Responsive Reading: Psalm 23 : 1-6

1.     The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2.     He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3.     He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4.     Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5.     Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6.     Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

1. Psalm 37 : 3-5

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.

2. II Kings 4 : 1-7

1     Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.

2     And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.

3     Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.

4     And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.

5     So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.

6     And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.

7     Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

3. Jeremiah 29 : 11-13

11     For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

12     Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

13     And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

4. John 6 : 3-14, 26, 27 (to :), 29 (This), 37, 38, 41 (to 1st ,), 42, 43, 47, 48, 63

3     And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.

4     And the passover, a feast of the Jews, was nigh.

5     When Jesus then lifted up his eyes, and saw a great company come unto him, he saith unto Philip, Whence shall we buy bread, that these may eat?

6     And this he said to prove him: for he himself knew what he would do.

7     Philip answered him, Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one of them may take a little.

8     One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, saith unto him,

9     There is a lad here, which hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes: but what are they among so many?

10     And Jesus said, Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.

11     And Jesus took the loaves; and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them that were set down; and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

12     When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.

13     Therefore they gathered them together, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above unto them that had eaten.

14     Then those men, when they had seen the miracle that Jesus did, said, This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world.

26     Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

27     Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you:

29     This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

37     All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.

38     For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.

41     The Jews then murmured at him,

42     And they said, Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? how is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven?

43     Jesus therefore answered and said unto them, Murmur not among yourselves.

47     Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

48     I am that bread of life.

63     It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

5. Matthew 6 : 24-26 (to .), 34 (to 1st .)

24     No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25     Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26     Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.

34     Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.

6. Philippians 4 : 4-7

4     Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

5     Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.

6     Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

7     And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

1. 275 : 10-15

To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one, — and are the Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause, and effect belong to God.

2. 468 : 17 (Substance)-22

Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Hebrews: "The substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Spirit, the synonym of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance.

3. 301 : 17-29

As God is substance and man is the divine image and likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter. The belief that man has any other substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material substance, while man is "image" (idea). Delusion, sin, disease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down.

4. 139 : 4-9

From beginning to end, the Scriptures are full of accounts of the triumph of Spirit, Mind, over matter. Moses proved the power of Mind by what men called miracles; so did Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha. The Christian era was ushered in with signs and wonders.

5. 591 : 21-22

Miracle. That which is divinely natural, but must be learned humanly; a phenomenon of Science.

6. 134 : 31-1

A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that law. This fact at present seems more mysterious than the miracle itself. 

7. 509 : 20-28

So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances are no more contingent now on time or material structure than they were when "the morning stars sang together." Mind made the "plant of the field before it was in the earth." The periods of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness — yea, the divine nature — appear in man and the universe never to disappear.

8. 257 : 6-11

The theory that Spirit is not the only substance and creator is pantheistic heterodoxy, which ultimates in sickness, sin, and death; it is the belief in a bodily soul and a material mind, a soul governed by the body and a mind in matter. This belief is shallow pantheism.

9. 281 : 27-1

Divine Science does not put new wine into old bottles, Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite. Our false views of matter perish as we grasp the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the inspiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be lost.

10. 91 : 16-21

Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spiritual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed the material senses.

11. 66 : 6-16

Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, — a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not half remember this in the sunshine of joy and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are proofs of God's care. Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.

12. 92 : 32-9

Do you say the time has not yet come in which to recognize Soul as substantial and able to control the body? Remember Jesus, who nearly nineteen centuries ago demonstrated the power of Spirit and said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," and who also said, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," said Paul.

13. 195 : 11-16

The point for each one to decide is, whether it is mortal mind or immortal Mind that is causative. We should forsake the basis of matter for metaphysical Science and its divine Principle.

Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed by its Principle, furnishes food for thought.

14. 201 : 1-9

The best sermon ever preached is Truth practised and demonstrated by the destruction of sin, sickness, and death. Knowing this and knowing too that one affection would be supreme in us and take the lead in our lives, Jesus said, "No man can serve two masters."

We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away and "all things are become new." 

15. 269 : 11-20

Metaphysics is above physics, and matter does not enter into metaphysical premises or conclusions. The categories of metaphysics rest on one basis, the divine Mind. Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul.

These ideas are perfectly real and tangible to spiritual consciousness, and they have this advantage over the objects and thoughts of material sense, — they are good and eternal.

16. 261 : 2-7

Look away from the body into Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and
immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.

17. 17 : 14-15

For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.