Responsive Reading: I Corinthians 6 : 20 • I Thessalonians 5 : 16-24

20.     For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

16.     Rejoice evermore.

17.     Pray without ceasing.

18.     In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

19.     Quench not the Spirit.

20.     Despise not prophesyings.

21.     Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.

22.     Abstain from all appearance of evil.

23.     And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

24.     Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.

1. Psalm 23 : 1-3 (to :)

1     The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2     He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3     He restoreth my soul:

2. Psalm 121 : 1-8

1     I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.

2     My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth.

3     He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.

4     Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.

5     The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand.

6     The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.

7     The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy soul.

8     The Lord shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.

3. Daniel 1 : 1, 3-6, 8, 11-15

1     In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.

3     And the king spake unto Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring certain of the children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes;

4     Children in whom was no blemish, but well favoured, and skilful in all wisdom, and cunning in knowledge, and understanding science, and such as had ability in them to stand in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the learning and the tongue of the Chaldeans.

5     And the king appointed them a daily provision of the king’s meat, and of the wine which he drank: so nourishing them three years, that at the end thereof they might stand before the king.

6     Now among these were of the children of Judah, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah:

8     But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself.

11     Then said Daniel to Melzar, whom the prince of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,

12     Prove thy servants, I beseech thee, ten days; and let them give us pulse to eat, and water to drink.

13     Then let our countenances be looked upon before thee, and the countenance of the children that eat of the portion of the king’s meat: and as thou seest, deal with thy servants.

14     So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.

15     And at the end of ten days their countenances appeared fairer and fatter in flesh than all the children which did eat the portion of the king’s meat.

4. Isaiah 50 : 10

10     Who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness, and hath no light? let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.

5. Isaiah 58 : 9 (to .), 10, 11

9     Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.

10     And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

11     And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

6. Matthew 8 : 14-16

14     And when Jesus was come into Peter’s house, he saw his wife’s mother laid, and sick of a fever.

15     And he touched her hand, and the fever left her: and she arose, and ministered unto them.

16     When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:

7. 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,

8. Matthew 6 : 24-33

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?

27     Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?

28     And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:

29     And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

30     Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and to morrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?

31     Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

32     (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

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

1. 98 : 7-8

Body cannot be saved except through Mind.

2. 92 : 32-9

Do you say the time has not yet come in which to recognize Soul as substantial and able to control the body? Remember Jesus, who nearly nineteen centuries ago demonstrated the power of Spirit and said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also," and who also said, "But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation," said Paul.

3. 595 : 7-9 (to ;)

Temple. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and intelligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of Love;

4. 477 : 19-2

Question. — What are body and Soul?

Answer. — Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to Spirit.

Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught some glimpses of the underlying reality, when they called a certain beautiful lake "the smile of the Great Spirit." Separated from man, who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man, divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is, there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with God.

5. 476 : 7-11, 21-22

Error will cease to claim that soul is in body, that life and intelligence are in matter, and that this matter is man. God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not mortal nor material.

Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood.

6. 162 : 4-13

Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.

Experiments have favored the fact that Mind governs the body, not in one instance, but in every instance.

7. 216 : 28-1

When you say, "Man's body is material," I say with Paul: Be "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord." Give up your material belief of mind in matter, and have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its own likeness.

8. 221 : 1-4, 10-16

I knew a person who when quite a child adopted the Graham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he ate only bread and vegetables, and drank nothing but water. … He passed many weary years in hunger and weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up his mind to die, having exhausted the skill of the doctors, who kindly informed him that death was indeed his only alternative. At this point Christian Science saved him, and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the old complaint.

9. 222 : 11-17, 22-28

Food had less power to help or to hurt him after he had availed himself of the fact that Mind governs man, and he also had less faith in the so-called pleasures and pains of matter. Taking less thought about what he should eat or drink, consulting the stomach less about the economy of living and God more, he recovered strength and flesh rapidly.

He learned that a dyspeptic was very far from being the image and likeness of God, — far from having "dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle," if eating a bit of animal flesh could overpower him. He finally concluded that God never made a dyspeptic, while fear, hygiene, physiology, and physics had made him one, contrary to His commands.

10. 223 : 3-6

Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter instead of in Spirit.

11. 390 : 12-13, 20-26

When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science. … Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no law of His to support the necessity either of

sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying that necessity and healing the sick.

12. 391 : 7-13

Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against them. Banish the belief that you can possibly entertain a single intruding pain which cannot be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way you can prevent the development of pain in the body. No law of God hinders this result.

13. 392 : 24 (Stand)-3

Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forgetting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.

14. 393 : 8-15

Mind is the master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.