Responsive Reading: Job 22 : 21-23 • Job 23 : 10, 11, 13, 14

21.     Acquaint now thyself with him, and be at peace: thereby good shall come unto thee.

22.     Receive, I pray thee, the law from his mouth, and lay up his words in thine heart.

23.     If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.

10.     He knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

11.     My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.

13.     But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

14.     For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

1. II Samuel 22 : 33

33     God is my strength and power: and he maketh my way perfect.

2. Daniel 2 : 1-6, 10, 12, 16-20, 25-28 (to .), 36, 46-48

1     And in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuchadnezzar dreamed dreams, wherewith his spirit was troubled, and his sleep brake from him.

2     Then the king commanded to call the magicians, and the astrologers, and the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans, for to shew the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.

3     And the king said unto them, I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the dream.

4     Then spake the Chaldeans to the king in Syriack, O king, live for ever: tell thy servants the dream, and we will shew the interpretation.

5     The king answered and said to the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me: if ye will not make known unto me the dream, with the interpretation thereof, ye shall be cut in pieces, and your houses shall be made a dunghill.

6     But if ye shew the dream, and the interpretation thereof, ye shall receive of me gifts and rewards and great honour: therefore shew me the dream, and the interpretation thereof.

10     The Chaldeans answered before the king, and said, There is not a man upon the earth that can shew the king’s matter: therefore there is no king, lord, nor ruler, that asked such things at any magician, or astrologer, or Chaldean.

12     For this cause the king was angry and very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon.

16     Then Daniel went in, and desired of the king that he would give him time, and that he would shew the king the interpretation.

17     Then Daniel went to his house, and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions:

18     That they would desire mercies of the God of heaven concerning this secret; that Daniel and his fellows should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.

19     Then was the secret revealed unto Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven.

20     Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his:

25     Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah, that will make known unto the king the interpretation.

26     The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen, and the interpretation thereof?

27     Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king;

28     But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days.

36     This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

46     Then the king Nebuchadnezzar fell upon his face, and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.

47     The king answered unto Daniel, and said, Of a truth it is, that your God is a God of gods, and a Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, seeing thou couldest reveal this secret.

48     Then the king made Daniel a great man, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

3. Proverbs 3 : 1, 4-6

1     My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:

4     So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

5     Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6     In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

4. John 5 : 1-9, 16-19, 30 (to 1st :)

1     After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

2     Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.

3     In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.

4     For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.

5     And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and eight years.

6     When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?

7     The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am coming, another steppeth down before me.

8     Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.

9     And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked: and on the same day was the sabbath.

16     And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.

17     But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.

18     Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

19     Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.

30     I can of mine own self do nothing:

5. John 14 : 10 (the Father that)

10     …the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

1. 281 : 14-17

The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is infinite individuality, which supplies all form and comeliness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual spiritual man and things.

2. 475 : 5-22

Question. — What is man?

Answer. — Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.

3. 258 : 9-14 next page

Man is more than a material form with a mind inside, which must escape from its environments in order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity, and this reflection is the true idea of God.

God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in the infinitude of Truth. We know no more of man as the true divine image and likeness, than we know of God.

The infinite Principle is reflected by the infinite idea and spiritual individuality, but the material so-called senses have no cognizance of either Principle or its idea. The human capacities are enlarged and perfected in proportion as humanity gains the true conception of man and God.

Mortals have a very imperfect sense of the spiritual man and of the infinite range of his thought. To him belongs eternal Life. Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his high estate.

Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in Science the generic term man. Man is not absorbed in Deity, and man cannot lose his individuality, for he reflects eternal Life; nor is he an isolated, solitary idea, for he represents infinite Mind, the sum of all substance.

In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow, — thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea, — perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration.

4. 302 : 3-24

The material body and mind are temporal, but the real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the real man is not lost, but found through this explanation; for the conscious infinitude of existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and remains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleasures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all that will ever be lost.

Continuing our definition of man, 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. This statement is based on fact, not fable. 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.

5. 94 : 1-11, 24 (to ,), 30-32 (to 1st .)

Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man in the image and likeness of Himself, — of Spirit, not of matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and Love. The nature of man, thus understood, includes all that is implied by the terms "image" and "likeness" as used in Scripture. The truly Christian and scientific statement of personality and of the relation of man to God, with the demonstration which accompanied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: "Crucify him, crucify him …. by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."

Our Master easily read the thoughts of mankind,

An approximation of this discernment indicates spiritual growth and union with the infinite capacities of the one Mind.

6. 128 : 7 (business)-19

…business men and cultured scholars have found that Christian Science enhances their endurance and mental powers, enlarges their perception of character, gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.

7. 519 : 11-21

Human capacity is slow to discern and to grasp God's creation and the divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till, in the language of the apostle, "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ"?