Responsive Reading: Psalm 62 : 1, 2, 5, 7, 8   •   Psalm 16 : 1

1.     Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.

2.     He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.

5.     My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

7.     In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

8.     Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.

1.     Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.

1. Psalm 107 : 1-9

1     O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

2     Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

3     And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.

4     They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.

5     Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

6     Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

7     And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.

8     Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!

9     For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

2. Isaiah 49 : 8 (to 3rd ,)

8     Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee,

3. Luke 14 : 1 (to 2nd ,), 3 (Jesus) (to 2nd ,)

1     And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day,

3     Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying,

4. Luke 15 : 11 (A)-31

11     A certain man had two sons:

12     And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living.

13     And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.

14     And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.

15     And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

16     And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.

17     And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!

18     I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,

19     And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.

20     And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.

21     And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.

22     But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet:

23     And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry:

24     For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.

25     Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing.

26     And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant.

27     And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound.

28     And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him.

29     And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends:

30     But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.

31     And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine.

5. Acts 9 : 32-35

32     And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.

33     And there he found a certain man named Æneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy.

34     And Peter said unto him, Æneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately.

35     And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord.

6. Psalm 51 : 1, 2, 10-12

1     Have mercy upon me, 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.

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

11     Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

12     Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

7. Psalm 103 : 13, 17 (the mercy)

13     Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him.

17     …the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him,
and his righteousness unto children’s children;

8. II Corinthians 6 : 16 (as God)-18

16     …as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

17     Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,

18     And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

9. Psalm 121 : 7, 8

7     The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8     The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

1. 586 : 9-10

Father. Eternal Life; the one Mind; the divine Principle, commonly called God.

2. 31 : 4 (Jesus)-11

Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh. He said: "Call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven." Again he asked: "Who is my mother, and who are my brethren," implying that it is they who do the will of his Father. We have no record of his calling any man by the name of father. He recognized Spirit, God, as the only creator, and therefore as the Father of all.

3. 63 : 5 (In)-11

In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the law of his being.

4. 428 : 15-19

We should consecrate existence, not "to the unknown God" whom we "ignorantly worship," but to the eternal builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life which mortal sense cannot impair nor mortal belief destroy.

5. 387 : 27-32

The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering.

6. 322 : 14-12

Man's wisdom finds no satisfaction in sin, since God has sentenced sin to suffer. The necromancy of yesterday foreshadowed the mesmerism and hypnotism of to-day. The drunkard thinks he enjoys drunkenness, and you cannot make the inebriate leave his besottedness, until his physical sense of pleasure yields to a higher sense. Then he turns from his cups, as the startled dreamer who wakens from an incubus incurred through the pains of distorted sense. A man who likes to do wrong — finding pleasure in it and refraining from it only through fear of consequences — is neither a temperate man nor a reliable religionist.

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. Without this process of weaning, "Canst thou by searching find out God?" It is easier to desire Truth than to rid one's self of error. Mortals may seek the understanding of Christian Science, but they will not be able to glean from Christian Science the facts of being without striving for them. This strife consists in the endeavor to forsake error of every kind and to possess no other consciousness but good.

Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, peace, and purity, which are the landmarks of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause, — wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.

7. 242 : 15 (Self-love)-20

Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error, — self-will, self-justification, and self-love, — which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death.

8. 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.

9. 339 : 7 (Since)-19

Since God is All, there is no room for His unlikeness. God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it good. Therefore evil, being contrary to good, is unreal, and cannot be the product of God. 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.

10. 327 : 1-7

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.

11. 491 : 12-16

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.

12. 325 : 16 (Then)-19

Then shall man be found, in His likeness, perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, "hid with Christ in God," — with Truth in divine Love, where human sense hath not seen man.

13. 550 : 5-7

God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men.

14. 16 : 26-27

Our Father which art in heaven,

Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,

15. 17 : 10-11

And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth

us from sin, disease, and death.