Responsive Reading: Psalm 103 : 1-5 ; Psalm 19 : 14

1.     Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2.     Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3.     Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

4.     Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with lovingkindness and tender mercies;

5.     Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

14.     Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

1. Isaiah 52 : 9, 10

9     Break forth into joy, sing together, ye waste places of Jerusalem: for the Lord hath comforted his people, he hath redeemed Jerusalem.

10     The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.

2. Genesis 1 : 27 (God), 28 (to :)

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

28     And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:

3. Genesis 2 : 6-8 (to ;), 16, 17, 21, 22

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.

8     And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden;

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.

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.

4. Genesis 3 : 1-6, 9, 12, 13

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.

9     And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

12     And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I 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.

5. Luke 4 : 1 (to 1st ,)

1     And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan,

6. Luke 7 : 36-50

36     And one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. And he went into the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to meat.

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.

40     And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on.

41     There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty.

42     And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most?

43     Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged.

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     M     y 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.

49     And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also?

50     And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace.

7. I Peter 1 : 18 (ye know)-21

18     …ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

19     But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

20     Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

21     Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.

8. I Corinthians 15 : 22

22     For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

1. 591 : 5-7

Man.The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; the full representation of Mind.

2. 258 : 9-24

Man is more than a material form with a mind inside, which must escape from its environments in order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God.

God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in the infinitude of Truth. We know no more of man as the true divine image and likeness, than we know of God.

The infinite Principle is reflected by the infinite idea and spiritual individuality, but the material so-called senses have no cognizance of either Principle or its idea. The human capacities are enlarged and perfected in proportion as humanity gains the true conception of man and God.

3. 502 : 9-14 (to .)

Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to suggest the proper reflection of God and the spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter of Genesis.

4. 92 : 11-20

In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve. This represents the serpent in the act of commending to our first parents the knowledge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter, or evil, instead of from Spirit. The portrayal is still graphically accurate, for the common conception of mortal man — a burlesque of God’s man — is an outgrowth of human knowledge or sensuality, a mere offshoot of material sense.

5. 481 : 12-23

The forbidden fruit of knowledge, against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death, and good and evil to be capable of commingling. This is the significance of the Scripture concerning this “tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” — this growth of material belief, of which it is said: “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Human hypotheses first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and then assume the necessity of these evils because of their admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the procurers of all discord.

6. 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.

7. 533 : 26-7

Truth, cross-questioning man as to his knowledge of error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, “The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;” as much as to say in meek penitence, “Neither man nor God shall father my fault.” She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to manifest the deathless man of God’s creating. This enabled woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.

8. 282 : 28-3

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. The rule of inversion infers from error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence apart from God.

9. 151 : 23-30

The divine Mind that made man maintains His own image and likeness. The human mind is opposed to God and must be put off, as St. Paul declares. All that really exists is the divine Mind and its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found harmonious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and follow the leadings of truth.

10. 259 : 6 (In)-21

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.

If man was once perfect but has now lost his perfection, then mortals have never beheld in man the reflex image of God. The lost image is no image. The true likeness cannot be lost in divine reflection. Understanding this, Jesus said: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”

11. 269 : 3-8

From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind and matter and the mingling of good and evil have resulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus’ demonstrations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothingness, of evil.

12. 171 : 4-8 (to 4th ,)

Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free.