Responsive Reading: Psalm 62 : 1, 2, 5, 7, 8

1.     Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation.

2.     He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved.

5.     My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him.

7.     In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

8.     Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us.

1. Psalm 107 : 1-6

1     O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

2     Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;

3     And gathered them out of the lands, from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south.

4     They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.

5     Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.

6     Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.

2. II Corinthians 6 : 1, 2

1     We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

2     (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

3. Philippians 2 : 12, 13

12     Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

13     For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

4. II Kings 5 : 1-4, 9-16

1     Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honourable, because by him the Lord had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valour, but he was a leper.

2     And the Syrians had gone out by companies, and had brought away captive out of the land of Israel a little maid; and she waited on Naaman’s wife.

3     And she said unto her mistress, Would God my lord were with the prophet that is in Samaria! for he would recover him of his leprosy.

4     And one went in, and told his lord, saying, Thus and thus said the maid that is of the land of Israel.

9     So Naaman came with his horses and with his chariot, and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.

10     And Elisha sent a messenger unto him, saying, Go and wash in Jordan seven times, and thy flesh shall come again to thee, and thou shalt be clean.

11     But Naaman was wroth, and went away, and said, Behold, I thought, He will surely come out to me, and stand, and call on the name of the Lord his God, and strike his hand over the place, and recover the leper.

12     Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? So he turned and went away in a rage.

13     And his servants came near, and spake unto him, and said, My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then, when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean.

14     Then went he down, and dipped himself seven times in Jordan, according to the saying of the man of God: and his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a little child, and he was clean.

15     And he returned to the man of God, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel: now therefore, I pray thee, take a blessing of thy servant.

16     But he said, As the Lord liveth, before whom I stand, I will receive none. And he urged him to take it; but he refused.

5. Luke 19 : 1-10

1     And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho.

2     And, behold, there was a man named Zacchæus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.

3     And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature.

4     And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way.

5     And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchæus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house.

6     And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully.

7     And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.

8     And Zacchæus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.

9     And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.

10     For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

6. Psalm 46 : 1, 2 (to 1st ,), 4, 5 (to :), 10, 11 (to 1st .)

1     God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2     Therefore will not we fear,

4     There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.

5     God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved:

10     Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

11     The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

7. Psalm 91 : 1-3

1     He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

2     I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.

3     Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

8. Isaiah 10 : 24 (to 1st ,)

24     Therefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts,

9. Psalm 91 : 14-16

14     Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.

15     He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

16     With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

1. 444 : 10-12

Step by step will those who trust Him find that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble."

2. 22 : 11-12

"Work out your own salvation," is the demand of Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you.

3. 593 : 20-22

Salvation. Life, Truth, and Love understood and demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and death destroyed.

4. 394 : 17-27

Experience has proved to the author the fallacy of material systems in general, — that their theories are sometimes pernicious, and that their denials are better than their affirmations. Will you bid a man let evils overcome him, assuring him that all misfortunes are from God, against whom mortals should not contend? Will you tell the sick that their condition is hopeless, unless it can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material means the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony, with Truth and Love?

5. 240 : 18-26

Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures will be repeated until all wrong work is effaced or rectified. If at present satisfied with wrong-doing, we must learn to loathe it. If at present content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with it. Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that is to be overcome.

6. 37 : 27-9

Hear these imperative commands: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect!" "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature!" "Heal the sick!"

Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration to stir mankind to Christian effort? Because men are assured that this command was intended only for a particular period and for a select number of followers. This teaching is even more pernicious than the old doctrine of foreordination, — the election of a few to be saved, while the rest are damned; and so it will be considered, when the lethargy of mortals, produced by man-made doctrines, is broken by the demands of divine Science.

7. 31 : 12-17

First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his followers the healing power of Truth and Love. He attached no importance to dead ceremonies. It is the living Christ, the practical Truth, which makes Jesus "the resurrection and the life" to all who follow him in deed.

8. 39 : 1-25

Meekly our Master met the mockery of his unrecognized grandeur. Such indignities as he received, his followers will endure until Christianity's last triumph. He won eternal honors. He overcame the world, the flesh, and all error, thus proving their nothingness. He wrought a full salvation from sin, sickness, and death. We need "Christ, and him crucified." We must have trials and self-denials, as well as joys and victories, until all error is destroyed.

The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone out of mortality into immortality and bliss. The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them. He was "the way." To him, therefore, death was not the threshold over which he must pass into living glory.

"Now," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," — meaning, not that now men must prepare for a future-world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is the time for so-called material pains and material pleasures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible in Science.

9. 30 : 30-32

We cannot choose for ourselves, but must work out our salvation in the way Jesus taught.

10. 98 : 31-29

The way through which immortality and life are learned is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine, not physical but metaphysical, not material but scientifically spiritual. Human philosophy, ethics, and superstition afford no demonstrable divine Principle by which mortals can escape from sin; yet to escape from sin, is what the Bible demands. "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling," says the apostle, and he straightway adds: "for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians ii. 12, 13). Truth has furnished the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Science has opened the door of the human understanding. None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door. The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual. Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it is human.

Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism, or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is not with the individual, but with the false system. I love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure.

The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man.

11. 264 : 24-31

Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love.

When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God's creation, — all the glories of earth and heaven and man.