First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w190501
Responding rather than reacting
Wednesday, May 1, 2019
w190501The Bible
  1. Hab. 1:2, 4 for, 12 2nd O, 13

    2O Lord, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!

    4 ... for the wicked doth compass about the righteous; therefore wrong judgment proceedeth.

    12O Lord, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.

    13Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?

  2. Hab. 2:1-3, 4 the, 14, 20 the

    1I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.

    2And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

    3For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.

    4 ... the just shall live by his faith.

    14For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

    20the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

  3. Hab. 3:15, 17-19 (to 1st .)

    15Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses, through the heap of great waters.

    17Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:

    18Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.

    19The Lord God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds’ feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places.

  4. II Kings 6:8, 9 (to ;), 11-14 (to :), 15, 17-19 (to 1st ,), 19 follow (to 1st .), 20 (to 1st .), 21 (to ?), 22 (to ?), 23

    8Then the king of Syria warred against Israel, and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and such a place shall be my camp.

    9And the man of God sent unto the king of Israel, saying, Beware that thou pass not such a place;

    ... 11Therefore the heart of the king of Syria was sore troubled for this thing; and he called his servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which of us is for the king of Israel?

    12And one of his servants said, None, my lord, O king: but Elisha, the prophet that is in Israel, telleth the king of Israel the words that thou speakest in thy bedchamber.

    13And he said, Go and spy where he is, that I may send and fetch him. And it was told him, saying, Behold, he is in Dothan.

    14Therefore sent he thither horses, and chariots, and a great host:

    15And when the servant of the man of God was risen early, and gone forth, behold, an host compassed the city both with horses and chariots. And his servant said unto him, Alas, my master! how shall we do?

    ... 17And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.

    18And when they came down to him, Elisha prayed unto the Lord, and said, Smite this people, I pray thee, with blindness. And he smote them with blindness according to the word of Elisha.

    19And Elisha said unto them,follow me, and I will bring you to the man whom ye seek.

    ... 20And it came to pass, when they were come into Samaria, that Elisha said, Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.

    ... 21And the king of Israel said unto Elisha, when he saw them, My father, shall I smite them?

    ... 22And he answered, Thou shalt not smite them: wouldest thou smite those whom thou hast taken captive with thy sword and with thy bow?

    ... 23And he prepared great provision for them: and when they had eaten and drunk, he sent them away, and they went to their master. So the bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel.

  5. James 3:13, 17, 18

    13Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

    ... 17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

    18And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

  6. Luke 22:47-51

    47And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.

    48But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?

    49When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?

    50And one of them smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear.

    51And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.

  7. II Cor. 10:3-5 though

    3though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

    4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)

    5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

  8. Matt. 5:43-45 (to :)

    43Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

    44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

    45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven:


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

  1. SH 283:1-12

    As mortals begin to understand Spirit, they give up the belief that there is any true existence 3apart from God.

        Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious 6Source of all life and actionaction. Mind is the same Life, Love, and wis-dom “yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” Matter and its effects — sin, sickness, and 9death — are states of mortal mind which act, react, and then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute. It 12admits of no error, but rests upon understanding.

  2. SH 470:21-5

    21    God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, Indestructible relationshipman, remains perfect. Man is the expression 24of God’s being. If there ever was a moment when man did not express the divine perfec-tion, then there was a moment when man did not express 27God, and consequently a time when Deity was unex-pressed — that is, without entity. If man has lost per-fection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine 30Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle or Mind, then man’s existence was a myth.

        The relations of God and man, divine Principle and 471 471:1idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine 3order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He cre-ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.

  3. SH 243:16-29

        The clay cannot reply to the potter. The head, heart, lungs, and limbs do not inform us that they are dizzy, 18Mental telegraphydiseased, consumptive, or lame. If this in-formation is conveyed, mortal mind conveys it. Neither immortal and unerring Mind nor matter, 21the inanimate substratum of mortal mind, can carry on such telegraphy; for God is “of purer eyes than to behold evil,” and matter has neither intelligence nor 24sensation.

        Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no Annihilation of errorsense of hatred. Life has no partnership 27with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God.

  4. SH 380:8

        Contending for the evidence or indulging the demands 9of sin, disease, or death, we virtually contend against Misdirected contentionthe control of Mind over body, and deny the power of Mind to heal. This false method 12is as though the defendant should argue for the plaintiff in favor of a decision which the defendant knows will be turned against himself.

  5. SH 166:3

    3    As a man thinketh, so is he. Mind is all that feels, acts, or impedes action. Ignorant of this, or shrinking from its implied responsibility, the healing effort is made 6on the wrong side, and thus the conscious control over the body is lost.

  6. SH 18:10

    Jesus acted boldly, against the accredited evidence of the senses, against Pharisaical creeds and practices, and he 12refuted all opponents with his healing power.

  7. SH 119:1

    119:1    When we endow matter with vague spiritual power, — that is, when we do so in our theories, for of course we 3Unescapable dilemmacannot really endow matter with what it does not and cannot possess, — we disown the Al-mighty, for such theories lead to one of two things. They 6either presuppose the self-evolution and self-government of matter, or else they assume that matter is the product of Spirit. To seize the first horn of this dilemma and con-9sider matter as a power in and of itself, is to leave the cre-ator out of His own universe; while to grasp the other horn of the dilemma and regard God as the creator of 12matter, is not only to make Him responsible for all disas-ters, physical and moral, but to announce Him as their source, thereby making Him guilty of maintaining perpet-15ual misrule in the form and under the name of natural law.

  8. SH 155:21-25

    The human mind acts more powerfully to offset the discords of matter and the ills of flesh, in proportion as it puts less 24weight into the material or fleshly scale and more weight into the spiritual scale.

  9. SH 187:19

    18All voluntary, as well as miscalled involuntary, action of the 21mortal body is governed by this so-called mind, not by matter. There is no involuntary action. The divine Mind includes all action and volition, and man in Science is gov-24erned by this Mind. The human mind tries to classify action as voluntary and involuntary, and suffers from the attempt.

  10. SH 162:5

    Christian Science 6Truth an alterativeacts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels hu -mors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores 9carious 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.

  11. SH 205:32-9

        When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, 206 206:1we can have no other Mind but His, — no other Love, wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no con-3sciousness of the existence of matter or error.

        The power of the human will should be exercised only in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judg-6Will-power unrighteousment and free the lower propensities. It is the province of spiritual sense to govern man. Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both 9upon the body and through it.

  12. SH 394:7-10, 28-29

    Knowledge that we can accomplish the good we hope for, stimu-9lates the system to act in the direction which Mind points out.

        We should remember that Life is God, and that God Arguing wronglyis omnipotent.

  13. SH 264:7

    Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. 9Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we 12have our being.

  14. SH 323:6

    6    Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, A bright outlookpeace, and purity, which are the landmarks 9of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause, — wait on God. Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and concep-12tion unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.


From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 18: “Be firm and be faithful; desert not the right”
Hymn 237: “O may we be still and seek Him … Listening thus to hear the message”
Hymn 175: “… Still its tender healing message Speaks to every listening ear”