Responsive Reading: Isaiah 45 : 5, 6, 8-13

5.     I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me.

6.     I am the Lord, and there is none else.

8.     Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it.

9.     Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?

10.     Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?

11.     Thus saith the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.

12.     I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

13.     I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways.

1. John 1 : 1-4

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

2     The same was in the beginning with 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.

2. Ecclesiastes 3 : 11, 13, 14

11     He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

13     And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

14     I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

3. Psalm 127 : 1

1     Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

4. I Samuel 1 : 1 (to 3rd ,), 2, 4-6, 9 (Now)-11, 17, 19, 20, 25 (to they), 25 (brought)-28

1     Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah,

2     And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah: and Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

4     And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:

5     But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the Lord had shut up her womb.

6     And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.

9     Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord.

10     And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.

11     And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no rasor come upon his head.

17     Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.

19     And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the Lord remembered her.

20     Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord.

25     And they … brought the child to Eli.

26     And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.

27     For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him:

28     Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.

5. I Samuel 2 : 11 (And the), 20 (to 1st ,), 21

11     And the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest.

20     And Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife,

21     And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceived, and bare three sons and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the Lord.

6. Exodus 9 : 16 (for this)

16     …for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.

7. Isaiah 14 : 24, 26, 27

24     The Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:

26     This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

27     For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?

8. Isaiah 55 : 8-13

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.

12     For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

13     Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

9. Philippians 2 : 13

13     For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

1. 335 : 7 (Spirit)-8 (to 1st .), 10 (as)-12

Spirit, God, has created all in and of Himself. … as the Bible declares, without the Logos, the Æon or Word of God, "was not anything made that was made."

2. 502 : 27-5

The creative Principle — Life, Truth, and Love — is God. The universe reflects God. There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected. These ideas range from the infinitesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God.

3. 507 : 25-6

This divine Principle of all expresses Science and art throughout His creation, and the immortality of man and the universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas material. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind is All and reproduces all — as Mind is the multiplier, and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is the product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought, a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it.

4. 509 : 20-28

So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances are no more contingent now on time or material structure than they were when "the morning stars sang together." Mind made the "plant of the field before it was in the earth." The periods of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness — yea, the divine nature — appear in man and the universe never to disappear.

5. 510 : 28-6

Science reveals only one Mind, and this one shining by its own light and governing the universe, including man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light, intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, "whose seed is in itself." Thus God's ideas "multiply and replenish the earth." The divine Mind supports the sublimity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation.

6. 170 : 22-24, 28-3

Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress.

The description of man as purely physical, or as both material and spiritual, — but in either case dependent upon his physical organization, — is the Pandora box, from which all ills have gone forth, especially despair. Matter, which takes divine power into its own hands and claims to be a creator, is a fiction, in which paganism and lust are so sanctioned by society that mankind has caught their moral contagion.

7. 516 : 9-23

God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath our feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the earth." The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's dominion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father-Mother God.

8. 517 : 31-4

Man is not made to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not subjection. He is lord of the belief in earth and heaven, — himself subordinate alone to his Maker. This is the Science of being.

9. 302 : 31-7

Even in Christian Science, reproduction by Spirit's individual ideas is but the reflection of the creative power of the divine Principle of those ideas. The reflection, through mental manifestation, of the multitudinous forms of Mind which people the realm of the real is controlled by Mind, the Principle governing the reflection. Multiplication of God's children comes from no power of propagation in matter, it is the reflection of Spirit.

10. 259 : 23-31

God, Spirit, works spiritually, not materially. Brain or matter never formed a human concept. Vibration is not intelligence; hence it is not a creator. Immortal ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious results.

11. 68 : 4-8

Sometime we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has created men and women in Science. We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood.

12. 260 : 13-18

Science reveals the possibility of achieving all good, and sets mortals at work to discover what God has already done; but distrust of one's ability to gain the goodness desired and to bring out better and higher results, often hampers the trial of one's wings and ensures failure at the outset.

13. 264 : 13-19, 28-31

As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness.

When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God's creation, — all the glories of earth and heaven and man.