moses the man of God concerning me and thee in Kadesh-barnea.

7     Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh-barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.

8     Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God.

9     And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.

10     And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.

11     As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.

12     Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day;

13     And Joshua blessed him, and gave unto Caleb the son of Jephunneh Hebron for an inheritance.

14     Hebron therefore became the inheritance of Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite unto this day, because that he wholly followed the Lord God of Israel.

15     And the land had rest from war.

6. Psalm 16 : 1, 5, 6, 8, 11

1     Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.

5     The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

6     The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

8     I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

11     Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

1. 200 : 9-13

Life is, always has been, and ever will be independent of matter; for Life is God, and man is the idea of God, not formed materially but spiritually, and not subject to decay and dust.

2. 151 : 18 (The)-24

The blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing to do with Life, God. Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no control over God's man. The divine Mind that made man maintains His own image and likeness.

3. 246 : 1-16, 20-31

Man is not a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and sorrow, sickness and health, life and death. Life and its faculties are not measured by calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal likeness of their Maker. Man is by no means a material germ rising from the imperfect and endeavoring to reach Spirit above his origin. The stream rises no higher than its source.

The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, undimmed by a declining sun. As the physical and material, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright and imperishable glories.

Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.

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.

4. 247 : 13-18

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.

5. 248 : 5-11

Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each day brings to a nearer tomb.

6. 407 : 21-28

If delusion says, "I have lost my memory," contradict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmonious in every action. Let the perfect model be present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness.

7. 245 : 30 (decrepitude)-31

…decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of nature, but an illusion.

8. 5 : 16 (God)-18

God pours the riches of His love into the understanding and affections, giving us strength according to our day.

9. 183 : 16-25

The supposed laws which result in weariness and disease are not His laws, for the legitimate and only possible action of Truth is the production of harmony. Laws of nature are laws of Spirit; but mortals commonly recognize as law that which hides the power of Spirit. Divine Mind rightly demands man's entire obedience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty. Obedience to Truth gives man power and strength. Submission to error superinduces loss of power.

10. 79 : 29-3

Mind-science teaches that mortals need "not be weary in well doing." It dissipates fatigue in doing good. Giving does not impoverish us in the service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us. We have strength in proportion to our apprehension of the truth, and our strength is not lessened by giving utterance to truth.

11. 385 : 1-21

It is proverbial that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists engaged in humane labors have been able to undergo without sinking fatigues and exposures which ordinary people could not endure. The explanation lies in the support which they derived from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds. Let us remember that the eternal law of right, though it can never annul the law which makes sin its own executioner, exempts man from all penalties but those due for wrong-doing.

Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untoward conditions, if without sin, can be experienced without suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself. If you sprain the muscles or wound the flesh, your remedy is at hand. Mind decides whether or not the flesh shall be discolored, painful, swollen, and inflamed.

12. 414 : 32 (Matter)-5

Matter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an excited state of mortals which is not normal. Immortal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a cause nor an effect. Mind in every case is the eternal God, good. Sin, disease, and death have no foundations in Truth.

13. 199 : 8 (Muscles)-14

Muscles are not self-acting. If mind does not move them, they are motionless. Hence the great fact that Mind alone enlarges and empowers man through its mandate, — by reason of its demand for and supply of power. Not because of muscular exercise, but by reason of the blacksmith's faith in exercise, his arm becomes stronger.

14. 167 : 6-10

We apprehend Life in divine Science only as we live above corporeal sense and correct it. Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines the harmony of our existence, — our health, our longevity, and our Christianity.

15. 492 : 7 (Being)-12

Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, will uplift the physical and moral standard of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy all error, and bring immortality to light.

16. 578 : 16-18

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [love] for ever.