Responsive Reading: Psalm 31 : 1, 5, 13, 14, 18, 19, 24

1.     In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust; let me never be ashamed: deliver me in thy righteousness.

5.     Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord God of truth.

13.     For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.

14.     But I trusted in thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my God.

18.     Let the lying lips be put to silence; which speak grievous things proudly and contemptuously against the righteous.

19.     Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!

24.     Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.

1. Psalm 103 : 1-3

1     Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name.

2     Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:

3     Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;

2. Psalm 19 : 7-10

7     The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

8     The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

9     The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

10     More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.

3. Exodus 17 : 1-7

1     And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

2     Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?

3     And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

4     And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

5     And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.

6     Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

7     And he called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?

4. Luke 5 : 12-14

12     And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

13     And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

14     And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

5. Luke 17 : 5

5     And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase our faith.

6. Mark 10 : 46-52

46     And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimæus, the son of Timæus, sat by the highway side begging.

47     And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

48     And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

49     And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.

50     And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.

51     And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

52     And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

7. Mark 11 : 23, 24

23     For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.

24     Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

8. Hebrews 11 : 17, 19, 23-29

17     By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son,

19     Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

23     By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment.

24     By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;

25     Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

26     Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

27     By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

28     Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

29     By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.

9. II Corinthians 5 : 7

7     (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

1. 145 : 32-7

Our Master’s first article of faith propounded to his students was healing, and he proved his faith by his works. The ancient Christians were healers. Why has this element of Christianity been lost? Because our systems of religion are governed more or less by our systems of medicine. The first idolatry was faith in matter. The schools have rendered faith in drugs the fashion, rather than faith in Deity.

2. 373 : 1-5

If we are Christians on all moral questions, but are in darkness as to the physical exemption which Christianity includes, then we must have more faith in God on this subject and be more alive to His promises.

3. 387 : 27-32

The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent Mind, who gives man faith and understanding whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering.

4. 298 : 2-7

Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot destroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition.

5. 146 : 13-5

Material medicine substitutes drugs for the power of God — even the might of Mind — to heal the body. Scholasticism clings for salvation to the person, instead of to the divine Principle, of the man Jesus; and his Science, the curative agent of God, is silenced. Why? Because truth divests material drugs of their imaginary power, and clothes Spirit with supremacy. Science is the "stranger that is within thy gates," remembered not, even when its elevating effects practically prove its divine origin and efficacy.

Divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible, and the divine origin of Science is demonstrated through the holy influence of Truth in healing sickness and sin. This healing power of Truth must have been far anterior to the period in which Jesus lived. It is as ancient as "the Ancient of days." It lives through all Life, and extends throughout all space.

Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a form comprehensible by and adapted to the thought of the age in which we live. This system enables the learner to demonstrate the divine Principle, upon which Jesus' healing was based, and the sacred rules for its present application to the cure of disease.

6. 367 : 30-19

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.

Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth, that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that discord is as normal as harmony, even the hope of freedom from the bondage of sickness and sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.

7. 226 : 14-2

God has built a higher platform of human rights, and He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not made through code or creed, but in demonstration of "on earth peace, good-will toward men." Human codes, scholastic theology, material medicine and hygiene, fetter faith and spiritual understanding. Divine Science rends asunder these fetters, and man's birthright of sole allegiance to his Maker asserts itself.

I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servitude to an unreal master in the belief that the body governed them, rather than Mind.

The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of their own beliefs and from the educational systems of the Pharaohs, who to-day, as of yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw before me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilderness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of man are fully known and acknowledged.

8. 496 : 5-8

You will learn that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey God, to have one Mind, and to love another as yourself.

9. 295 : 5-15

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. Mortal mind would transform the spiritual into the material, and then recover man's original self in order to escape from the mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals, created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all, mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and forever intact, will appear.

10. 430 : 6-7

Faith should enlarge its borders and strengthen its base by resting upon Spirit instead of matter.

11. 429 : 27-28 (to ,)

We must have faith in all the sayings of our Master,