Responsive Reading: Genesis 1 : 26, 27, 31 • Psalm 100 : 3-5

26.     And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27.     So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

31.     And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

3.     Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4.     Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5.     For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

1. Psalm 139 : 1-3, 7-10

1     O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.

2     Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.

3     Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

7     Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

8     If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

9     If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

10     Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

2. II Kings 4 : 8-28, 32-37

8     And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.

9     And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually.

10     Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.

11     And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.

12     And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him.

13     And he said unto him, Say now unto her, Behold, thou hast been careful for us with all this care; what is to be done for thee? wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? And she answered, I dwell among mine own people.

14     And he said, What then is to be done for her? And Gehazi answered, Verily she hath no child, and her husband is old.

15     And he said, Call her. And when he had called her, she stood in the door.

16     And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son. And she said, Nay, my lord, thou man of God, do not lie unto thine handmaid.

17     And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life.

18     And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers.

19     And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother.

20     And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died.

21     And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.

22     And she called unto her husband, and said, Send me, I pray thee, one of the young men, and one of the asses, that I may run to the man of God, and come again.

23     And he said, Wherefore wilt thou go to him to day? it is neither new moon, nor sabbath. And she said, It shall be well.

24     Then she saddled an ass, and said to her servant, Drive, and go forward; slack not thy riding for me, except I bid thee.

25     So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite:

26     Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.

27     And when she came to the man of God to the hill, she caught him by the feet: but Gehazi came near to thrust her away. And the man of God said, Let her alone; for her soul is vexed within her: and the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me.

28     Then she said, Did I desire a son of my lord? did I not say, Do not deceive me?

32     And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed.

33     He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord.

34     And he went up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon his hands: and he stretched himself upon the child; and the flesh of the child waxed warm.

35     Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes.

36     And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite. So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son.

37     Then she went in, and fell at his feet, and bowed herself to the ground, and took up her son, and went out.

3. Matthew 4 : 23, 24

23     And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

24     And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

4. Matthew 8 : 14, 15

14     And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.

15     And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.

5. Zephaniah 3 : 17

17     The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

1. 475 : 5-1 (to 1st .)

Question. — What is man?

Answer. — Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.

And God said: "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."

Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not God's man.

2. 259 : 6 (In)-14

In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow, — thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea, — perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration.

3. 285 : 2-11

Man's individuality is not material. This Science of being obtains not alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here and now; it is the great fact of being for time and eternity.

What, then, is the material personality which suffers, sins, and dies? It is not man, the image and likeness of God, but man's counterfeit, the inverted likeness, the unlikeness called sin, sickness, and death.

4. 491 : 7-17 next page

Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter calling itself right. Man's spiritual individuality is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.

The belief that matter and mind are one, — that matter is awake at one time and asleep at another, sometimes presenting no appearance of mind, — this belief culminates in another belief, that man dies. Science reveals material man as never the real being. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes are closed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are lost from the body, and they wander whither they will apparently with their own separate embodiment. Personality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man may have an attractive personality.

When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleasures of matter. Who will say, even though he does not understand Christian Science, that this dream — rather than the dreamer — may not be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise, when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body and thought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious? For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its unlikeness, mortality.

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. We know that a statement proved to be good must be correct. New thoughts are constantly obtaining the floor. These two contradictory theories — that matter is something, or that all is Mind — will dispute the ground, until one is acknowledged to be the victor.

5. 517 : 8-10, 30-4 (to 2nd .)

The ideal man corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth. The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love.

Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to multiply, — to manifest His power. Man is not made to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not subjection. He is lord of the belief in earth and heaven, — himself subordinate alone to his Maker. This is the Science of being.

6. 428 : 19-23

We must realize the ability of mental might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them with the life which is spiritual, not material.

The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal.

7. 76 : 22-26

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.

8. 527 : 4-5

Man is God's reflection, needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.