First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w200805
Realizing the impotence of oppression
Wednesday, August 5, 2020
The Bible
  1. Jer. 29:11 I know, 12

    11I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

    12Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

  2. Num. 27:1 (to :), 2-7 (to :), 7 2nd thou, 8

    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 cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.

    8And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.

  3. Judg. 6:11-13 there (to 1st ?), 13-17 3rd the, 20, 21, 23-25, 27 (to :), 33, 36-40

    11there came an angel of the Lord, and sat under an oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained unto Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites.

    12And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him, and said unto him, The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour.

    13And Gideon said unto him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? ... the Lord hath forsaken us, and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites.

    14And the Lord looked upon him, and said, Go in this thy might, and thou shalt save Israel from the hand of the Midianites: have not I sent thee?

    15And he said unto him, Oh my Lord, wherewith shall I save Israel? behold, my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house.

    16And the Lord said unto him, Surely I will be with thee, and thou shalt smite the Midianites as one man.

    17And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me.

    20And the angel of God said unto him, Take the flesh and the unleavened cakes, and lay them upon this rock, and pour out the broth. And he did so.

    21Then the angel of the Lord put forth the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the flesh and the unleavened cakes; and there rose up fire out of the rock, and consumed the flesh and the unleavened cakes. Then the angel of the Lord departed out of his sight.

    23And the Lord said unto him, Peace be unto thee; fear not: thou shalt not die.

    24Then Gideon built an altar there unto the Lord, and called it Jehovah–shalom: unto this day it is yet in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

    25And it came to pass the same night, that the Lord said unto him, Take thy father’s young bullock, even the second bullock of seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that thy father hath, and cut down the grove that is by it:

    27Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as the Lord had said unto him:

    33Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east were gathered together, and went over, and pitched in the valley of Jezreel.

    36And Gideon said unto God, If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said,

    37Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.

    38And it was so: for he rose up early on the morrow, and thrust the fleece together, and wringed the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

    39And Gideon said unto God, Let not thine anger be hot against me, and I will speak but this once: let me prove, I pray thee, but this once with the fleece; let it now be dry only upon the fleece, and upon all the ground let there be dew.

    40And God did so that night: for it was dry upon the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

  4. Judg. 7:19, 21

    19So Gideon, and the hundred men that were with him, came unto the outside of the camp in the beginning of the middle watch; and they had but newly set the watch: and they blew the trumpets, and brake the pitchers that were in their hands.

    ... 21And they stood every man in his place round about the camp: and all the host ran, and cried, and fled.

  5. Eph. 6:10, 11, 14 (to 2nd ,)

    10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

    11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

    ... 14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,

  6. John 8:32 ye

    32ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.


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

  1. SH 215:12-18, 22-24

    Whatever is governed by God, is never for an instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence and Life.

    15    We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal Light and darknesssense of the absence of light, at the coming of 18which darkness loses the appearance of reality.

        With its divine proof, Science reverses the evidence of material sense. Every quality and condition of mortality 24is lost, swallowed up in immortality.

  2. SH 368:2-6, 10, 24-25 (to ;)

    The 3Real and counterfeitconfidence inspired by Science lies in the fact that Truth is real and error is unreal. Error is a coward before Truth. Divine Science insists that 6time will prove all this.

        Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth, that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that 12Results of faith in Truthdiscord is as normal as harmony, even the hope of freedom from the bondage of sickness and sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we 15come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, 18then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.

    Because matter has no consciousness or Ego, it cannot act;

  3. SH 103:25-2

    The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they anni-hilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy 27pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and fall into dust.

        In reality there is no mortal mind, and conse-30Thought-transference quently no transference of mortal thought and will-power. Life and being are of God. In Christian Science, man can do no harm, for 104 104:1scientific thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God to man.

  4. SH 225:16

    A few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipo-18tence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the 21breath of freedom come from the cannon’s mouth. Love is the liberator.

  5. SH 226:14-17

        God has built a higher platform of human rights, and 15He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not Cramping systemsmade through code or creed, but in demonstra-tion of “on earth peace, good-will toward men.”

  6. SH 227:3-15

    3    I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error, and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mor-Higher law ends bondagetals are taught their right to freedom, so the 6claims of the enslaving senses must be de-nied and superseded. The law of the divine Mind must end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware 9of man’s inalienable rights and in subjection to hope-less slavery, because some public teachers permit an ignorance of divine power, — an ignorance that 12is the foundation of continued bondage and of human suffering.

        Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to fore-15see the doom of all oppression.

  7. SH 385:15-18

    15    Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untow-ard conditions, if without sin, can be experienced with-Honest toil has no penaltyout suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, 18you can do without harm to yourself.

  8. SH 63:12-15, 20

    12    Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the rights of the two sexes. Christian Science furnishes no The rights of womanprecedent for such injustice, and civilization 15mitigates it in some measure.

    18If the elective fran-21chise for women will remedy the evil with-out encouraging difficulties of greater magnitude, let us hope it will be granted. A feasible as well as rational 24means of improvement at present is the elevation of society in general and the achievement of a nobler race for legislation, — a race having higher aims and 27motives.

  9. SH 407:6-9, 11

    6    Man’s enslavement to the most relentless masters — passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge — is con-Universal panaceaquered only by a mighty struggle. Every 9hour of delay makes the struggle more severe. ... Here Christian 12Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the weakness of mortal mind, — strength from the immortal and omnipotent Mind, — and lifting humanity above 15itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and good-will to man.

  10. SH 554:8 (only, to 2nd .)

        Error is always error. It is no thing.

  11. SH 186:11-20

        Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. 12It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It Evil negative and self-destructive is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent. 15Every mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in evil.

        Evil is self-assertive. It says: “I am a real entity, over-18mastering good.” This falsehood should strip evil of all pretensions. The only power of evil is to destroy itself. It can never destroy one iota of good.

  12. SH 396:14, 26-30

        The refutation of the testimony of material sense is 15not a difficult task in view of the conceded falsity of this False testimony refutedtestimony. The refutation becomes arduous, not because the testimony of sin or disease is 18true, but solely on account of the tenacity of belief in its truth, due to the force of education and the overwhelm-ing weight of opinions on the wrong side, — all teaching 21that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation.

    Keep distinctly in 27thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man; that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit, outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life 30and sensation.

  13. SH 304:9-14, 16-17

    This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into 12sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death.

        Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled by it and abides with it.


From the Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 458: “Christ comes, with succor speedy, To those who suffer wrong”
Hymn 476: “Fearful heart, put all your cares Completely in your dear God's hands”
Hymn 512: “It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old”