Responsive Reading: Proverbs 30 : 5; Isaiah 55 : 6-11

5.     Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.

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

7.     Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

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. John 1 : 1, 3-14

1     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

3     All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4     In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5     And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

6     There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

7     The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.

8     He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

9     That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

10     He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

11     He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

12     But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:

13     Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

14     And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

2. Psalm 119 : 89-93, 99-103, 127-130

89     For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.

90     Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.

91     They continue this day according to thine ordinances: for all are thy servants.

92     Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction.

93     I will never forget thy precepts: for with them thou hast quickened me.

99     I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.

100     I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts.

101     I have refrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep thy word.

102     I have not departed from thy judgments: for thou hast taught me.

103     How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!

127     Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.

128     Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way.

129     Thy testimonies are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep them.

130     The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.

3. Luke 4 : 14, 15

14     And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

15     And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

4. Luke 5 : 1

1     And it came to pass, that, as the people pressed upon him to hear the word of God, he stood by the lake of Gennesaret,

5. Luke 8 : 4-9, 11-15

4     And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable:

5     A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it.

6     And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture.

7     And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it.

8     And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

9     And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?

11     Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

12     Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.

13     They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.

14     And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.

15     But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

6. Hebrews 4 : 12

12     For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

7. II Timothy 3 : 1, 2, 4, 5, 14-17

1     This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2     For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

4     Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

5     Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

14     But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

15     And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.

16     All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

17     That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

1. 513 : 26-27

God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are spiritual realities.

2. 525 : 17-24

In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were made through the Word of God, “and without Him [the logos, or word] was not anything made that was made.” Everything good or worthy, God made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not make, — hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis we read that He saw everything which He had made, “and, behold, it was very good.”

3. 275 : 10-24

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. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.

Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understanding, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — that is, all power, all presence, all Science. Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.

4. 497 : 3 (As)-4

As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

5. 406 : 1-6

The Bible contains the recipe for all healing. “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” Sin and sickness are both healed by the same Principle. The tree is typical of man’s divine Principle, which is equal to every emergency, offering full salvation from sin, sickness, and death.

6. 480 : 29-6

If sin, sickness, and death were understood as nothingness, they would disappear. As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God’s being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” Like the archpriests of yore, man is free “to enter into the holiest,” — the realm of God.

7. 207 : 20-29

There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause. Sin, sickness, disease, and death belong not to the Science of being. They are the errors, which presuppose the absence of Truth, Life, or Love.

The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth.

8. 335 : 7 (Spirit)-15

Spirit, God, has created all in and of Himself. Spirit never created matter. There is nothing in Spirit out of which matter could be made, for, as the Bible declares, without the Logos, the Ӕon or Word of God, “was not anything made that was made.” Spirit is the only substance, the invisible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal are insubstantial.

9. 73 : 26-32

It is a grave mistake to suppose that matter is any part of the reality of intelligent existence, or that Spirit and matter, intelligence and non-intelligence, can commune together. This error Science will destroy. The sensual cannot be made the mouthpiece of the spiritual, nor can the finite become the channel of the infinite.

10. 505 : 16-17, 20-28

Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts consciousness and leads into all truth. … Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds Mind, — Life, Truth, and Love, — and demonstrates the divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in Christian Science.

This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things brought to light.

11. 319 : 21-3

The divine Science taught in the original language of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspiration to be understood. Hence the misapprehension of the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and the misinterpretation of the Word in some instances by uninspired writers, who only wrote down what an inspired teacher had said. A misplaced word changes the sense and misstates the Science of the Scriptures, as, for instance, to name Love as merely an attribute of God; but we can by special and proper capitalization speak of the love of Love, meaning by that what the beloved disciple meant in one of his epistles, when he said, “God is love.” Likewise we can speak of the truth of Truth and of the life of Life, for Christ plainly declared, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

12. 272 : 3-16

The spiritual sense of truth must be gained before Truth can be understood. This sense is assimilated only as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek. In the soil of an “honest and good heart” the seed must be sown; else it beareth not much fruit, for the swinish element in human nature uproots it. Jesus said: “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures.” The spiritual sense of the Scriptures brings out the scientific sense, and is the new tongue referred to in the last chapter of Mark’s Gospel.

Jesus’ parable of “the sower” shows the care our Master took not to impart to dull ears and gross hearts the spiritual teachings which dulness and grossness could not accept.

13. 322 : 3-7

When understanding changes the standpoints of life and intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or Truth, in its divine Principle.

14. 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.