Responsive Reading: Psalm 103 : 2, 3 • Psalm 19 : 12, 13 • Psalm 116 : 3-5

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

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

12.     Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

13.     Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression.

3.     The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

4.     Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

5.     Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

1. Genesis 3 : 1-13

1     Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2     And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3     But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4     And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:

5     For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6     And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7     And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8     And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

9     And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10     And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11     And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12     And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13     And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

2. Matthew 9 : 35

35     And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

3. Matthew 8 : 5-10, 13

5     And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

6     And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

7     And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

8     The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

9     For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

10     When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

13     And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

4. Matthew 27 : 1, 33 (to 1st ,), 35 (they) (to 1st ,), 57-60

1     When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:

33     And when they were come unto a place called Golgotha,

35     …they crucified him.

57     When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathæa, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple:

58     He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.

59     And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth,

60     And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.

5. Matthew 28 : 1-10

1     In the end of the sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, came Mary Magdalene and the other Mary to see the sepulchre.

2     And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.

3     His countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow:

4     And for fear of him the keepers did shake, and became as dead men.

5     And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye: for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.

6     He is not here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.

7     And go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen from the dead; and, behold, he goeth before you into Galilee; there shall ye see him: lo, I have told you.

8     And they departed quickly from the sepulchre with fear and great joy; and did run to bring his disciples word.

9     And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and held him by the feet, and worshipped him.

10     Then said Jesus unto them, Be not afraid: go tell my brethren that they go into Galilee, and there shall they see me.

6. Revelation 21 : 4, 5

4     And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5     And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

1. 475 : 28-31

Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin.

2. 472 : 24 (All)-15

All reality is in God and His creation, harmonious and eternal. That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made. Therefore the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring belief, until God strips off their disguise. They are not true, because they are not of God. We learn in Christian Science that all inharmony of mortal mind or body is illusion, possessing neither reality nor identity though seeming to be real and identical.

The Science of Mind disposes of all evil. Truth, God, is not the father of error. Sin, sickness, and death are to be classified as effects of error. Christ came to destroy the belief of sin. The God-principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power. Christ is the ideal Truth, that comes to heal sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes all power to God. Jesus is the name of the man who, more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true idea of God, healing the sick and the sinning and destroying the power of death.

3. 394 : 28-14

We should remember that Life is God, and that God is omnipotent. Not understanding Christian Science, the sick usually have little faith in it till they feel its beneficent influence. This shows that faith is not the healer in such cases. The sick unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it. They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it. They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and eternal likeness to God.

Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false evidences of the corporeal senses and to assert its claims over mortality and disease. The same Principle cures both sin and sickness. When divine Science overcomes faith in a carnal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and in material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death will disappear.

4. 400 : 20-23

When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought alone creates the suffering. Mortal mind rules all that is mortal.

5. 184 : 3-5

Truth makes no laws to regulate sickness, sin, and death, for these are unknown to Truth and should not be recognized as reality.

6. 533 : 21-5

Materiality, so obnoxious to God, is already found in the rapid deterioration of the bone and flesh which came from Adam to form Eve. The belief in material life and intelligence is growing worse at every step, but error has its suppositional day and multiplies until the end thereof.

Truth, cross-questioning man as to his knowledge of error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She says, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat;" as much as to say in meek penitence, "Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to manifest the deathless man of God's creating.

7. 45 : 13-21

Three days after his bodily burial he talked with his disciples. The persecutors had failed to hide immortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre.

Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.

8. 34 : 20-28

His resurrection was also their resurrection. It helped them to raise themselves and others from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into the perception of infinite possibilities. They needed this quickening, for soon their dear Master would rise again in the spiritual realm of reality, and ascend far above their apprehension. As the reward for his faithfulness, he would disappear to material sense in that change which has since been called the ascension.

9. 426 : 16-32

When it is learned that disease cannot destroy life, and that mortals are not saved from sin or sickness by death, this understanding will quicken into newness of life. It will master either a desire to die or a dread of the grave, and thus destroy the great fear that besets mortal existence.

The relinquishment of all faith in death and also of the fear of its sting would raise the standard of health and morals far beyond its present elevation, and would enable us to hold the banner of Christianity aloft with unflinching faith in God, in Life eternal. Sin brought death, and death will disappear with the disappearance of sin. Man is immortal, and the body cannot die, because matter has no life to surrender. The human concepts named matter, death, disease, sickness, and sin are all that can be destroyed.

10. 248 : 29-32

Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, health, holiness, love — the kingdom of heaven — reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.