First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w181003
In support of balance in human affairs
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
The Bible
  1. Ps. 19:7, 8, 14

    7The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.

    8The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

    ... 14Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

  2. Prov. 11:1, 3 (to :), 5 (to :), 6 (to :), 11 (to :), 12, 14, 30 (to ;)

    1A false balance is abomination to the Lord: but a just weight is his delight.

    ... 3The integrity of the upright shall guide them:

    ... 5The righteousness of the perfect shall direct his way:

    ... 6The righteousness of the upright shall deliver them:

    ... 11By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted:

    ... 12He that is void of wisdom despiseth his neighbour: but a man of understanding holdeth his peace.

    ... 14Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellors there is safety.

    ... 30The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life;

  3. Prov. 16:1, 3, 7, 11, 20, 22 (to :)

    1The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.

    ... 3Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.

    ... 7When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

    ... 11A just weight and balance are the Lord’s: all the weights of the bag are his work.

    ... 20He that handleth a matter wisely shall find good: and whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he.

    ... 22Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it:

  4. Num. 27:1 (to :), 2-7

    1Then came the daughters of Zelophehad, the son of Hepher, the son of Gilead, the son of Machir, the son of Manasseh, of the families of Manasseh the son of Joseph:

    ... 2And they stood before Moses, and before Eleazar the priest, and before the princes and all the congregation, by the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, saying,

    3Our father died in the wilderness, and he was not in the company of them that gathered themselves together against the Lord in the company of Korah; but died in his own sin, and had no sons.

    4Why should the name of our father be done away from among his family, because he hath no son? Give unto us therefore a possession among the brethren of our father.

    5And Moses brought their cause before the Lord.

    6And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

    7The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.

  5. II Chron. 20:1 the, 3, 14, 15, 17, 22

    1the children of Moab, and the children of Ammon, and with them other beside the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.

    ... 3And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

    14Then upon Jahaziel the son of Zechariah, the son of Benaiah, the son of Jeiel, the son of Mattaniah, a Levite of the sons of Asaph, came the spirit of the Lord in the midst of the congregation;

    15And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.

    ... 17Ye shall not need to fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to-morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.

    22And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

  6. Luke 6:37, 39, 41, 45 (to ;)

    37Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:

    ... 39And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?

    ... 41And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

    ... 45A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good;

  7. Matt. 19:1, 2

    1And it came to pass, that when Jesus had finished these sayings, he departed from Galilee, and came into the coasts of Judæa beyond Jordan;

    2And great multitudes followed him; and he healed them there.

  8. Isa. 40:10 (to :), 12, 13, 15, 18, 22, 23, 26, 28, 31

    10Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him:

    12Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?

    13Who hath directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him?

    ... 15Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

    18To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

    ... 22It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

    23That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity.

    ... 26Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.

    28Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

    ... 31But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.


Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy

  1. SH 258:9-30

    9    Man is more than a material form with a mind inside, Infinity’s reflectionwhich must escape from its environments in order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity, 12and this reflection is the true idea of God.

        God expresses in man the infinite idea forever develop-ing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from 15a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in the infinitude of Truth. We know no more of man as the true divine image and likeness, than we know of 18God.

        The infinite Principle is reflected by the infinite idea and spiritual individuality, but the material so-called senses 21have no cognizance of either Principle or its idea. The human capacities are enlarged and perfected in propor-tion as humanity gains the true conception of man and 24God.

        Mortals have a very imperfect sense of the spiritual man and of the infinite range of his thought. To him 27Individual permanencybelongs eternal Life. Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his 30high estate.

  2. SH 182:5-16

        The demands of God appeal to thought only; but the 6claims of mortality, and what are termed laws of nature, Physiology or Spiritappertain to matter. Which, then, are we to accept as legitimate and capable of producing 9the highest human good? We cannot obey both physi-ology and Spirit, for one absolutely destroys the other, and one or the other must be supreme in the affections. 12It is impossible to work from two standpoints. If we attempt it, we shall presently “hold to the one, and despise the other.”

    15    The hypotheses of mortals are antagonistic to Science and cannot mix with it.

  3. SH 330:19 God

    God is what the Scriptures declare Him to be, — Life, Truth, Love. Spirit is divine Principle, and divine 21The deific definitionsPrinciple is Love, and Love is Mind, and Mind is not both good and bad, for God is Mind; therefore there is in reality one Mind only, be-24cause there is one God.

  4. SH 232:7

    Security for the claims of harmonious and eternal being is found only in divine Science.

  5. SH 419:16-22 Observe

    Ob-serve mind instead of body, lest aught unfit for develop-18ment enter thought. Think less of material conditions and more of spiritual.

        Mind produces all action. If the action proceeds from 21Truth, from immortal Mind, there is harmony; but mor-Conquer beliefs and fearstal mind is liable to any phase of belief.

  6. SH 247:28-2

        The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal 30over age and decay.

        The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure 248 248:1in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free-dom of spiritual harmony.

  7. SH 538:3

    3    Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood. Truth is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding. Spiritual gatewayTruth places the cherub wisdom at the gate 6of understanding to note the proper guests. Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between 9Truth and error, between the material and spiritual, — the unreal and the real.

  8. SH 355:32

        Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in sup-356356:1port of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so antagonistic that the material thought must become spir-3Weakness of material theoriesitualized before the spiritual fact is attained. So-called material existence affords no evidence of spiritual existence and immortality. Sin, 6sickness, and death do not prove man’s entity or immor-tality. Discord can never establish the facts of harmony. Matter is not the vestibule of Spirit.

  9. SH 282:14-25

        A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a 15curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly, Opposite symbolsmatter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter. Truth has no home in 18error, and error has no foothold in Truth. Mind cannot pass into non-intelligence and matter, nor can non-intel-ligence become Soul. At no point can these opposites 21mingle or unite. Even though they seem to touch, one is still a curve and the other a straight line.

        There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is 24material is a material, human, mortal thought, always governing itself erroneously.

  10. SH 99:9-11, 13

    Truth has furnished the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Sci-ence has opened the door of the human understanding. 12 ... The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual. Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and 15divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it is human.

  11. SH 422:14-18

    As when an acid and alkali 15meet and bring out a third quality, so mental and moral chemistry changes the material base of thought, giving more spirituality to consciousness and causing it to depend 18less on material evidence.

  12. SH 423:8-10, 15-16, 18

        The Christian Scientist, understanding scientifically 9that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the Scientific correctivetruth of being, to destroy the error.

    15    The matter-physician deals with matter as both his foe and his remedy. ... The metaphysician, making Mind his basis of operation irrespective of matter and regarding the truth and harmony of being as superior to 21error and discord, has rendered himself strong, instead of weak, to cope with the case; and he proportionately strengthens his patient with the stimulus of courage and 24conscious power. Both Science and consciousness are now at work in the economy of being according to the law of Mind, which ultimately asserts its absolute supremacy.

  13. SH 471:13-19

        The facts of divine Science should be admitted, — although the evidence as to these facts is not supported 15by evil, by matter, or by material sense, — because the evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God’s re-18flection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence.

  14. SH 325:13

    When spiritual being is understood in all its perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found 15in God’s image. The absolute meaning of the apostolic words is this: Then shall man be found, in His likeness, perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, “hid with 18Christ in God,” — with Truth in divine Love, where human sense hath not seen man.

  15. SH 527:4

    Man is God’s reflection, needing no cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.


From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 20: “Be true and list the voice within, Be true unto thy high ideal”
Hymn 475: “Forget not who you are, O child of God, For God demands of you reflection pure”
Hymn 528: “Lord, Your mercy reaches higher than the heavens”