First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Gen. 1:26, 27
26¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
- Jer. 18:1-6
1The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,
2Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
3Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
4And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
6O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
- Dan. 1:1, 2 (to :), 3-6, 8, 14, 15, 19 (to ;), 20
1In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it.
2And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God:
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;
4Children 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.
5And 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.
6Now 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.
... 14So he consented to them in this matter, and proved them ten days.
15And 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.
19And the king communed with them;
... 20And in all matters of wisdom and understanding, that the king inquired of them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and astrologers that were in all his realm.
- Colossians 3:2, 3 your, 9 seeing, 10
2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 ... your life is hid with Christ in God.
9 ... seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
- Matt. 13:43 Who, 44 the, 45 the, 46
43Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
44the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.
45the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls:
46Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
- Matt. 8:1-3
1When he was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
2And, behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
3And Jesus put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed.
- Eph. 4:17, 18, 22-24
17This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,
18Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:
... 22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
- Matt. 9:18 behold, 19, 23-25
18behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.
19And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples.
23And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,
24He said unto them, Give place: for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
25But when the people were put forth, he went in, and took her by the hand, and the maid arose.
- II Cor. 5:1 we, 2, 4-6 we, 16-18, 20
1we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
2For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
4 ... we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
5Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.
6Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
... 16Wherefore 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.
17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
... 20Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 477:20-26 Identity, 29
Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the re-21flection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Reflection of SpiritLove. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelli-gence of man, which is individualized, but not 24in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to Spirit.
Man is the expression of Soul. Separated from man, 30who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man, divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is, 478 478:1there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with God.
- SH 70:12
- SH 333:26
- SH 476:32
Jesus beheld in Science the per-477477:1fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour 3saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy. 6Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect nor material.
- SH 476:21-22
- SH 477:9-17 To
9To the five corporeal senses, man appears to be matter and mind united; but Material body never God’s ideaChristian Science reveals man as the idea of 12God, and declares the corporeal senses to be mortal and erring illusions. Divine Science shows it to be impossible that a material body, though 15interwoven with matter’s highest stratum, misnamed mind, should be man, — the genuine and perfect man, the immortal idea of being, indestructible and eternal.
- SH 287:24-27, 32
24The supposition that life, substance, and in-telligence are in matter, or of it, is an error. Matter is neither a thing nor a person, but merely the 27objective supposition of Spirit’s opposite.
Truth cannot be contaminated by error. The state-288288:1ment that Truth is real necessarily includes the correlated statement, that error, Truth’s unlikeness, is unreal.
- SH 480:8
Nerves are an element of the belief that there is sensa-9tion in matter, whereas matter is devoid of sensation. Harmony from SpiritConsciousness, as well as action, is governed by Mind, — is in God, the origin and gov-12ernor of all that Science reveals. Material sense has its realm apart from Science in the unreal. Harmonious action proceeds from Spirit, God. Inharmony has no 15Principle; its action is erroneous and presupposes man to be in matter. Inharmony would make matter the cause as well as the effect of intelligence, or Soul, thus 18attempting to separate Mind from God.
- SH 261:8, 24
The effect of mortal mind on health and happiness is 9seen in this: If one turns away from the body with such Unreality of painabsorbed interest as to forget it, the body experiences no pain. Under the strong im -12pulse of a desire to perform his part, a noted actor was accustomed night after night to go upon the stage and sustain his appointed task, walking about as actively 15as the youngest member of the company. This old man was so lame that he hobbled every day to the theatre, and sat aching in his chair till his cue was spoken, — a signal 18which made him as oblivious of physical infirmity as if he had inhaled chloroform, though he was in the full pos-session of his so-called senses.
Breaking away from the mutations of time and sense, you will neither lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own iden-27tity. Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a 30skyward flight.
- SH 301:17-13
As God is substance and man is the divine image and 18likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only Inverted images and ideasthe substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter. The belief that man has any other 21substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material sub-24stance, while man is “image” (idea). Delusion, sin, dis-ease, and death arise from the false testimony of material sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the 27focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image of Mind and substance with everything turned upside down.
30 This falsity presupposes soul to be an unsubstantial dweller in material forms, and man to be material instead of spiritual. Immortality is not bounded by mortality. 302 302:1Soul is not compassed by finiteness. Principle is not to be found in fragmentary ideas.
3 The material body and mind are temporal, but the real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the Identity not lostreal man is not lost, but found through this 6explanation; for the conscious infinitude of existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and re-mains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose 9aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleas-ures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of 12matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all that will ever be lost.
- SH 473:7-12
- SH 264:32-15
The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings, 265 265:1and its government is divine Science. Man is the off-spring, not of the lowest, but of the highest qualities of 3Godward gravitationMind. Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward, 6their affections and aims grow spiritual, — they must near the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper sense of the infinite, — in order that sin and mortality 9may be put off.
This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man’s absorption into Deity 12 and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man en-larged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent 15peace.
From the Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 145: “In atmosphere of Love divine, We live, and move, and breathe”
Hymn 154: “In Thee, O Spirit true and tender, I find my life as God's own child”
Hymn 579: “take my life, and let it be, Consecrated, Lord, to Thee”
