Responsive Reading: Colossians 1 : 3, 9-13

3.     We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you.

9.     For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

10.     That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11.     Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

12.     Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13.     Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

1. Job 32 : 8 (there)

8     … there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

2. Isaiah 64 : 4 (since)

4     …since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

3. Ezekiel 11 : 16 (Thus) (to ;), 19 (I will put) (to ;), 20, 21

16     Thus saith the Lord God;

19     I will put a new spirit within you;

20     That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

21     But as for them whose heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord God.

4. I Samuel 3 : 1-11, 19, 20

1     And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.

2     And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see;

3     And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep;

4     That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.

5     And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me. And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down.

6     And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.

7     Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.

8     And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child.

9     Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10     And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.

11     And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle.

19     And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.

20     And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.

5. Isaiah 30 : 21

21     And thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

6. I Corinthians 1 : 1 (to 2nd ,)

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

7. I Corinthians 2 : 1 (I, brethren)-7, 9-16

1     I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

2     For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

3     And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

4     And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

5     That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

6     Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

7     But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

9     But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

10     But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

11     For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

12     Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

13     Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

14     But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

15     But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

16     For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

8. I John 5 : 6 (And it)

6     And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

1. 124 : 25-26 (to 1st .)

Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things.

2. 467 : 3 (The)-7

The first demand of this Science is, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual.

3. 505 : 16-2

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.

4. 266 : 27-5 (to 1st .)

Man is the idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe with light. Man is deathless, spiritual. He is above sin or frailty. He does not cross the barriers of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with God and the universe.

Every object in material thought will be destroyed, but the spiritual idea, whose substance is in Mind, is eternal. The offspring of God start not from matter or ephemeral dust. They are in and of Spirit, divine Mind, and so forever continue.

5. 70 : 1 (Mortal)-9

Mortal existence is an enigma. Every day is a mystery. The testimony of the corporeal senses cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but the revelations of Christian Science unlock the treasures of Truth. Whatever is false or sinful can never enter the atmosphere of Spirit. There is but one Spirit. Man is never God, but spiritual man, made in God's likeness, reflects God. In this scientific reflection the Ego and the Father are inseparable.

6. 71 : 1-2 (to 1st .), 5-9

Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but God and His idea.

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.

7. 346 : 2-5

When man is spoken of as made in God's image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting God's likeness.

8. 258 : 9-12, 31-1

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.

Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in Science the generic term man.

9. 585 : 1-4

Ears. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding.

Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, "Having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)

10. 89 : 20-21

Spirit, God, is heard when the senses are silent.

11. 308 : 14-15

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

12. 84 : 3-10, 28-6

The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing evil and mistaking fact for fiction, — predicting the future from a groundwork of corporeality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit.

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.

13. 301 : 17-29

As God is substance and man is the divine image and likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter. The belief that man has any other substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material substance, while man is "image" (idea). Delusion, sin, disease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down.

14. 210 : 5-10

The Principle and proof of Christianity are discerned by spiritual sense. They are set forth in Jesus' demonstrations, which show — by his healing the sick, casting out evils, and destroying death, "the last enemy that shall be destroyed," — his disregard of matter and its so-called laws.

15. 99 : 23-29

The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man.