Responsive Reading: John 6 : 25-29, 35

25.     And when they had found him on the other side of the sea, they said unto him, Rabbi, when camest thou hither?

26.     Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.

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.

28.     Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?

29.     Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

35.     And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

1. Psalm 100 : 1-5

1     Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

2     Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

3     Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

4     Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

5     For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

2. Mark 6 : 34 (And Jesus) only

34     And Jesus…

3. Mark 7 : 24 (went)-37

24     …went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but he could not be hid.

25     For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet:

26     The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

27     But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

28     And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs.

29     And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter.

30     And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

31     And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

32     And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.

33     And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

34     And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

35     And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

36     And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

37     And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

4. 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.

5. Romans 8 : 12-25

12     Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.

13     For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

14     For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

15     For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

16     The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

17     And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

18     For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

19     For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

20     For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,

21     Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

22     For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.

23     And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

24     For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

25     But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

6. I John 3 : 1-3

1     Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

2     Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

3     And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

1. 428 : 22-23

The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal.

2. 195 : 11-14

The point for each one to decide is, whether it is mortal mind or immortal Mind that is causative. We should forsake the basis of matter for metaphysical Science and its divine Principle.

3. 303 : 21-21 next page

The belief that pain and pleasure, life and death, holiness and unholiness, mingle in man, — that mortal, material man is the likeness of God and is himself a creator, — is a fatal error.

God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would be a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed. He would be without a witness or proof of His own nature. Spiritual man is the image or idea of God, an idea which cannot be lost nor separated from its divine Principle. When the evidence before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from God, from the sweet sense and presence of Life and Truth.

It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and goodness. Understanding this, Paul said: "Neither death, nor life, ... nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God." This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death. The perfect man — governed by God, his perfect Principle — is sinless and eternal.

Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled by it and abides with it. Divine Principle is the Life of man. Man's happiness is not, therefore, at the disposal of physical sense. Truth is not contaminated by error. Harmony in man is as beautiful as in music, and discord is unnatural, unreal.

4. 312 : 14-22

People go into ecstasies over the sense of a corporeal Jehovah, though with scarcely a spark of love in their hearts; yet God is love, and without Love, God, immortality cannot appear. Mortals try to believe without understanding Truth; yet God is Truth. Mortals claim that death is inevitable; but man's eternal Principle is ever-present Life. Mortals believe in a finite personal God; while God is infinite Love, which must be unlimited.

5. 475 : 5-27 next page

Question. — What is man?

Answer. — Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.

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."

Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not God's man. 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.

Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed. Error will cease to claim that soul is in body, that life and intelligence are in matter, and that this matter is man. God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God. 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.

Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood. Remember that the Scriptures say of mortal man: "As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more."

6. 428 : 23-29

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.