Responsive Reading: Colossians 3 : 1, 2, 4, 9, 10, 14-17

1.     If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

2.     Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

4.     When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

9.     Seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

10.     And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.

14.     And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.

15.     And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.

16.     Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

17.     And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

1. John 1 : 1-5

1     In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2     The same was in the beginning with God.

3     All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4     In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5     And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

2. Hebrews 11 : 1-3, 6

1     Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

2     For by it the elders obtained a good report.

3     Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

6     But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

3. Matthew 8 : 5-10, 13

5     And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

6     And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

7     And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

8     The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

9     For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

10     When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

13     And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

4. Mark 16 : 16-18

16     He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.

17     And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18     They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

5. II Corinthians 5 : 16-18 (to 1st ,)

16     Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.

17     Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

18     And all things are of God,

6. Revelation 1 : 1 (to ;)

1     The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass;

7. Revelation 21 : 1-7, 10, 11 (to :), 22-27

1     And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

2     And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

3     And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

4     And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

5     And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

6     And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

7     He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

10     And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

11     Having the glory of God:

22     And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.

23     And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

24     And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

25     And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.

26     And they shall bring the glory and honour of the nations into it.

27     And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

8. Revelation 22 : 1, 2 (to 3rd ,), 3-5, 16

1     And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

2     In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life,

3     And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:

4     And they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads.

5     And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

16     I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.

1. 472 : 24 (All)-26

All reality is in God and His creation, harmonious and eternal. That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made.

2. 513 : 26 (God)-27

God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are spiritual realities.

3. 275 : 10-19

To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one, — and are the Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.

4. 207 : 20 (There is)-31

There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause. Sin, sickness, disease, and death belong not to the Science of being. They are the errors, which presuppose the absence of Truth, Life, or Love.

The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth. Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord, which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real.

5. 23 : 12-2

Rabbinical lore said: "He that taketh one doctrine, firm in faith, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him." This preaching receives a strong rebuke in the Scripture, "Faith without works is dead." Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging between nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith, advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and establishes the claims of God.

In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the words corresponding thereto have these two definitions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others. Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how to work out one's "own salvation, with fear and trembling." "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!" expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the injunction, "Believe ... and thou shalt be saved!" demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spiritual understanding and confides all to God.

The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or to be constant. This certainly applies to Truth and Love understood and practised.

6. 582 : 1 (Believing)-2

Believing. Firmness and constancy; not a faltering nor a blind faith, but the perception of spiritual Truth.

7. 480 : 26 (The)-12

The Bible declares: "All things were made by Him [the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything made that was made." This is the eternal verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness, and death were understood as nothingness, they would disappear. As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the other. How important, then, to choose good as the reality! 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.

Material sense never helps mortals to understand Spirit, God. Through spiritual sense only, man comprehends and loves Deity. The various contradictions of the Science of Mind by the material senses do not change the unseen Truth, which remains forever intact.

8. 120 : 15-24

Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the subject of health. The Science of Mind-healing shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. Therefore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testimony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; and thus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic.

9. 353 : 16 (Perfection)-19

Perfection underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly real. All things will continue to disappear, until perfection appears and reality is reached.

10. 572 : 19-28

In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: —

And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through what sense came this vision to St. John? Not through the material visual organs for seeing, for optics are inadequate to take in so wonderful a scene.

11. 576 : 21-25

This kingdom of God "is within you," — is within reach of man's consciousness here, and the spiritual idea reveals it. In divine Science, man possesses this recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his understanding of God.

12. 573 : 3-12

The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see, — that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of consciousness.

13. 575 : 7-11 (to ,)

This sacred city, described in the Apocalypse (xxi. 16) as one that "lieth foursquare" and cometh "down from God, out of heaven," represents the light and glory of divine Science. The builder and maker of this New Jerusalem is God,

14. 577 : 19-27

This city of our God has no need of sun or satellite, for Love is the light of it, and divine Mind is its own interpreter. All who are saved must walk in this light. Mighty potentates and dynasties will lay down their honors within the heavenly city. Its gates open towards light and glory both within and without, for all is good, and nothing can enter that city, which "defileth, ... or maketh a lie."