Responsive Reading: Psalm 95 : 1-6

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.

1. Genesis 1 : 1, 3-5 (to 1st .), 6, 8 (to 1st .), 9, 10, 26, 27, 31 (to 1st .)

1     In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

3     And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4     And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5     And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.

6     And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

8     And God called the firmament Heaven.

9     And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10     And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

26     And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27     So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

31     And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.

2. Nehemiah 9 : 1, 3, 6, 9, 11, 14, 15

1     Now in the twenty and fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, and with sackclothes, and earth upon them.

3     And they stood up in their place, and read in the book of the law of the Lord their God one fourth part of the day; and another fourth part they confessed, and worshipped the Lord their God.

6     Thou, even thou, art Lord alone; thou hast made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth, and all things that are therein, the seas, and all that is therein, and thou preservest them all; and the host of heaven worshippeth thee.

9     And didst see the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heardest their cry by the Red sea;

11     And thou didst divide the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of the sea on the dry land; and their persecutors thou threwest into the deeps, as a stone into the mighty waters.

14     And madest known unto them thy holy sabbath, and commandedst them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses thy servant:

15     And gavest them bread from heaven for their hunger, and broughtest forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and promisedst them that they should go in to possess the land which thou hadst sworn to give them.

3. Luke 1 : 5-8, 11 (there)-13, 18-20, 24, 25, 57, 62-64

5     There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judæa, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.

6     And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless.

7     And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.

8     And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course,

11     … there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

12     And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

13     But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

18     And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.

19     And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.

20     And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

24     And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying,

25     Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.

57     Now Elisabeth’s full time came that she should be delivered; and she brought forth a son.

62     And they made signs to his father, how he would have him called.

63     And he asked for a writing table, and wrote, saying, His name is John. And they marvelled all.

64     And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake, and praised God.

4. Isaiah 45 : 5, 8, 12, 18

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:

8     Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it.

12     I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.

18     For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.

5. Revelation 4 : 11

11     Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

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. 470 : 21-28, 32-5

God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, man, remains perfect. Man is the expression of God's being. If there ever was a moment when man did not express the divine perfection, then there was a moment when man did not express God, and consequently a time when Deity was unexpressed — that is, without entity.

The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.

3. 525 : 22-29

In the Science of Genesis we read that He saw everything which He had made, "and, behold, it was very good." The corporeal senses declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.

4. 332 : 4 (Father)-8

Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which indicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation. As the apostle expressed it in words which he quoted with approbation from a classic poet: "For we are also His offspring."

5. 583 : 20-25

Creator. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal; the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Principle; God, who made all that was made and could not create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.

6. 286 : 16-26

In the Saxon and twenty other tongues good is the term for God. The Scriptures declare all that He made to be good, like Himself, — good in Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual universe is good, and reflects God as He is.

God's thoughts are perfect and eternal, are substance and Life. Material and temporal thoughts are human, involving error, and since God, Spirit, is the only cause, they lack a divine cause. The temporal and material are not then creations of Spirit. They are but counterfeits of the spiritual and eternal.

7. 262 : 27-20

The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly. Every concept which seems to begin with the brain begins falsely. Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, in mortal mind, or in physical forms.

Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to be independent workers, personal authors, and even privileged originators of something which Deity would not or could not create. The creations of mortal mind are material. Immortal spiritual man alone represents the truth of creation.

When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence with the spiritual and works only as God works, he will no longer grope in the dark and cling to earth because he has not tasted heaven. Carnal beliefs defraud us. They make man an involuntary hypocrite, — producing evil when he would create good, forming deformity when he would outline grace and beauty, injuring those whom he would bless. He becomes a general mis-creator, who believes he is a semi-god. His "touch turns hope to dust, the dust we all have trod." He might say in Bible language: "The good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do."

There can be but one creator, who has created all.

8. 68 : 27-16

Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, but an impartation of the divine Mind to man and the universe. Proportionately as human generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, harmonious being will be spiritually discerned; and man, not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will appear. The scientific fact that man and the universe are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease. Mortals can never understand God's creation while believing that man is a creator. God's children already created will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being. Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion as the false and material disappears. No longer to marry or to be "given in marriage" neither closes man's continuity nor his sense of increasing number in God's infinite plan. Spiritually to understand that there is but one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scriptures, brings the sweet assurance of no parting, no pain, and of man deathless and perfect and eternal.

9. 502 : 27-5

The creative Principle — Life, Truth, and Love — is God. The universe reflects God. There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected. These ideas range from the infinitesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God.