Responsive Reading: Psalm 89 : 1-3, 15, 16, 34, 37

1.     I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever:

2.     Thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.

3.     I have made a covenant with my chosen.

15.     Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.

16.     In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.

34.     My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.

37.     It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.

1. Genesis 1 : 1, 26 (to :)

1     In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

26     And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:

2. Genesis 2 : 1, 6, 7, 21, 22, 25

1     Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

6     But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.

7     And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

21     And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

22     And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

25     And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

3. Genesis 3 : 23

23     Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

4. Isaiah 2 : 11, 12, 22

11     The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.

12     For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low:

22     Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of?

5. Deuteronomy 4 : 29, 31

29     But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.

31     (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

6. Deuteronomy 29 : 10 (to ;), 12, 13

10     Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God;

12     That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the Lord thy God, and into his oath, which the Lord thy God maketh with thee this day:

13     That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

7. I Samuel 1 : 1 (to 3rd ,), 2, 6, 8-11 (to 8th ,), 17, 18, 19 (and Elkanah), 20, 24 (to 2nd ,), 25 (and brought)-28

1     Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah,

2     And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

6     And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.

8     Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? and why eatest thou not? and why is thy heart grieved? am not I better to thee than ten sons?

9     So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord.

10     And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.

11     And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life,

17     Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.

18     And she said, Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight. So the woman went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.

19     ...and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her.

20     Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.

24     And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her,

25     …and brought the child to Eli.

26     And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.

27     For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him:

28     Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.

8. Isaiah 51 : 1 (to 3rd ,), 4, 5, 7, 8 (but)

1     Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn,

4     Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.

5     My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.

7     Hearken unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is my law; fear ye not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.

8     but my righteousness shall be for ever, and my salvation from generation to generation.

1. 592 : 16-17

Mother. God; divine and eternal Principle; Life, Truth, and Love.

2. 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.

3. 396 : 26-30

Keep distinctly in thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man; that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit, outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life and sensation.

4. 264 : 32-9

The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings, and its government is divine Science. Man is the offspring, not of the lowest, but of the highest qualities of Mind. Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward, their affections and aims grow spiritual, — they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite, — in order that sin and mortality may be put off.

5. 256 : 2-8, 28-1

Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the inspirational, and from the mortal to the immortal. All things are created spiritually. Mind, not matter, is the creator. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man.

A limitless Mind cannot proceed from physical limitations. Finiteness cannot present the idea or the vastness of infinity. A mind originating from a finite or material source must be limited and finite. Infinite Mind is the creator, and creation is the infinite image or idea emanating from this Mind.

6. 289 : 27-2

Life is not in matter. Therefore it cannot be said to pass out of matter. Matter and death are mortal illusions. Spirit and all things spiritual are the real and eternal.

Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, — of Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I am, the Being who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase.

7. 61 : 4-13

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. The offspring of heavenly-minded parents inherit more intellect, better balanced minds, and sounder constitutions.

8. 64 : 29-6

Honesty and virtue ensure the stability of the marriage covenant. Spirit will ultimately claim its own, — all that really is, — and the voices of physical sense will be forever hushed.

Experience should be the school of virtue, and human happiness should proceed from man's highest nature. May Christ, Truth, be present at every bridal altar to turn the water into wine and to give to human life an inspiration by which man's spiritual and eternal existence may be discerned.

9. 69 : 13-26

Spiritually to understand that there is but one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scriptures, brings the sweet assurance of no parting, no pain, and of man deathless and perfect and eternal.

If Christian Scientists educate their own offspring spiritually, they can educate others spiritually and not conflict with the scientific sense of God's creation. Some day the child will ask his parent: "Do you keep the First Commandment? Do you have one God and creator, or is man a creator?" If the father replies, "God creates man through man," the child may ask, "Do you teach that Spirit creates materially, or do you declare that Spirit is infinite, therefore matter is out of the question?"

10. 62 : 4-7, 16-19, 27-28

The entire education of children should be such as to form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law, with which the child can meet and master the belief in so-called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease.

Children should be allowed to remain children in knowledge, and should become men and women only through growth in the understanding of man's higher nature.

The higher nature of man is not governed by the lower; if it were, the order of wisdom would be reversed.

11. 57 : 23-24

Love enriches the nature, enlarging, purifying, and elevating it.

12. 68 : 4-8, 30-10

Sometime we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has created men and women in Science. We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood.

Proportionately as human generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, harmonious being will be spiritually discerned; and man, not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will appear. The scientific fact that man and the universe are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease. Mortals can never understand God's creation while believing that man is a creator. God's children already created will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being. Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion as the false and material disappears.

13. 476 : 28-32

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.

14. 582 : 28-29

Children. The spiritual thoughts and representatives of Life, Truth, and Love.