Responsive Reading: Colossians 1 : 3, 10-13, 16, 17, 19

3.     We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

10.     That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11.     Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;

12.     Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

13.     Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

16.     For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

17.     And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

19.     For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.

1. Deuteronomy 6 : 4, 5

4     Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:

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

2. II Chronicles 7 : 14

14     If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

3. Judges 6 : 6, 11 (Gideon)-13 (to 1st ?), 14, 23 (to :)

6     And Israel was greatly impoverished because of the Midianites; and the children of Israel cried unto the Lord.

11     Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

12     And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.

13     And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?

14     And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

23     And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not:

4. Judges 7 : 2-4 (to :), 5 (to :), 6 (to :), 7 (to :), 16, 20, 21

2     And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.

3     Now therefore go to, proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, Whosoever is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early from mount Gilead. And there returned of the people twenty and two thousand; and there remained ten thousand.

4     And the Lord said unto Gideon, The people are yet too many; bring them down unto the water, and I will try them for thee there:

5     So he brought down the people unto the water:

6     And the number of them that lapped, putting their hand to their mouth, were three hundred men:

7     And the Lord said unto Gideon, By the three hundred men that lapped will I save you, and deliver the Midianites into thine hand:

16     And he divided the three hundred men into three companies, and he put a trumpet in every man’s hand, with empty pitchers, and lamps within the pitchers.

20     And the three companies blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers, and held the lamps in their left hands, and the trumpets in their right hands to blow withal: and they cried, The sword of the Lord, and of Gideon.

21     And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.

5. Judges 8 : 22, 23, 28

22     Then the men of Israel said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son also: for thou hast delivered us from the hand of Midian.

23     And Gideon said unto them, I will not rule over you, neither shall my son rule over you: the Lord shall rule over you.

28     Thus was Midian subdued before the children of Israel, so that they lifted up their heads no more. And the country was in quietness forty years in the days of Gideon.

6. Psalm 62 : 11, 12

11     God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.

12     Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.

7. Isaiah 60 : 1, 3, 4 (to 1st :)

1     Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

3     And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

4     Lift up thine eyes round about, and see:

8. Isaiah 61 : 1-3

1     The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2     To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;

3     To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

9. John 8 : 31, 32, 36

31     Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

32     And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

36     If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.

10. 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.

11. I Peter 2 : 1, 5, 16

1     Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,

5     Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

16     As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

12. Psalm 46 : 11 (to 1st .)

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

1. 224 : 28 (Truth)-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.

2. 106 : 6-14

Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration of Independence. 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.

3. 227 : 7-20

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.

4. 368 : 10-19

Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth, that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that discord is as normal as harmony, even the hope of freedom from the bondage of sickness and sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.

5. 380 : 32-7

Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern man, is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God. Ignorant of our God-given rights, we submit to unjust decrees, and the bias of education enforces this slavery. Be no more willing to suffer the illusion that you are sick or that some disease is developing in the system, than you are to yield to a sinful temptation on the ground that sin has its necessities.

6. 256 : 19 (Who)-23

Who is it that demands our obedience? He who, in the language of Scripture, "doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?"

7. 205 : 32-13

When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, we can have no other Mind but His, — no other Love, wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no consciousness of the existence of matter or error.

The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judgment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man. Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both upon the body and through it.

Will-power is capable of all evil. It can never heal the sick, for it is the prayer of the unrighteous; while the exercise of the sentiments — hope, faith, love — is the prayer of the righteous.

8. 226 : 14-21

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.

9. 253 : 9-31

I hope, dear reader, I am leading you into the understanding of your divine rights, your heaven-bestowed harmony, — that, as you read, you see there is no cause (outside of erring, mortal, material sense which is not power) able to make you sick or sinful; and I hope that you are conquering this false sense. Knowing the falsity of so-called material sense, you can assert your prerogative to overcome the belief in sin, disease, or death.

If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you can at once change your course and do right. Matter can make no opposition to right endeavors against sin or sickness, for matter is inert, mindless. Also, if you believe yourself diseased, you can alter this wrong belief and action without hindrance from the body.

Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, disease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is destroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life instead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit instead of the flesh.

10. 225 : 8-22

The powers of this world will fight, and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass the guard until it subscribes to their systems; but Science, heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on. There is always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth's standard.

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.