Responsive Reading: Psalm 84 : 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12

2.     My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.

5.     Blessed is the man whose strength is in thee; in whose heart are the ways of them.

7.     They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God.

9.     Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of thine anointed.

11.     For the Lord God is a sun and shield: the Lord will give grace and glory: no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

12.     O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.

1. Isaiah 55 : 3, 6, 7

3     Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

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.

2. Proverbs 29 : 25, 26

25     The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

26     Many seek the ruler’s favour; but every man’s judgment cometh from the Lord.

3. Genesis 27 : 41

41     And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob.

4. Genesis 32 : 1, 2 (to :), 3, 6, 7 (to :), 9, 10 (to 1st ;), 11, 24-31

1     And Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

2     And when Jacob saw them, he said, This is God’s host:

3     And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

6     And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him.

7     Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed:

9     And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saidst unto me, Return unto thy country, and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee:

10     I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant;

11     Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau: for I fear him, lest he will come and smite me, and the mother with the children.

24     And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

25     And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him.

26     And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

27     And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.

28     And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.

29     And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there.

30     And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

31     And as he passed over Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh.

5. Genesis 33 : 1 (to 1st .), 4

1     And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, and with him four hundred men.

4     And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept.

6. II Chronicles 7 : 14

14     If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

7. Galatians 5 : 2 (to 2nd ,), 5, 7-10, 13, 14

2     Behold, I Paul say unto you,

5     For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

7     Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?

8     This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.

9     A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

10     I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded: but he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.

13     For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

14     For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

8. I Corinthians 1 : 1 (to 2nd ,), 3-5, 10, 26, 29-31

1     Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God,

3     Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.

4     I thank my God always on your behalf, for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ;

5     That in every thing ye are enriched by him, in all utterance, and in all knowledge;

10     Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

26     For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

29     That no flesh should glory in his presence.

30     But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

31     That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

1. 58 : 12 only

There is moral freedom in Soul.

2. 477 : 22-26

Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to Spirit.

Man is the expression of Soul.

3. 70 : 13-9

The questions are: What are God's identities? What is Soul? Does life or soul exist in the thing formed?

Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion of material sense.

The identity, or idea, of all reality continues forever; but Spirit, or the divine Principle of all, is not in Spirit's formations. Soul is synonymous with Spirit, God, the creative, governing, infinite Principle outside of finite form, which forms only reflect.

4. 300 : 23 only, 31-4

Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter. … God is revealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love, — yea, which manifests God's attributes and power, even as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats the color, form, and action of the person in front of the mirror.

5. 308 : 14-28

The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth, and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man.

Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, — struggling with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter with its false pleasures and pains, — when an angel, a message from Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew, or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual strength in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said the spiritual evangel: "Let me go, for the day breaketh;" that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee. But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light until his nature was transformed.

6. 309 : 7-12

The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had conquered material error with the under-standing of Spirit and of spiritual power. This changed the man. He was no longer called Jacob, but Israel, — a prince of God, or a soldier of God, who had fought a good fight.

7. 481 : 28-32

Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, — hence the immortality of Soul. In Science we learn that it is material sense, not Soul, which sins; and it will be found that it is the sense of sin which is lost, and not a sinful soul.

8. 482 : 6-12

The proper use of the word soul can always be gained by substituting the word God, where the deific meaning is required. In other cases, use the word sense, and you will have the scientific signification. As used in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with sense, with material sensation.

9. 89 : 20-24

Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent. We are all capable of more than we do. The influence or action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phenomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips.

10. 273 : 10-20

Divine Science reverses the false testimony of the material senses, and thus tears away the foundations of error. Hence the enmity between Science and the senses, and the impossibility of attaining perfect understanding till the errors of sense are eliminated.

The so-called laws of matter and of medical science have never made mortals whole, harmonious, and immortal. Man is harmonious when governed by Soul. Hence the importance of understanding the truth of being, which reveals the laws of spiritual existence.

11. 323 : 19-24

When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from material sense, removes thought from the body, and elevates even mortal mind to the contemplation of something better than disease or sin.

12. 390 : 4-11

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.

13. 322 : 3-13

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. This must be the climax before harmonious and immortal man is obtained and his capabilities revealed. It is highly important — in view of the immense work to be accomplished before this recognition of divine Science can come — to turn our thoughts towards divine Principle, that finite belief may be prepared to relinquish its error.

14. 125 : 2-20

What is now considered the best condition for organic and functional health in the human body may no longer be found indispensable to health. Moral conditions will be found always harmonious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction nor overaction is beyond God's control; and man will be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought, and therefore more harmo-nious in his manifestations than he was in the prior states which human belief created and sanctioned.

As human thought changes from one stage to another of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and joy, — from fear to hope and from faith to understanding, — the visible manifestation will at last be man governed by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God's government, man is self-governed. When subordinate to the divine Spirit, man cannot be controlled by sin or death, thus proving our material theories about laws of health to be valueless.

15. 590 : 1-3

Kingdom of Heaven. The rein of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme.