First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Ps. 84:1-4 (to 1st .), 12
1How amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!
2My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord: my heart and my flesh crieth out for the living God.
3Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my King, and my God.
4Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: they will be still praising thee.
... 12O Lord of hosts, blessed is the man that trusteth in thee.
- Gen. 21:9-12 (to 2nd ;), 14-17, 19, 20 (to ;)
9¶ And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking.
10Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac.
11And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son.
12¶ And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice;
14And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and took bread, and a bottle of water, and gave it unto Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, and the child, and sent her away: and she departed, and wandered in the wilderness of Beer–sheba.
15And the water was spent in the bottle, and she cast the child under one of the shrubs.
16And she went, and sat her down over against him a good way off, as it were a bowshot: for she said, Let me not see the death of the child. And she sat over against him, and lift up her voice, and wept.
17And God heard the voice of the lad; and the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her, What aileth thee, Hagar? fear not; for God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is.
... 19And God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink.
20And God was with the lad;
- Neh. 6:1-6, 8, 9, 15
1Now it came to pass, when Sanballat, and Tobiah, and Geshem the Arabian, and the rest of our enemies, heard that I had builded the wall, and that there was no breach left therein; (though at that time I had not set up the doors upon the gates;)
2That Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me, saying, Come, let us meet together in some one of the villages in the plain of Ono. But they thought to do me mischief.
3And I sent messengers unto them, saying, I am doing a great work, so that I cannot come down: why should the work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to you?
4Yet they sent unto me four times after this sort; and I answered them after the same manner.
5Then sent Sanballat his servant unto me in like manner the fifth time with an open letter in his hand;
6Wherein was written, It is reported among the heathen, and Gashmu saith it, that thou and the Jews think to rebel: for which cause thou buildest the wall, that thou mayest be their king, according to these words.
... 8Then I sent unto him, saying, There are no such things done as thou sayest, but thou feignest them out of thine own heart.
9For they all made us afraid, saying, Their hands shall be weakened from the work, that it be not done. Now therefore, O God, strengthen my hands.
15¶ So the wall was finished in the twenty and fifth day of the month Elul, in fifty and two days.
- Mark 8:14-26, 34, 35
14¶ Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf.
15And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.
16And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread.
17And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened?
18Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?
19When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
20And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
21And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?
22¶ And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.
23And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw aught.
24And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.
25After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.
26And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.
34¶ And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
35For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
- Phil. 4:5 The, 6 in, 9, 13
5The Lord is at hand.
6 ... in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
... 9Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
... 13I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
- SH 206:15-26, 28-30
15 In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes, — Spirit, not matter, being the 18source of supply.
Does God send sickness, giving the mother her child for the brief space of a few years and then taking it away 21Birth and death unrealby death? Is God creating anew what He has already created? The Scriptures are defi -nite on this point, declaring that His work was finished, 24 nothing is new to God, and that it was good.
Can there be any birth or death for man, the spiritual image and likeness of God? Omnipotent and infinite Mind made all and includes all. This Mind does not make mistakes 30and subsequently correct them.
- SH 331:11 The
The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From 12this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence Allness of Spiritexcept the divine Mind and His ideas. The Scriptures also declare that God is Spirit. 15Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything in God’s universe expresses Him.
- SH 299:24 (only), 26-8
24 Truth never destroys God’s idea. ... Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth, 27health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth, will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial 30peaks.
If man were solely a creature of the material senses, he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable 300 300:1and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from 3Old and new manmatter. Finite sense has no true apprecia-tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi-nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes 6trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image of God.
- SH 275:10-17, 20
To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle 12Divine synonyms of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one, — and are the Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, im-15mortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Principle, Love.
Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understand-21ing, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is The divine completenessGod, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — that is, all power, all presence, all Science. 24Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.
- SH 189:18
The human mortal mind, by an inevitable perversion, makes all things start from the lowest instead of from the highest 21mortal thought. The reverse is the case with all the formations of the immortal divine Mind. They proceed from the divine source; and so, in tracing them, we con-24stantly ascend in infinite being.
- SH 329:21-25 Principle, 26 If
21Principle is impera-tive. You cannot mock it by human will. Science is a Error destroyed, not pardoneddivine demand, not a human. Always right, 24its divine Principle never repents, but main-tains the claim of Truth by quenching error. ... If 27men understood their real spiritual source to be all bless-edness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual and be at peace; but the deeper the error into which mor-30tal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to spirituality, till error yields to Truth.
- SH 273:21-1
21 God never ordained a material law to annul the spiritual law. If there were such a material law, it would oppose Spiritual law the only lawthe supremacy of Spirit, God, and impugn the 24wisdom of the creator. Jesus walked on the waves, fed the multitude, healed the sick, and raised the dead in direct opposition to material laws. His acts were 27the demonstration of Science, overcoming the false claims of material sense or law.
Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opin-30ions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to morals and health when it is opposed promptly and per-274274:1sistently by Christian Science.
- SH 287:12 Doth
- SH 134:28
- SH 253:19-21, 25
18Matter can Right endeavor possiblemake no opposition to right endeavors against 21sin or sickness, for matter is inert, mindless.
Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, dis-ease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God 27never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is de-stroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life in-30stead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit instead of the flesh.
- SH 224:4-7, 8
- SH 216:11-25
The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that 12there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once to Servants and mastersdestroy the errors of mortal sense and to supply the truth of immortal sense. This understand -15ing makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves, bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters. If man is governed by the law of divine Mind, his body is in sub-18mission to everlasting Life and Truth and Love. The great mistake of mortals is to suppose that man, God’s image and likeness, is both matter and Spirit, both good 21and evil.
If the decision were left to the corporeal senses, evil would appear to be the master of good, and sickness to 24be the rule of existence, while health would seem the exception, death the inevitable, and life a paradox.
- SH 506:10
From the Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 396: “… The cause is God's and will prevail, In spite of all His foes”
Hymn 216: “… If ye God's law can understand, Ye have not buildid on the sand”
Hymn 440: “… For Love is Life eternally, Whose blessings never cease”
