Responsive Reading: Psalm 116 : 1, 2, 6-9

1.     I love the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

2.     Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

6.     The Lord preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

7.     Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.

8.     For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

9.     I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

1. 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.

2. John 3 : 1-12

1     There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2     The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

3     Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

4     Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

5     Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

6     That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7     Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

8     The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

9     Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

10     Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

11     Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

12     If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

3. I John 5 : 5, 11, 13, 20

5     Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

11     And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

13     These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

20     And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

4. I Timothy 1 : 12 (I)-17 (to 1st .)

12     I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry;

13     Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.

14     And the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.

15     This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.

16     Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.

17     Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever.

5. I Corinthians 15 : 50-57

50     Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

51     Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52     In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53     For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54     So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

55     O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

56     The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

57     But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

6. Revelation 21 : 2

2     And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

7. Revelation 22 : 1, 2, 14

1     And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2     In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

14     Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

8. Revelation 2 : 7

7     He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

1. 42 : 26 (in)-28

…in Christian Science the true man is governed by God — by good, not evil — and is therefore not a mortal but an immortal.

2. 434 : 31 (God)-32

God made Man immortal and amenable to Spirit only.

3. 246 : 27-31

Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.

4. 295 : 5-15

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. Mortal mind would transform the spiritual into the material, and then recover man's original self in order to escape from the mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals, created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all, mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and forever intact, will appear.

5. 81 : 17-18, 25-30

Man in the likeness of God as revealed in Science cannot help being immortal. … Though the inharmony resulting from material sense hides the harmony of Science, inharmony cannot destroy the divine Principle of Science. In Science, man's immortality depends upon that of God, good, and follows as a necessary consequence of the immortality of good.

6. 476 : 1-5, 10-20, 28-32

Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals. They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil, which declares that man begins in dust or as a material embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are inseparable as divine Principle and idea.

Hence man is not mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and immortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen children of God. They never had a perfect state of being, which may subsequently be regained. They were, from the beginning of mortal history, "conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity." Mortality is finally swallowed up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must disappear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal man.

When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal.

7. 296 : 4-13

Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suffering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off. Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.

8. 435 : 12 (good)-14

…good deeds are immortal, bringing joy instead of grief, pleasure instead of pain, and life instead of death.

9. 190 : 14-20

Human birth, growth, maturity, and decay are as the grass springing from the soil with beautiful green blades, afterwards to wither and return to its native nothingness. This mortal seeming is temporal; it never merges into immortal being, but finally disappears, and immortal man, spiritual and eternal, is found to be the real man.

10. 496 : 20-27

"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law," — the law of mortal belief, at war with the facts of immortal Life, even with the spiritual law which says to the grave, "Where is thy victory?" But "when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

11. 428 : 22-29

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.

12. 76 : 22-31

The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness without a single bodily pleasure or pain, — constitutes the only veritable, indestructible man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence is scientific and intact, — a perfection discernible only by those who have the final understanding of Christ in divine Science. Death can never hasten this state of existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to, before immortality appears.

13. 495 : 14-24

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.

14. 288 : 27-28

Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses.