Responsive Reading: Psalm 56 : 1-5, 11

1.     Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up; he fighting daily oppresseth me.

2.     Mine enemies would daily swallow me up: for they be many that fight against me, O thou most High.

3.     What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

4.     In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

5.     Every day they wrest my words: all their thoughts are against me for evil.

11.     In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.

1. Isaiah 45 : 1 (to 1st ,), 5, 22

1     Thus saith the Lord to his anointed,

5     I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:

22     Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

2. Genesis 21 : 9-20

9     And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.

10     Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.

11     And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.

12     And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.

13     And also of the son of the bondwoman will I make a nation, because he is thy seed.

14     And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

15     And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.

16     And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.

17     And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.

18     Arise, lift up the lad, and hold him in thine hand; for I will make him a great nation.

19     And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.

20     And God was with the lad; and he grew, and dwelt in the wilderness, and became an archer.

3. Psalm 121 : 1-3, 7, 8

1     I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

2     My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

3     He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

7     The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8     The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

4. I Samuel 17 : 4, 10, 11, 32, 33, 37-40, 45 (to 1st ,), 46 (to 1st ;), 47-50

4     And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.

10     And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.

11     When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.

32     And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

33     And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.

37     David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee.

38     And Saul armed David with his armour, and he put an helmet of brass upon his head; also he armed him with a coat of mail.

39     And David girded his sword upon his armour, and he assayed to go; for he had not proved it. And David said unto Saul, I cannot go with these; for I have not proved them. And David put them off him.

40     And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.

45     Then said David to the Philistine,

46     This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand;

47     And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.

48     And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.

49     And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.

50     So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.

5. Psalm 23 : 1-6

1     The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2     He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3     He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4     Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5     Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6     Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

1. 131 : 10-11

The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.

2. 340 : 15-22

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri-unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal.

3. 151 : 20-21, 23-24, 26-30

Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind. … The divine Mind that made man maintains His own image and likeness. … All that really exists is the divine Mind and its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found harmonious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and follow the leadings of truth.

4. 550 : 5-8

God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men. God cannot become finite, and be limited within material bounds.

5. 167 : 24-31

There is but one way — namely, God and His idea — which leads to spiritual being. The scientific government of the body must be attained through the divine Mind. It is impossible to gain control over the body in any other way. On this fundamental point, timid conservatism is absolutely inadmissible. Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized.

6. 169 : 29-2

Whatever teaches man to have other laws and to acknowledge other powers than the divine Mind, is anti-Christian. The good that a poisonous drug seems to do is evil, for it robs man of

reliance on God, omnipotent Mind, and according to belief, poisons the human system. 

7. 104 : 13-18

Christian Science goes to the bottom of mental action, and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of all divine action, as the emanation of divine Mind, and the consequent wrongness of the opposite so-called action, — evil, occultism, necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism.

8. 494 : 30-24

Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick. It should be said of his followers also, that they cast fear and all evil out of themselves and others and heal the sick. God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is governed by God. Truth casts out error now as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. All of Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is not fully demonstrated.

If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you cannot destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then classify sickness and error as our Master did, when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hath bound," and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life-giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and sets the captive free physically and morally.

When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.

9. 203 : 13-16

Spiritual perception brings out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in deed and in truth.

10. 155 : 15-25

The universal belief in physics weighs against the high and mighty truths of Christian metaphysics. This erroneous general belief, which sustains medicine and produces all medical results, works against Christian Science; and the percentage of power on the side of this Science must mightily outweigh the power of popular belief in order to heal a single case of disease. The human mind acts more powerfully to offset the discords of matter and the ills of flesh, in proportion as it puts less weight into the material or fleshly scale and more weight into the spiritual scale.

11. 14 : 25-30

Entirely separate from the belief and dream of material living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual understanding and the consciousness of man's dominion over the whole earth. This understanding casts out error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak "as one having authority."

12. 593 : 20-22

Salvation. Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed.

13. 207 : 10-11 (to 2nd ;)

Evil is not supreme; good is not helpless;

14. 577 : 32-18

In the following Psalm one word shows, though faintly, the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures by substituting for the corporeal sense, the incorporeal or spiritual sense of Deity: —

PSALM XXIII

[Divine love] is my shepherd; I shall not want.

[Love] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

[love] leadeth me beside the still waters.

[Love] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [love] lead-

eth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of

death, I will fear no evil: for [love] is with me; [love's]

rod and [love's] staff they comfort me.

[Love] prepareth a table before me in the presence of

mine enemies: [love] anointeth my head with oil; my cup

runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of

my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness]

of [love] for ever.