Responsive Reading: I John 2 : 15-17 • I John 5 : 4, 20, 21

15.     Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

16.     For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

17.     And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.

4.     For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.

20.     And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

21.     Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

1. Hebrews 11 : 3

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.

2. Matthew 4 : 23

23     And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

3. Matthew 5 : 1, 2

1     And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

2     And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

4. Matthew 6 : 19-21, 24-26, 33

19     Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20     But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21     For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

24     No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

25     Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

26     Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

33     But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

5. John 6 : 63

63     It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

6. Matthew 16 : 1-4

1     The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.

2     He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

3     And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

4     A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

7. Mark 7 : 14-16, 31-37

14     And when he had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand:

15     There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man.

16     If any man have ears to hear, let him hear.

31     And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.

32     And they bring unto him one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech; and they beseech him to put his hand upon him.

33     And he took him aside from the multitude, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spit, and touched his tongue;

34     And looking up to heaven, he sighed, and saith unto him, Ephphatha, that is, Be opened.

35     And straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

36     And he charged them that they should tell no man: but the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published it;

37     And were beyond measure astonished, saying, He hath done all things well: he maketh both the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak.

8. Matthew 9 : 27-31

27     And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.

28     And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

29     Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

30     And their eyes were opened; and Jesus straitly charged them, saying, See that no man know it.

31     But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country.

9. Luke 8 : 43-48

43     And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any,

44     Came behind him, and touched the border of his garment: and immediately her issue of blood stanched.

45     And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, Master, the multitude throng thee and press thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

46     And Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me: for I perceive that virtue is gone out of me.

47     And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately.

48     And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.

10. Romans 8 : 1, 2

1     There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

2     For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

1. 275 : 20-24

Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understanding, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — that is, all power, all presence, all Science. Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.

2. 310 : 29-31

Mind is God, and God is not seen by material sense, because Mind is Spirit, which material sense cannot discern.

3. 277 : 24-32

The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine, — it is a human concept. Matter is an error of statement. This error in the premise leads to errors in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters. Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immortal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous.

4. 479 : 8 only, 10-17

Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit. … Matter cannot see, feel, hear, taste, nor smell. It is not self-cognizant, — cannot feel itself, see itself, nor understand itself. Take away so-called mortal mind, which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter can take no cognizance of matter. Does that which we call dead ever see, hear, feel, or use any of the physical senses?

5. 279 : 22-29

Every system of human philosophy, doctrine, and medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic belief that there is mind in matter; but this belief contradicts alike revelation and right reasoning. A logical and scientific conclusion is reached only through the knowledge that there are not two bases of being, matter and mind, but one alone, — Mind.

6. 586 : 3-4

Eyes. Spiritual discernment, — not material but mental.

7. 585 : 1-4

Ears. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding.

Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, "Having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)

8. 210 : 5-16

The Principle and proof of Christianity are discerned by spiritual sense. They are set forth in Jesus' demonstrations, which show — by his healing the sick, casting out evils, and destroying death, "the last enemy that shall be destroyed," — his disregard of matter and its so-called laws.

Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation.

9. 486 : 23-26

Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immortality are in Spirit and understanding, not in matter, — hence their permanence.

10. 487 : 6-12

There is more Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf centuries ago, and it will repeat the wonder.

11. 86 : 1-9

Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone, his disciples answered, "The multitude throng thee." Jesus knew, as others did not, that it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples' misconception of it uncovered their materiality.

12. 269 : 21-28

The testimony of the material senses is neither absolute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of the prophets, and on the testimony of the Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none. All other systems — systems based wholly or partly on knowledge gained through the material senses — are reeds shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock.

13. 95 : 28-3

Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours. Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth. Humanity advances slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding; unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christendom with chains.

14. 205 : 7-12, 15-21, 32-3

When will the error of believing that there is life in matter, and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of God, be unmasked? When will it be understood that matter has neither intelligence, life, nor sensation, and that the opposite belief is the prolific source of all suffering?

Befogged in error (the error of believing that matter can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear glimpses of God only as the mists disperse, or as they melt into such thinness that we perceive the divine image in some word or deed which indicates the true idea, — the supremacy and reality of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil.

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.

15. 21 : 9-14

If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striving to enter in. He constantly turns away from material sense, and looks towards the imperishable things of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the start, and gain a little each day in the right direction, till at last he finishes his course with joy.