Responsive Reading: Colossians 3 : 1, 2  •  Colossians 2 : 6-10

1.     If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

2.     Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

6.     As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

7.     Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

8.     Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

9.     For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

10.     And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.

1. Genesis 1 : 1-4, 6, 8 (to 1st .), 14, 15

1     In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2     And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3     And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4     And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

6     And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

8     And God called the firmament Heaven.

14     And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15     And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

2. Jeremiah 10 : 1-3 (to :), 10 (to :), 12

1     Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

2     Thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

3     For the customs of the people are vain:

10     But the Lord is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king:

12     He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

3. Proverbs 3 : 13, 21-23

13     Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

21     My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion:

22     So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck.

23     Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble.

4. Matthew 13 : 1-3 (to 2nd ,), 47, 48

1     The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.

2     And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3     And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying,

47     Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind:

48     Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away.

5. Matthew 7 : 12-20

12     Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

13     Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14     Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

15     Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

16     Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

17     Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.

18     A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19     Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

20     Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

6. Matthew 22 : 15-22

15     Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

16     And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.

17     Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not?

18     But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?

19     Shew me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.

20     And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?

21     They say unto him, Cæsar’s. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Cæsar the things which are Cæsar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.

22     When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.

7. I John 4 : 1-6

1     Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

2     Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God:

3     And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

4     Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.

5     They are of the world: therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them.

6     We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.

8. Psalm 43 : 3

3     O send out thy light and thy truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto thy holy hill, and to thy tabernacles.

1. 510 : 9-12

Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose "light shall we see light;" and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense.

2. 466 : 26-31

The Science of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright, and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and its divine Principle, making mankind better physically, morally, and spiritually.

3. 586 : 7-8, 15-17

Fan. Separator of fable from fact; that which gives action to thought.

Firmament. Spiritual understanding; the scientific line of demarcation between Truth and error, between Spirit and so-called matter.

4. 367 : 30-9

Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness, error, Truth's opposite, has no might. Evil is but the counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right. The confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact that Truth is real and error is unreal. Error is a coward before Truth. Divine Science insists that time will prove all this. Both truth and error have come nearer than ever before to the apprehension of mortals, and truth will become still clearer as error is self-destroyed.

5. 103 : 6-17

The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through Science, by which man can escape from sin and mortality, blesses the whole human family. As in the beginning, however, this liberation does not scientifically show itself in a knowledge of both good and evil, for the latter is unreal.

On the other hand, Mind-science is wholly separate from any half-way impertinent knowledge, because Mind-science is of God and demonstrates the divine Principle, working out the purposes of good only. The maximum of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all. Evil is a suppositional lie.

6. 346 : 6-16

It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches how this nothingness is to be saved and healed. The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we need to understand that error is nothing, and that its nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in order to prove the somethingness — yea, the allness — of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error, and leads to the discernment of Truth.

7. 84 : 28-12

All we correctly know of Spirit comes from God, divine Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian Science. If this Science has been thoroughly learned and properly digested, we can know the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the capacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the divine Mind.

Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and perpetuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not evil. You will reach the perfect Science of healing when you are able to read the human mind after this manner and discern the error you would destroy.

8. 357 : 5-13 (to ;)

We sustain Truth, not by accepting, but by rejecting a lie.

Jesus said of personified evil, that it was "a liar, and the father of it." Truth creates neither a lie, a capacity to lie, nor a liar. If mankind would relinquish the belief that God makes sickness, sin, and death, or makes man capable of suffering on account of this malevolent triad, the foundations of error would be sapped and error's destruction ensured;

9. 360 : 13-21

Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought shall be real to you, — the material or the spiritual? Both you cannot have. You are bringing out your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you try to have two models, then you practically have none. Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the real and the unreal.

10. 491 : 9-16

Man's spiritual individuality is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.

11. 505 : 16-7

Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts consciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith: "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." 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. God's ideas reflect the immortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal, erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguishing between the false and the true. Objects utterly unlike the original do not reflect that original. Therefore matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real entity. Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which separates Christian Science from supposition and makes Truth final.