Responsive Reading: Isaiah 55 : 3, 6, 8-11

3.     Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live.

6.     Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.

8.     For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

9.     For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10.     For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:

11.     So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

1. Psalm 34 : 22

22     The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.

2. Psalm 107 : 8, 9

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.

3. Daniel 1 : 1, 3-6, 8 (to :), 11-15, 18 (then)-20

1     In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.

3     And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes;

4     Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.

5     And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.

6     Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:

8     But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank:

11     Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

12     Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.

13     Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king’s meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.

14     So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.

15     And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat.

18     …then the prince of the eunuchs brought them in before Nebuchadnezzar.

19     And the king communed with them; and among them all was found none like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: therefore stood they before the king.

20     And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king enquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.

4. I Corinthians 6 : 19, 20

19     What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20     For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

5. Matthew 12 : 1 (Jesus) (to ;), 22-28

1     Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn;

22     Then was brought unto him one possessed with a devil, blind, and dumb: and he healed him, insomuch that the blind and dumb both spake and saw.

23     And all the people were amazed, and said, Is not this the son of David?

24     But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, This fellow doth not cast out devils, but by Beelzebub the prince of the devils.

25     And Jesus knew their thoughts, and said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand:

26     And if Satan cast out Satan, he is divided against himself; how shall then his kingdom stand?

27     And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? therefore they shall be your judges.

28     But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

6. Romans 8 : 1, 2, 22, 23

1     There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2     For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

22     For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

23     And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

7. II Corinthians 5 : 1-8

1     For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2     For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

3     If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

4     For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

5     Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

6     Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

7     (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

8     We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

8. I Thessalonians 5 : 23

23     And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1. 477 : 26 only

Man is the expression of Soul.

2. 335 : 16 (God)-18, 20-21, 22-24

God and Soul are one, and this one never included in a limited mind or a limited body. … Because Soul is immortal, it does not exist in mortality. … Only by losing the false sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as immortality brought to light.

3. 427 : 2-7, 9-12

Life is the law of Soul, even the law of the spirit of Truth, and Soul is never without its representative. Man's individual being can no more die nor disappear in unconsciousness than can Soul, for both are immortal. … The belief that existence is contingent on matter must be met and mastered by Science, before Life can be understood and harmony obtained. 

4. 119 : 25-9

In viewing the sunrise, one finds that it contradicts the evidence before the senses to believe that the earth is in motion and the sun at rest. As astronomy reverses the human perception of the movement of the solar system, so Christian Science reverses the seeming relation of Soul and body and makes body tributary to Mind. Thus it is with man, who is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it seems otherwise to finite sense. But we shall never understand this while we admit that soul is in body or mind in matter, and that man is included in non-intelligence. Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God's image.

Science reverses the false testimony of the physical senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the fundamental facts of being.

5. 120 : 15 (to ;)

Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind;

6. 388 : 12-24

Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutriment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction, — that food has power to destroy Life, God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-destructive, constituting a "kingdom divided against itself," which is "brought to desolation." If food was prepared by Jesus for his disciples, it cannot destroy life.

The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that God is our Life.

7. 220 : 26-30

The belief that either fasting or feasting makes men better morally or physically is one of the fruits of "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil," concerning which God said, "Thou shalt not eat of it."

8. 442 : 22-25

Christ, Truth, gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the material, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man is clothed and fed spiritually.

9. 176 : 7-10

The primitive custom of taking no thought about food left the stomach and bowels free to act in obedience to nature, and gave the gospel a chance to be seen in its glorious effects upon the body.

10. 168 : 15-23

Because man-made systems insist that man becomes sick and useless, suffers and dies, all in consonance with the laws of God, are we to believe it? Are we to believe an authority which denies God's spiritual command relating to perfection, — an authority which Jesus proved to be false? He did the will of the Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called material law, but in accordance with God's law, the law of Mind.

11. 390 : 4-18, 23-26

We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, simply because, to the mortal senses, there is seeming discord. It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.

When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let your higher sense of justice destroy the false process of mortal opinions which you name law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last farthing, the last penalty demanded by error. … You have no law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying that necessity and healing the sick.

12. 391 : 29-2

Mentally contradict every complaint from the body, and rise to the true consciousness of Life as Love, — as all that is pure, and bearing the fruits of Spirit. Fear is the fountain of sickness, and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease.

13. 393 : 4-18

The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortal mind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their results, — ignorant that the predisposing, remote, and exciting cause of all bad effects is a law of so-called mortal mind, not of matter. Mind is the master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.

Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God's government.

14. 302 : 14 (let)-18, 19-24

…let us remember that harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and is always beyond and above the mortal illusion of any life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter. … The Science of being reveals man as perfect, even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind, of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all being, and because this real man is governed by Soul instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called laws of matter.