Responsive Reading: Psalm 107 : 21-25, 28-30, 43

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

22.     And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

23.     They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters;

24.     These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep.

25.     For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.

28.     Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.

29.     He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.

30.     Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

43.     Whoso is wise, and will observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the Lord.

1. Psalm 46 : 1-3 (to 1st .), 4-7 (to 1st .), 10, 11 (to 1st .)

1     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2     Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3     Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

4     There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

5     God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

6     The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

7     The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

10     Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

11     The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

2. Exodus 3 : 1-7, 10-12 (to ;), 15 (to :)

1     Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

2     And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

3     And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

4     And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

5     And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

6     Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

7     And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

10     Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.

11     And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

12     And he said, Certainly I will be with thee;

15     And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you:

3. Exodus 4 : 1-7

1     And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.

2     And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

3     And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

4     And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

5     That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.

6     And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.

7     And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh.

4. Exodus 5 : 1 (to Moses), 1 (went) (to 4th ,), 2

1     And afterward Moses … went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go,

2     And Pharaoh said, Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the Lord, neither will I let Israel go.

5. Exodus 14 : 5 (to 1st ,), 8 (and he) (to :), 10 (and the), 13, 14, 21-23 (to 2nd ,), 26, 27, 31

5     And it was told the king of Egypt that the people fled: and the heart of Pharaoh and of his servants was turned against the people,

8     …and he pursued after the children of Israel:

10     …and the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord.

13     And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

14     The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall hold your peace.

21     And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

22     And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.

23     And the Egyptians pursued, and went in after them to the midst of the sea,

26     And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand over the sea, that the waters may come again upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.

27     And Moses stretched forth his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to his strength when the morning appeared; and the Egyptians fled against it; and the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.

31     And Israel saw that great work which the Lord did upon the Egyptians: and the people feared the Lord, and believed the Lord, and his servant Moses.

6. Amos 4 : 13

13     For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The Lord, The God of hosts, is his name.

1. 583 : 20 (to .), 24 (God)-25

Creator. … God, who made all that was made and could not create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.

2. 465 : 17 (Principle)-6

Principle and its idea is one, and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Being, and His reflection is man and the universe. Omni is adopted from the Latin adjective signifying all. Hence God combines all-power or potency, all-science or true knowledge, all-presence. The varied manifestations of Christian Science indicate Mind, never matter, and have one Principle.

3. 507 : 21-25

A material world implies a mortal mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God.

Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the mental molecule to infinity.

4. 484 : 9 (In)-15

In divine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to the law of Mind. What are termed natural science and material laws are the objective states of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals. Physical force and mortal mind are one.

5. 209 : 10-11, 16-30

The world would collapse without Mind, without the intelligence which holds the winds in its grasp.

The compounded minerals or aggregated substances composing the earth, the relations which constituent masses hold to each other, the magnitudes, distances, and revolutions of the celestial bodies, are of no real importance, when we remember that they all must give place to the spiritual fact by the translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In proportion as this is done, man and the universe will be found harmonious and eternal.

Material substances or mundane formations, astronomical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of speculative theories, based on the hypothesis of material law or life and intelligence resident in matter, will ultimately vanish, swallowed up in the infinite calculus of Spirit.

6. 124 : 14-31

The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be understood; but when explained on the basis of physical sense and represented as subject to growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, and must continue to be, an enigma.

Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support the equipoise of that thought-force, which launched the earth in its orbit and said to the proud wave, "Thus far and no farther." 

Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and classification.

7. 200 : 4-7

Moses advanced a nation to the worship of God in Spirit instead of matter, and illustrated the grand human capacities of being bestowed by immortal Mind.

8. 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.

9. 321 : 6-2

The Hebrew Lawgiver, slow of speech, despaired of making the people understand what should be revealed to him. When, led by wisdom to cast down his rod, he saw it become a serpent, Moses fled before it; but wisdom bade him come back and handle the serpent, and then Moses' fear departed. In this incident was seen the actuality of Science. Matter was shown to be a belief only. The serpent, evil, under wisdom's bidding, was destroyed through understanding divine Science, and this proof was a staff upon which to lean. The illusion of Moses lost its power to alarm him, when he discovered that what he apparently saw was really but a phase of mortal belief.

It was scientifically demonstrated that leprosy was a creation of mortal mind and not a condition of matter, when Moses first put his hand into his bosom and drew it forth white as snow with the dread disease, and presently restored his hand to its natural condition by the same simple process. God had lessened Moses' fear by this proof in divine Science, and the inward voice became to him the voice of God, which said: "It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign." And so it was in the coming centuries, when the Science of being was demonstrated by Jesus, who showed his students the power of Mind by changing water into wine, and taught them how to handle serpents unharmed, to heal the sick and cast out evils in proof of the supremacy of Mind.

10. 566 : 1-24

As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides of human fear, — as they were led through the wilderness, walking wearily through the great desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised joy, — so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for them who love God. Stately Science pauses not, but moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, leading to divine heights.

If we remember the beautiful description which Sir Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Rebecca the Jewess in the story of Ivanhoe, —

When Israel, of the Lord beloved,

Out of the land of bondage came,

Her fathers' God before her moved,

An awful guide, in smoke and flame, —

we may also offer the prayer which concludes the same hymn, —

And oh, when stoops on Judah's path

In shade and storm the frequent night,

Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to wrath,

A burning and a shining light!

11. 503 : 12-15

Divine Science, the Word of God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "God is All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines the universe.