Responsive Reading: Isaiah 55 : 7, 9   •   Joel 2 : 12, 13, 25, 32   •   Isaiah 43 : 25

7.     Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

9.     For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

12.     Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

13.     And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

25.     And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.

32.     And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered:

25.     I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.

1. Psalm 25 : 5 (to ;), 6-8

5     Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation;

6     Remember, O Lord, thy tender mercies and thy lovingkindnesses; for they have been ever of old.

7     Remember not the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions: according to thy mercy remember thou me for thy goodness’ sake, O Lord.

8     Good and upright is the Lord: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

2. Matthew 9 : 10-13

10     And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

11     And when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto his disciples, Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?

12     But when Jesus heard that, he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.

13     But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

3. Luke 7 : 37-39, 44-48

37     And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,

38     And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.

39     Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.

44     And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.

45     Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.

46     My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment.

47     Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.

48     And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

4. Luke 18 : 9-14

9     And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:

10     Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican.

11     The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

12     I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.

13     And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner.

14     I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

5. Proverbs 28 : 13

13     He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.

6. Psalm 51 : 1 (O), 2, 6 (to :), 10, 13, 16, 17, 19 (to ,)

1     O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2     Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

6     Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts:

10     Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

13     Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

16     For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.

17     The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

19     Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,

7. Psalm 16 : 10

10     For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

8. Hebrews 12 : 5 (My), 6, 11, 18, 22

5     My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him:

6     For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

11     Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

18     For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest,

22     But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

9. Lamentations 3 : 21-23, 40, 55 (to 2nd ,), 57, 58

21     This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

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.

40     Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

55     I called upon thy name, O Lord,

57     Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

58     O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

10. Isaiah 1 : 18

18     Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

1. 6 : 3 (Divine)-5, 11-18

Divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may pardon, but this divine Principle alone reforms the sinner.

To cause suffering as the result of sin, is the means of destroying sin. Every supposed pleasure in sin will furnish more than its equivalent of pain, until belief in material life and sin is destroyed. To reach heaven, the harmony of being, we must understand the divine Principle of being.

"God is Love." More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go. 

2. 35 : 30 (only)

The design of Love is to reform the sinner.

3. 362 : 1-7, 11 (Mary)-12

It is related in the seventh chapter of Luke's Gospel that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual incident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene of Oriental festivity. A "strange woman" came in.

(Mary Magdalene, as she has since been called) approached Jesus.

4. 363 : 8 (Did Jesus)-15, 21 (and)-31

Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adoration? No! He regarded her compassionately. Nor was this all. Knowing what those around him were saying in their hearts, especially his host, — that they were wondering why, being a prophet, the exalted guest did not at once detect the woman's immoral status and bid her depart, — knowing this, Jesus rebuked them with a short story or parable.

... and so brought home the lesson to all, following it with that remarkable declaration to the woman, "Thy sins are forgiven."

Why did he thus summarize her debt to divine Love? Had she repented and reformed, and did his insight detect this unspoken moral uprising? She bathed his feet with her tears before she anointed them with the oil. In the absence of other proofs, was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth in wisdom?

5. 364 : 8-12

Which was the higher tribute to such ineffable affection, the hospitality of the Pharisee or the contrition of the Magdalen? This query Jesus answered by rebuking self-righteousness and declaring the absolution of the penitent.

6. 5 : 3-10 (to justice), 23 (Sin)-25

Sorrow for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform and the very easiest step. The next and great step required by wisdom is the test of our sincerity, — namely, reformation. To this end we are placed under the stress of circumstances. Temptation bids us repeat the offence, and woe comes in return for what is done. So it will ever be, till we learn that there is no discount in the law of justice ...

Sin is forgiven only as it is destroyed by Christ, — Truth and Life.

7. 327 : 1-7, 9-13 (to 2nd .)

Reform comes by understanding that there is no abiding pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for good according to Science, which reveals the immortal fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appetite nor passion, can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all the sinful appetites of the human mind.

Evil is sometimes a man's highest conception of right, until his grasp on good grows stronger. Then he loses pleasure in wickedness, and it becomes his torment. The way to escape the misery of sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way.

8. 241 : 1 (only), 3 (and)-4

"Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth."

... and he who refuses obedience to God, is chastened by Love.

9. 448 : 3-5, 17-19

When the Publican's wail went out to the great heart of Love, it won his humble desire.

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."

10. 291 : 1-5

The suppositions that sin is pardoned while unforsaken, that happiness can be genuine in the midst of sin, that the so-called death of the body frees from sin, and that God's pardon is aught but the destruction of sin, — these are grave mistakes.

11. 339 : 11-19

A sinner can receive no encouragement from the fact that Science demonstrates the unreality of evil, for the sinner would make a reality of sin, — would make that real which is unreal, and thus heap up "wrath against the day of wrath." He is joining in a conspiracy against himself, — against his own awakening to the awful unreality by which he has been deceived. Only those, who repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully understand the unreality of evil.

12. 404 : 19-25

This conviction, that there is no real pleasure in sin, is one of the most important points in the theology of Christian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new and true view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure, and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and increases his ability to master evil and to love good.

13. 322 : 26-30

The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes, turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life in divine Science.

14. 323 : 6-9

Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, peace, and purity, which are the landmarks of Science.

15. 23 : 10 (both)-11

... both sin and suffering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love.