Responsive Reading: Deuteronomy 6 : 5-7, 12, 14, 17, 18   •   Exodus 20 : 2, 3

5.     And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

6.     And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

7.     And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

12.     Beware lest thou forget the Lord, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.

14.     Ye shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the people which are round about you.

17.     Ye shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath commanded thee.

18.     And thou shalt do that which is right and good in the sight of the Lord: that it may be well with thee, and that thou mayest go in and possess the good land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers.

2.     I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.

3.     Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

1. II Corinthians 3 : 17 (where)

17     …where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

2. Psalm 119 : 33-36, 44, 45

33     Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes; and I shall keep it unto the end.

34     Give me understanding, and I shall keep thy law; yea, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

35     Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight.

36     Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.

44     So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever.

45     And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.

3. Exodus 3 : 1-8 (to ;), 11-14

1     Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.

2     And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.

3     And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.

4     And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.

5     And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.

6     Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God.

7     And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

8     And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey;

11     And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

12     And he said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain.

13     And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

14     And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

4. Exodus 4 : 10-12, 27 (to 1st .), 28-31

10     And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue.

11     And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the Lord?

12     Now therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.

27     And the Lord said to Aaron, Go into the wilderness to meet Moses.

28     And Moses told Aaron all the words of the Lord who had sent him, and all the signs which he had commanded him.

29     And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel:

30     And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people.

31     And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.

5. Exodus 5 : 1 (to 4th ,)

1     And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Let my people go,

6. Psalm 106 : 1, 2, 7-10, 48

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

2     Who can utter the mighty acts of the Lord? who can shew forth all his praise?

7     Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea.

8     Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known.

9     He rebuked the Red sea also, and it was dried up: so he led them through the depths, as through the wilderness.

10     And he saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

48     Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting: and let all the people say, Amen. Praise ye the Lord.

7. Luke 4 : 14, 15, 17-21

14     And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.

15     And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.

17     And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18     The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19     To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

20     And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.

21     And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

8. Galatians 5 : 1, 13

1     Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

13     For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.

9. Romans 8 : 14, 15

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.

1. 588 : 11-15

There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or Mind, governing all existence; man and woman unchanged forever in their individual characters, even as numbers which never blend with each other, though they are governed by one Principle.

2. 590 : 15-17, 19

Lord. In the Hebrew, this term is sometimes employed as a title, which has the inferior sense of master, or ruler. … Its higher signification is Supreme Ruler.

3. 481 : 2-6

Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Like the archpriests of yore, man is free "to enter into the holiest," — the realm of God.

4. 427 : 23-25

Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.

5. 106 : 7-14

God has endowed man with inalienable rights, among which are self-government, reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.

Man's rights are invaded when the divine order is interfered with, and the mental trespasser incurs the divine penalty due this crime.

6. 94 : 12-16

The eastern empires and nations owe their false government to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent. Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found, arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse.

7. 200 : 2-7

Pagan worship began with muscularity, but the law of Sinai lifted thought into the song of David. Moses advanced a nation to the worship of God in Spirit instead of matter, and illustrated the grand human capacities of being bestowed by immortal Mind.

8. 224 : 28-4

Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner is the Soul-inspired motto, "Slavery is abolished." The power of God brings deliverance to the captive. No power can withstand divine Love. What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God? Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free.

9. 225 : 14-22, 25-31

The history of our country, like all history, illustrates the might of Mind, and shows human power to be proportionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipotence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love is the liberator.

The despotic tendencies, inherent in mortal mind and always germinating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out through the action of the divine Mind.

Men and women of all climes and races are still in bondage to material sense, ignorant how to obtain their freedom.

10. 226 : 5-21

The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald of this new crusade sounded the keynote of universal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledgment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but through Christ's divine Science.

God has built a higher platform of human rights, and He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not made through code or creed, but in demonstration of "on earth peace, good-will toward men." Human codes, scholastic theology, material medicine and hygiene, fetter faith and spiritual understanding. Divine Science rends asunder these fetters, and man's birthright of sole allegiance to his Maker asserts itself.

11. 227 : 7-29

The law of the divine Mind must end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware of man's inalienable rights and in subjection to hopeless slavery, because some public teachers permit an ignorance of divine power, — an ignorance that is the foundation of continued bondage and of human suffering.

Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to foresee the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legitimate state of man. God made man free. Paul said, "I was free born." All men should be free. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Love and Truth make free, but evil and error lead into captivity.

Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and cries: "Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sickness, sin, and death!" Jesus marked out the way. Citizens of the world, accept the "glorious liberty of the children of God," and be free! This is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and defaced the tablet of your being.

12. 228 : 14-15

Mortals will some day assert their freedom in the name of Almighty God.

13. 340 : 15-29

"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the triunity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal. One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry, — whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.