Responsive Reading: Genesis 1 : 27-31

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

28.     And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29.     And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30.     And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

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

1. Genesis 3 : 1-14 (to ;), 16, 17, 20

1     Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

2     And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

3     But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

4     And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die.

5     For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

6     And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

7     And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.

8     And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.

9     And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

10     And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

11     And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?

12     And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

13     And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

14     And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field;

16     Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

17     And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

20     And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

2. Mark 5 : 25-29, 34 (to ;)

25     And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

26     And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

27     When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

28     For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.

29     And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

34     And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole;

3. John 8 : 1-12

1     Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

2     And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

3     And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4     They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

5     Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

6     This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not.

7     So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.

8     And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground.

9     And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.

10     When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

11     She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

12     Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

4. Mark 12 : 30, 31

30     And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31     And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

5. John 3 : 16

16     For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

1. 516 : 28 (God)-2

God made man in His own image, to reflect the divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter genders are human concepts. In one of the ancient languages the word for man is used also as the synonym of mind.

2. 517 : 8-14

The ideal man corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth. The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In divine Science, we have not as much authority for considering God masculine, as we have for considering Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity.

3. 92 : 11-21

In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve. This represents the serpent in the act of commending to our first parents the knowledge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter, or evil, instead of from Spirit. The portrayal is still graphically accurate, for the common conception of mortal man — a burlesque of God's man — is an outgrowth of human knowledge or sensuality, a mere offshoot of material sense.

Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you.

4. 530 : 26 (The history)-29

The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the dreamer and dream are one, for neither is true nor real.

5. 362 : 1-12

It is related in the seventh chapter of Luke's Gospel that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual incident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene of Oriental festivity. A "strange woman" came in. Heedless of the fact that she was debarred from such a place and such society, especially under the stern rules of rabbinical law, as positively as if she were a Hindoo pariah intruding upon the household of a high-caste Brahman, this woman (Mary Magdalene, as she has since been called) approached Jesus.

6. 363 : 1-15, 21 (following)-23

She bore an alabaster jar containing costly and fragrant oil, — sandal oil perhaps, which is in such common use in the East. Breaking the sealed jar, she perfumed Jesus' feet with the oil, wiping them with her long hair, which hung loosely about her shoulders, as was customary with women of her grade.

Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adoration? No! He regarded her compassionately. Nor was this all. Knowing what those around him were saying in their hearts, especially his host, — that they were wondering why, being a prophet, the exalted guest did not at once detect the woman's immoral status and bid her depart, — knowing this, Jesus rebuked them with a short story or parable.

…following it with that remarkable declaration to the woman, "Thy sins are forgiven."

7. 249 : 1-5, 18-23

Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.

Let the "male and female" of God's creating appear.

Life is, like Christ, "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever." Organization and time have nothing to do with Life. You say, "I dreamed last night." What a mistake is that! The I is Spirit. God never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals are the Adam dreamers.

8. 306 : 30-6

God's man, spiritually created, is not material and mortal.

The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter. This pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, insists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying, "Ye shall be as gods;" that is, I will make error as real and eternal as Truth.

9. 534 : 12 (The Son)-23

The Son of the Virgin-mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the idea of divine power, which Jesus presented, and mythological material intelligence called energy and opposed to Spirit.

Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: "The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you."

10. 192 : 4-6, 23-26

We are Christian Scientists, only as we quit our reliance upon that which is false and grasp the true. We are not Christian Scientists until we leave all for Christ.

The good you do and embody gives you the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a mockery of strength, which erelong betrays its weakness and falls, never to rise.

11. 476 : 28-32

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.

12. 171 : 4-8 (to 4th ,)

Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed.