Responsive Reading: Deuteronomy 8 : 1-4, 11, 17, 18

1.     All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers.

2.     And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

3.     And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

4.     Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell, these forty years.

11.     Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day:

17.     And thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth.

18.     But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.

1. Micah 6 : 6-8

6     Wherewith shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old?

7     Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

8     He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

2. Deuteronomy 5 : 1-4

1     And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them.

2     The Lord our God made a covenant with us in Horeb.

3     The Lord made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day.

4     The Lord talked with you face to face in the mount out of the midst of the fire,

3. Deuteronomy 6 : 1, 4-8, 18

1     Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it:

4     Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:

5     And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

6     And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

7     And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

8     And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

18     And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers,

4. Deuteronomy 7 : 9

9     Know therefore that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations;

5. Mark 1 : 14 (Jesus)-22, 32-39

14     Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,

15     And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel.

16     Now as he walked by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew his brother casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers.

17     And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

18     And straightway they forsook their nets, and followed him.

19     And when he had gone a little further thence, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets.

20     And straightway he called them: and they left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants, and went after him.

21     And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.

22     And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.

32     And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.

33     And all the city was gathered together at the door.

34     And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.

35     And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

36     And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.

37     And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.

38     And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.

39     And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.

6. Mark 12 : 28-34 (to 1st .)

28     And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

29     And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:

30     And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31     And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

32     And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:

33     And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

34     And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.

7. Hebrews 8 : 8 (Behold), 10, 11

8     Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

10     For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

11     And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

8. Hebrews 9 : 13 (to 1st ,), 13 (sanctifieth), 14

13     For if the blood of bulls and of goats, … sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh:

14     How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

1. 183 : 21-25

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.

2. 3 : 14 (to)-16

…to understand God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire.

3. 40 : 25-30

Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that all men should follow the example of our Master and his apostles and not merely worship his personality. It is sad that the phrase divine service has come so generally to mean public worship instead of daily deeds.

4. 32 : 3-14

In ancient Rome a soldier was required to swear allegiance to his general. The Latin word for this oath was sacramentum, and our English word sacrament is derived from it. Among the Jews it was an ancient custom for the master of a feast to pass each guest a cup of wine. But the Eucharist does not commemorate a Roman soldier’s oath, nor was the wine, used on convivial occasions and in Jewish rites, the cup of our Lord. The cup shows forth his bitter experience, — the cup which he prayed might pass from him, though he bowed in holy submission to the divine decree.

5. 33 : 27-17

Christians, are you drinking his cup? Have you shared the blood of the New Covenant, the persecutions which attend a new and higher understanding of God? If not, can you then say that you have commemorated Jesus in his cup? Are all who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all for the Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this inspiration to a dead rite, instead of showing, by casting out error and making the body "holy, acceptable unto God," that Truth has come to the understanding? If Christ, Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other commemoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel, or God with us; and if a friend be with us, why need we memorials of that friend?

If all who ever partook of the sacrament had really commemorated the sufferings of Jesus and drunk of his cup, they would have revolutionized the world. If all who seek his commemoration through material symbols will take up the cross, heal the sick, cast out evils, and preach Christ, or Truth, to the poor, — the receptive thought, — they will bring in the millennium.

6. 25 : 26-32

Implicit faith in the Teacher and all the emotional love we can bestow on him, will never alone make us imitators of him. We must go and do likewise, else we are not improving the great blessings which our Master worked and suffered to bestow upon us. The divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the humanity of Jesus.

7. 54 : 10-13

That he might liberally pour his dear-bought treasures into empty or sin-filled human store-houses, was the inspiration of Jesus' intense human sacrifice.

8. 11 : 22-27

We know that a desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only practical road to holiness.

9. 15 : 26-32

Self-forgetfulness, purity, and affection are constant prayers. Practice not profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthiness is the foundation of enlightened faith. Without a fitness for holiness, we cannot receive holiness.

10. 261 : 31-5

We should forget our bodies in remembering good and the human race. Good demands of man every hour, in which to work out the problem of being. Consecration to good does not lessen man's dependence on God, but heightens it. Neither does consecration diminish man's obligations to God, but shows the paramount necessity of meeting them.

11. 167 : 32-3

Substituting good words for a good life, fair seeming for straightforward character, is a poor shift for the weak and worldly, who think the standard of Christian Science too high for them.

12. 462 : 9-19

If the student goes away to practise Truth's teachings only in part, dividing his interests between God and mammon and substituting his own views for Truth, he will inevitably reap the error he sows. Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian Science must abide strictly by its rules, heed every statement, and advance from the rudiments laid down. There is nothing difficult nor toilsome in this task, when the way is pointed out; but self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every department of life.

13. 458 : 25 (The)-11

The Christian Scientist wisely shapes his course, and is honest and consistent in following the leadings of divine Mind. He must prove, through living as well as healing and teaching, that Christ's way is the only one by which mortals are radically saved from sin and sickness.

Christianity causes men to turn naturally from matter to Spirit, as the flower turns from darkness to light. Man then appropriates those things which "eye hath not seen nor ear heard." Paul and John had a clear apprehension that, as mortal man achieves no worldly honors except by sacrifice, so he must gain heavenly riches by forsaking all worldliness. Then he will have nothing in common with the worldling's affections, motives, and aims. Judge not the future advancement of Christian Science by the steps already taken, lest you yourself be condemned for failing to take the first step.

14. 254 : 10-15

When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spiritual perfection slowly; but to begin aright and to continue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of being, is doing much.

15. 21 : 9-14

If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striving to enter in. He constantly turns away from material sense, and looks towards the imperishable things of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the start, and gain a little each day in the right direction, till at last he finishes his course with joy.