Responsive Reading: II Corinthians 5 : 1-8

1.     For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2.     For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

3.     If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

4.     For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

5.     Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

6.     Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

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

8.     We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

1. John 1 : 1-4

1     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2     The same was in the beginning with God.

3     All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4     In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

2. Job 33 : 4

4     The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.

3. Psalm 36 : 7-9

7     How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

8     They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.

9     For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.

4. Matthew 4 : 1-4, 11

1     Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

2     And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

3     And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

4     But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

11     Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

5. John 6 : 1-3, 26 (to 1st ,), 27, 40 (to :), 63

1     After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.

2     And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.

3     And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples.

26     Jesus answered them and said,

27     Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.

40     And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life:

63     It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

7. Acts 20 : 7-12

7     And upon the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them, ready to depart on the morrow; and continued his speech until midnight.

8     And there were many lights in the upper chamber, where they were gathered together.

9     And there sat in a window a certain young man named Eutychus, being fallen into a deep sleep: and as Paul was long preaching, he sunk down with sleep, and fell down from the third loft, and was taken up dead.

10     And Paul went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him.

11     When he therefore was come up again, and had broken bread, and eaten, and talked a long while, even till break of day, so he departed.

12     And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted.

8. Acts 17 : 22-28

22     Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars’ hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious.

23     For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.

24     God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;

25     Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

26     And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;

27     That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us:

28     For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

9. Proverbs 11 : 30 (to ;)

30     The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life;

10. Proverbs 4 : 20-23

20     My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

21     Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

22     For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

23     Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

1. 331 : 1 (God)-6

God is divine Life, and Life is no more confined to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its shadow. If life were in mortal man or material things, it would be subject to their limitations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator reflected in His creations.

2. 200 : 9-13

Life is, always has been, and ever will be independent of matter; for Life is God, and man is the idea of God, not formed materially but spiritually, and not subject to decay and dust.

3. 289 : 31-2

Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, — of Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I am, the Being who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase.

4. 487 : 27-1

The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.

This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the enduring and harmonious phases of things.

5. 283 : 6-31

Mind is the same Life, Love, and wisdom "yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Matter and its effects — sin, sickness, and death — are states of mortal mind which act, react, and then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute. It admits of no error, but rests upon understanding.

But what say prevalent theories? They insist that Life, or God, is one and the same with material life so-called. They speak of both Truth and error as mind, and of good and evil as spirit. They claim that to be life which is but the objective state of material sense, — such as the structural life of the tree and of material man, — and deem this the manifestation of the one Life, God.

This false belief as to what really constitutes life so detracts from God's character and nature, that the true sense of His power is lost to all who cling to this falsity. The divine Principle, or Life, cannot be practically demonstrated in length of days, as it was by the patriarchs, unless its Science be accurately stated. We must receive the divine Principle in the understanding, and live it in daily life; and unless we so do, we can no more demonstrate Science, than we can teach and illustrate geometry by calling a curve a straight line or a straight line a sphere.

6. 588 : 11-12 (to ;), 15-19

There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; … All the objects of God's creation reflect one Mind, and whatever reflects not this one Mind, is false and erroneous, even the belief that life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and material.

7. 550 : 15 (Error)-23

Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The continual contemplation of existence as material and corporeal — as beginning and ending, and with birth, decay, and dissolution as its component stages — hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting-point whatsoever, then the great I am is a myth. If Life is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embryonic, it is infinite.

8. 95 : 30-32

Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth.

9. 428 : 3 (Life)-29

Life is real, and death is the illusion. A demonstration of the facts of Soul in Jesus' way resolves the dark visions of material sense into harmony and immortality. Man's privilege at this supreme moment is to prove the words of our Master: "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear, — this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, "whose builder and maker is God."

We should consecrate existence, not "to the unknown God" whom we "ignorantly worship," but to the eternal builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life which mortal sense cannot impair nor mortal belief destroy. We must realize the ability of mental might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them with the life which is spiritual, not material.

The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We must hold forever the consciousness of existence, and sooner or later, through Christ and Christian Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence of man's immortality will become more apparent, as material beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being are admitted.

10. 14 : 5-22

We cannot "serve two masters." To be "present with the Lord" is to have, not mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demonstration and understanding of Life as revealed in Christian Science. To be "with the Lord" is to be in obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed by divine Love, — by Spirit, not by matter.

Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual, — neither in nor of matter, — and the body will then utter no complaints. If suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spiritual Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the hope of the promise Jesus bestows: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; ... because I go unto my Father," — [because the Ego is absent from the body, and present with Truth and Love.]