Responsive Reading: Psalm 37 : 3-6, 18, 19, 23, 37

3.     Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.

4.     Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

5.     Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.

6.     And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.

18.     The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.

19.     They shall not be ashamed in the evil time: and in the days of famine they shall be satisfied.

23.     The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.

37.     Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.

1. II Samuel 22 : 33

33     God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.

2. Genesis 1 : 31 (to 1st .)

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

3. Psalm 104 : 24, 30, 31, 33

24     O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.

30     Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

31     The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works.

33     I will sing unto the Lord as long as I live: I will sing praise to my God while I have my being.

4. Genesis 2 : 6, 7, 16, 17

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.

16     And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

17     But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

5. Genesis 3 : 1-6, 13, 17

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2     And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3     But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4     And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5     For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6     And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

13     And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

17     And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

6. Mark 1 : 9-11, 21-28, 34 (to ;)

9     And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan.

10     And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:

11     And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

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.

23     And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,

24     Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.

25     And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.

26     And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.

27     And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.

28     And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.

34     And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils;

7. John 17 : 1-3, 14-20, 22, 23

1     These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

2     As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

3     And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

14     I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

15     I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

16     They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

17     Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

18     As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

19     And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

20     Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

22     And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:

23     I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

8. Hebrews 13 : 20, 21 (to 1st .)

20     Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,

21     Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever.

1. 259 : 6-14

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.

2. 470 : 21-31

God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression of God’s being. It there ever was a moment when man did not express the divine perfection, then there was a moment when man did not express God, and consequently a time when Deity was unexpressed — that is, without entity. If man has lost perfection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle or Mind, then man’s existence was a myth.

3. 306 : 30-6

God’s man, spiritually created, is not material and mortal.

The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter. This pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, insists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying, “Ye shall be as gods;” that is, I will make error as real and eternal as Truth.

4. 491 : 7-16

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.

5. 282 : 23-31

There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is material is a material, human, mortal thought, always governing itself erroneously.

Truth is the intelligence of immortal Mind. Error is the so-called intelligence of mortal mind.

Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God’s absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father.

6. 476 : 13-17

Mortals are not fallen children of God. They never had a perfect state of being, which may subsequently be regained. They were, from the beginning of mortal history, “conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity.”

7. 556 : 17-24

Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is darkness, but God’s creative mandate was, “Let there be light.” In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions. They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the dream.

8. 338 : 27-32

Jehovah declared the ground was accursed; and from this ground, or matter, sprang Adam, notwithstanding God had blessed the earth “for man’s sake.” From this it follows that Adam was not the ideal man for whom the earth was blessed. The ideal man was revealed in due time, and was known as Christ Jesus.

9. 332 : 23 (Jesus)-26, 29-2

Jesus was the son of a virgin. He was appointed to speak God’s word and to appear to mortals in such a form of humanity as they could understand as well as perceive. … He expressed the highest type of divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age. Into the real and ideal man the fleshly element cannot enter. Thus it is that Christ illustrates the coincidence, or spiritual agreement, between God and man in His image.

10. 333 : 8 (Christ)-13

Christ is not a name so much as the divine title of Jesus. Christ expresses God’s spiritual, eternal nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and alludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the embodiment.

11. 476 : 28-5

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. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.

12. 260 : 7-12

The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through many generations human beliefs will be attaining diviner conceptions, and the immortal and perfect model of God’s creation will finally be seen as the only true conception of being.

13. 407 : 22 (In)-28

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.

14. 470 : 32-5

The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.