Responsive Reading: Revelation 21 : 1, 3-5, 7

1.     And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away;

3.     And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

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.     Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

7.     He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

1. Matthew 4 : 23 (Jesus) only

23     Jesus…

2. Matthew 5 : 1 (seeing) (to 1st :), 2

1     …seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain:

2     And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

3. Matthew 7 : 21

21     Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

4. Matthew 13 : 24 (The)-30

24     The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

25     But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

26     But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

27     So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

28     He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

29     But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

30     Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

5. Matthew 13 : 10-23 (to 3rd ,)

10     And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables?

11     He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.

12     For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.

13     Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

14     And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

15     For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

16     But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.

17     For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

18     Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

19     When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

20     But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

21     Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.

22     He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

23     But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth,

6. Matthew 10 : 1, 5-8, 16-20, 22, 40

1     And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease.

5     These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not:

6     But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

7     And as ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand.

8     Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give.

16     Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

17     But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;

18     And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.

19     But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.

20     For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

22     And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

40     He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

7. John 3 : 27 (A)

27     A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.

8. Matthew 5 : 6, 8, 10, 12 (to 2nd :)

6     Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

8     Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

10     Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

12     Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:

1. 275 : 10-14

To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one, — and are the Scriptural names for God.

2. vii : 13-18

The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith.

3. 95 : 19-22, 28-32

We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end of error, because even human invention must have its day, and we want that day to be succeeded by Christian Science, by divine reality.

Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours. Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth.

4. 109 : 32-7

The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science, — contradict forever the belief that matter can be actual. These eternal verities reveal primeval existence as the radiant reality of God's creation, in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wisdom good.

5. 472 : 24 (All)-3

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.

6. 335 : 27-31

Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable, immortal, divine, eternal. Nothing unspiritual can be real, harmonious, or eternal. Sin, sickness, and mortality are the suppositional antipodes of Spirit, and must be contradictions of reality.

7. 186 : 11-5

Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent. Every mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in evil.

Evil is self-assertive. It says: "I am a real entity, overmastering good." This falsehood should strip evil of all pretensions. The only power of evil is to destroy itself. It can never destroy one iota of good. Every attempt of evil to destroy good is a failure, and only aids in peremptorily punishing the evil-doer. If we concede the same reality to discord as to harmony, discord has as lasting a claim upon us as has harmony. If evil is as real as good, evil is also as immortal. If death is as real as Life, immortality is a myth. If pain is as real as the absence of pain, both must be immortal; and if so, harmony cannot be the law of being.

Mortal mind is ignorant of self, or it could never be self-deceived. If mortal mind knew how to be better, it would be better. Since it must believe in something besides itself, it enthrones matter as deity. The human mind has been an idolater from the beginning, having other gods and believing in more than the one Mind.

As mortals do not comprehend even mortal existence, how ignorant must they be of the all-knowing Mind and of His creations.

8. 122 : 1-7

The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, — assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and death; but the great facts of Life, rightly understood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, — the actual reign of harmony on earth.

9. 590 : 1-3

Kingdom Of Heaven. The rein of harmony in divine Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme.

10. 242 : 9-14

There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no other reality — to have no other consciousness of life — than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure of the senses.

11. 503 : 9-15

The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual harmony, — heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth, matter is unknown. No supposition of error enters there. Divine Science, the Word of God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "God is All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines the universe.

12. 560 : 11-19

The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of anyone whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again, without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can never understand the divine Principle.

13. 291 : 13-18

Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind in which all the manifestations of Mind are harmonious and immortal, because sin is not there and man is found having no righteousness of his own, but in possession of "the mind of the Lord," as the Scripture says.

14. 207 : 27 only

The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things.

15. 372 : 14-17

When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely, he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject to matter, nor disobey the law of God. Therefore he will be as the angels in heaven.