First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w191218
Cherishing the heights of Christianity
Wednesday, December 18, 2019
The Bible
  1. Ps. 24:1, 3-5

    1The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

    ... 3Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?

    4He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.

    5He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.

  2. Isa. 9:2, 6 (to 2nd :), 7 (to 1st .)

    2The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

    ... 6For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder:

    ... 7Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever.

  3. Isa. 45:22, 23 the, 24 (to ;)

    22Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

    23 ... the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.

    24Surely, shall one say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come;

  4. Matt. 9:27-30 (to ;), 32, 33, 35, 37, 38

    27And when Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, Thou Son of David, have mercy on us.

    28And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him, Yea, Lord.

    29Then touched he their eyes, saying, According to your faith be it unto you.

    30And their eyes were opened;

    32As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a devil.

    33And when the devil was cast out, the dumb spake: and the multitudes marvelled, saying, It was never so seen in Israel.

    ... 35And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people.

    37Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

    38Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

  5. Luke 7:30 (to ,), 31-35

    30But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves,

    31And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like?

    32They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.

    33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine; and ye say, He hath a devil.

    34The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!

    35But wisdom is justified of all her children.

  6. John 14:8, 9 (to 1st ?), 10, 12 (to 1st ;)

    8Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

    9Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?

    ... 10Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

    ... 12Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;

  7. Mark 16:17, 18

    17And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

    18They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

  8. Job 32:8 there

    8there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.

  9. Isa. 61:1, 2 (to 1st ;), 3, 4

    1The spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

    2To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God;

    ... 3To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

    4And they shall build the old wastes, they shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many generations.

  10. I Cor. 2:11 what, 12, 14

    11what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.

    12Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

    ... 14But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

  11. Mic. 4:1 in, 2

    1in the last days it shall come to pass, that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills; and people shall flow unto it.

    2And many nations shall come, and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, and to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for the law shall go forth of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.


Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
  1. SH 224:22-25

        A higher and more practical Christianity, demonstrat-ing justice and meeting the needs of mortals in sickness 24and in health, stands at the door of this age, knocking for admission.

  2. SH 477:9 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. 18Were it otherwise, man would be annihilated.

  3. SH 16:2, 20

    16:1The highest prayer 3Loftiest adorationis not one of faith merely; it is demonstra-tion. Such prayer heals sickness, and must destroy sin and death. It distinguishes between Truth 6 that is sinless and the falsity of sinful sense.

        Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and 21sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spir-itual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord’s Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick.

  4. SH 64:30-2

    Spirit will ultimately claim its own, — all that really is, — and the voices of physical sense will be forever hushed.

    65

    65:1    Experience should be the school of virtue, and human happiness should proceed from man’s highest nature.

  5. SH 67:27; 68:2

    Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is needed. Man delivered from sin, disease, and death presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.

    At present mortals progress slowly for 3Basis of true religionfear of being thought ridiculous. They are slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Some-time we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has 6created men and women in Science. We ought to weary of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which hinders our highest selfhood.

  6. SH 52:23-3 (to 2nd .)

    The high-24est earthly representative of God, speaking of human ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time: 27“He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also;” and “These signs shall follow them that believe.”

        The accusations of the Pharisees were as self-contra-30Defamatory accusationsdictory as their religion. The bigot, the deb-auchee, the hypocrite, called Jesus a glutton and a wine-bibber. They said: “He casteth out devils 53 53:1through Beelzebub,” and is the “friend of publicans and sinners.” The latter accusation was true, but not in their 3meaning. Jesus was no ascetic.

  7. SH 148:7-12

        Neither anatomy nor theology has ever described man as created by Spirit, — as God’s man. The former ex-9The man of anatomy and of theologyplains the men of men, or the “children of men,” as created corporeally instead of spir-itually and as emerging from the lowest, in-12stead of from the highest, conception of being.

  8. SH 455:30

    The higher your attainment in the Science of mental healing and teaching, the more impossible it will be-456456:1come for you intentionally to influence mankind adverse to its highest hope and achievement.

  9. SH 182:5-12

        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.

  10. 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.

  11. SH 230:11-15, 16

        It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to 12suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causation God never inconsistentso as to bring about certain evil results, and then punishing the helpless victims of His vo-15lition for doing what they could not avoid doing. ... God, good, can no more produce sickness than goodness can 18cause evil and health occasion disease.

  12. SH 367:30-4

    30    Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness, error, Truth’s opposite, has no might. Evil is but the 368 368:1counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right. The 3Real and counterfeitconfidence inspired by Science lies in the fact that Truth is real and error is unreal.

  13. SH 520:5-10 Human, 28

    3Human language 6can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what exists. The absolute ideal, man, is no more seen nor comprehended by mortals, than is his infinite Principle, 9Love. Principle and its idea, man, are coexistent and eternal.

    Because Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a 30lower power. Spirit acts through the Science of Mind, never causing man to till the ground, but making him 521 521:1superior to the soil. Knowledge of this lifts man above the sod, above earth and its environments, to conscious 3spiritual harmony and eternal being.

  14. SH 264:32

        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.

  15. SH 483:32

    Christianity 484 484:1will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When 3this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry, nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon the rock, Christ.

  16. SH 367:24

    24    The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this age through a “still, small voice,” through silent utter-ances and divine anointing which quicken and increase 27the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the consummation of my hope, namely, the student’s higher attainments in this line of light.

  17. SH 329:1

    As time moves on, the healing elements of pure Christianity will be fairly 3dealt with; they will be sought and taught, and will glow in all the grandeur of universal goodness.


From the Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 242: “… O Thou whose call our hearts hath stirred”
Hymn 35: “Christ, whose glory fills the skies”
Hymn 549: “O thou joyful, O thou blessed”