Responsive Reading: Psalm 95 : 1-7

1.     O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

2.     Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

3.     For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

4.     In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

5.     The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.

6.     O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker.

7.     For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

1. Psalm 46 : 1-3 (to 1st .), 4-7 (to 1st .), 8 (to 2nd ,), 9, 10

1     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2     Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

3     Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

4     There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

5     God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.

6     The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.

7     The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

8     Come, behold the works of the Lord,

9     He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.

10     Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

2. Judges 6 : 11, 12, 14-16, 23, 24 (to :)

11     And there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abi-ezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

12     And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.

14     And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

15     And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.

16     And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

23     And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

24     Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah-shalom:

3. Judges 7 : 1 (to 5th ,), 8, 9, 16, 19-23

1     Then Jerubbaal, who is Gideon, and all the people that were with him, rose up early, and pitched beside the well of Harod: so that the host of the Midianites were on the north side of them,

8     So the people took victuals in their hand, and their trumpets: and he sent all the rest of Israel every man unto his tent, and retained those three hundred men: and the host of Midian was beneath him in the valley.

9     And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Arise, get thee down unto the host; for I have delivered it into thine hand.

16     And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.

19     So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.

20     And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

21     And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.

22     And the three hundred blew the trumpets, and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host: and the host fled to Beth-shittah in Zererath, and to the border of Abel-meholah, unto Tabbath.

23     And the men of Israel gathered themselves together out of Naphtali, and out of Asher, and out of all Manasseh, and pursued after the Midianites.

4. Judges 8 : 22, 23

22     Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian.

23     And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you.

5. Job 5 : 8, 9, 12, 13, 19-21, 24 (to ;)

8     I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause:

9     Which doeth great things and unsearchable; marvellous things without number:

12     He disappointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enterprise.

13     He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong.

19     He shall deliver thee in six troubles: yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee.

20     In famine he shall redeem thee from death: and in war from the power of the sword.

21     Thou shalt be hid from the scourge of the tongue: neither shalt thou be afraid of destruction when it cometh.

24     And thou shalt know that thy tabernacle shall be in peace;

6. Romans 13 : 1

1     Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

1. 295 : 5-8

God creates and governs the universe, including man. The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind that makes them.

2. 5 : 16 (God)-18

God pours the riches of His love into the understanding and affections, giving us strength according to our day.

3. 517 : 30-4 (to 2nd .)

Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to multiply, — to manifest His power. 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.

4. 192 : 17-26

Moral and spiritual might belong to Spirit, who holds the "wind in His fists;" and this teaching accords with Science and harmony. In Science, you can have no power opposed to God, and the physical senses must give up their false testimony. Your influence for good depends upon the weight you throw into the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a mockery of strength, which erelong betrays its weakness and falls, never to rise.

5. 12 : 31-4

In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as "a very present help in trouble." Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."

6. 544 : 10-17

Matter cannot change the eternal fact that man exists because God exists. Nothing is new to the infinite Mind.

In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might or right or wisdom to create or to destroy. All is under the control of the one Mind, even God.

7. 293 : 13-16

The material so-called gases and forces are counterfeits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being.

8. 124 : 3-10, 14-31

Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge, — a law of mortal mind, a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his strength. When this human belief lacks organizations to support it, its foundations are gone. Having neither moral might, spiritual basis, nor holy Principle of its own, this belief mistakes effect for cause and seeks to find life and intelligence in matter, thus limiting Life and holding fast to discord and death.

The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be understood; but when explained on the basis of physical sense and represented as subject to growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, and must continue to be, an enigma.

Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support the equipoise of that thought-force, which launched the earth in its orbit and said to the proud wave, "Thus far and no farther."

Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and classification.

9. 547 : 25-30

The true theory of the universe, including man, is not in material history but in spiritual development. Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and immortal.

10. 96 : 4-20, 25-4

Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spiritualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error is wholly destroyed, there will be interruptions of the general material routine. Earth will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter, seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will continue unto the end, — until the final spiritualization of all things. "The darkest hour precedes the dawn."

This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace. The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.

As this consummation draws nearer, he who has shaped his course in accordance with divine Science will endure to the end. As material knowledge diminishes and spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally instead of materially.

During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.

11. 516 : 4-8

The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere.