Responsive Reading: Ephesians 4 : 1-3, 13, 22-24 • Ephesians 5 : 14

1.     I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

2.     With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

3.     Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

13.     Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

22.     That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

23.     And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

24.     And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

14.     Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

1. Psalm 31 : 23 (to 2nd ,)

23     O love the Lord, all ye his saints: for the Lord preserveth the faithful,

2. John 2 : 4 (to saith)

4     Jesus saith …

3. John 10 : 10 (I), 27-29

10     I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

27     My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

28     And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

29     My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.

4. John 11 : 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11 (Our)-15, 20-26 (to .), 34 (Where), 38-44

1     Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.

3     Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.

4     When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.

6     When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.

7     Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judæa again.

11     Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep.

12     Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.

13     Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep.

14     Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.

15     And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him.

20     Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him: but Mary sat still in the house.

21     Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

22     But I know, that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.

23     Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.

24     Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.

25     Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:

26     And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

34     Where have ye laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see.

38     Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.

39     Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.

40     Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?

41     Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.

42     And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.

43     And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

44     And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.

5. John 17 : 1-3

1     These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

2     As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

3     And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

6. John 5 : 24, 25

24     Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

25     Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.

7. Romans 13 : 11 (now it)

11     …now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

8. I Corinthians 15 : 26, 51-54

26     The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.

51     Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

52     In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

53     For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

54     So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

9. I Peter 1 : 3, 4

3     Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

4     To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,

1. 246 : 27 (Life)-31

Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. Let us then shape our views of existence into loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather than into age and blight.

2. 75 : 12-20

Jesus said of Lazarus: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." Jesus restored Lazarus by the understanding that Lazarus had never died, not by an admission that his body had died and then lived again. Had Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have resuscitated it.

3. 427 : 13-19, 29-14

Death is but another phase of the dream that existence can be material. Nothing can interfere with the harmony of being nor end the existence of man in Science. Man is the same after as before a bone is broken or the body guillotined. If man is never to overcome death, why do the Scriptures say, "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"?

The dream of death must be mastered by Mind here or hereafter. Thought will waken from its own material declaration, "I am dead," to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, "There is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor reaction."

Life is real, and death is the illusion. A demonstration of the facts of Soul in Jesus' way resolves the dark visions of material sense into harmony and immortality. Man's privilege at this supreme moment is to prove the words of our Master: "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear, — this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, "whose builder and maker is God."

4. 46 : 20-24

Jesus' unchanged physical condition after what seemed to be death was followed by his exaltation above all material conditions; and this exaltation explained his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a probationary and progressive state beyond the grave.

5. 49 : 21-25

He was to prove that the Christ is not subject to material conditions, but is above the reach of human wrath, and is able, through Truth, Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and the grave.

6. 409 : 27-3

We have no right to say that life depends on matter now, but will not depend on it after death. We cannot spend our days here in ignorance of the Science of Life, and expect to find beyond the grave a reward for this ignorance. Death will not make us harmonious and immortal as a recompense for ignorance. If here we give no heed to Christian Science, which is spiritual and eternal, we shall not be ready for spiritual Life hereafter.

7. 290 : 3-10, 16-25

If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of man's being are not in the least understood before what is termed death overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher spiritually in the scale of existence on account of that single experience, but will remain as material as before the transition, still seeking happiness through a material, instead of through a spiritual sense of life, and from selfish and inferior motives.

If the change called death destroyed the belief in sin, sickness, and death, happiness would be won at the moment of dissolution, and be forever permanent; but this is not so. Perfection is gained only by perfection. They who are unrighteous shall be unrighteous still, until in divine Science Christ, Truth, removes all ignorance and sin.

The sin and error which possess us at the instant of death do not cease at that moment, but endure until the death of these errors.

8. 291 : 12-13

Universal salvation rests on progression and probation, and is unattainable without them.

9. 296 : 4 (Progress)-13

Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suffering or Science must destroy all illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off. Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.

10. 76 : 6-17, 26-31

When being is understood, Life will be recognized as neither material nor finite, but as infinite, — as God, universal good; and the belief that life, or mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in evil, will be destroyed. Then it will be understood that Spirit never entered matter and was therefore never raised from matter. When advanced to spiritual being and the understanding of God, man can no longer commune with matter; neither can he return to it, any more than a tree can return to its seed. Neither will man seem to be corporeal, but he will be an individual consciousness, characterized by the divine Spirit as idea, not matter.

This state of existence is scientific and intact, — a perfection discernible only by those who have the final understanding of Christ in divine Science. Death can never hasten this state of existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to, before immortality appears.

11. 254 : 16-23

During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science may not be achieved prior to the change called death, for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do not understand. But the human self must be evangelized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, and to work out the spiritual which determines the outward and actual.

12. 492 : 11-12

Thus progress will finally destroy all error, and bring immortality to light.