First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w210519
The material view is always limiting and inadequate
Wednesday, May 19, 2021
The Bible
  1. Ex. 17:1-6

    1And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim: and there was no water for the people to drink.

    2Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord?

    3And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst?

    4And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me.

    5And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go.

    6Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.

  2. Isa. 29:11-14 the (to :), 16-19

    11the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed:

    12And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.

    13Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

    14Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder:

    16Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

    17Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?

    18And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.

    19The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

  3. Isa. 30:1 (to ;), 21 thine, 23 (to ;)

    1Woe to the rebellious children, saith the Lord, that take counsel, but not of me;

    21thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left.

    ... 23Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal;

  4. Matt. 6:19-21

    19Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

    20But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

    21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

  5. Luke 6:6-11

    6And it came to pass also on another sabbath, that he entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered.

    7And the scribes and Pharisees watched him, whether he would heal on the sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against him.

    8But he knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, Rise up, and stand forth in the midst. And he arose and stood forth.

    9Then said Jesus unto them, I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?

    10And looking round about upon them all, he said unto the man, Stretch forth thy hand. And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

    11And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.

  6. Heb. 11:1, 3, 5, 8, 10

    1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

    ... 3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

    ... 5By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

    ... 8By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

    ... 10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

  7. Heb. 12:1, 12, 13

    1Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

    ... 12Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

    13And make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.


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

  1. SH 351:27-31

    27    The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them Fruitless worshipmatter was substance, and Spirit was shadow. 30They thought to worship Spirit from a ma-terial standpoint, but this was impossible.

  2. SH 352:5

        Our Master declared that his material body was not 6spirit, evidently considering it a mortal and material be-Spirit the tangiblelief of flesh and bones, whereas the Jews took a diametrically opposite view. To Jesus, not 9materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man’s ex-istence, while to the rabbis the spiritual was the intangi-ble and uncertain, if not the unreal.

  3. SH 284:4-21

        If God were limited to man or matter, or if the infinite could be circumscribed within the finite, God would be 6Mind never limitedcorporeal, and unlimited Mind would seem to spring from a limited body; but this is an impossibility. Infinite Mind can have no starting-point, 9and can return to no limit. It can never be in bonds, nor be fully manifested through corporeality.

        Is God’s image or likeness matter, or a mortal, sin, 12sickness, and death? Can matter recognize Mind? Material recognition impossibleCan infinite Mind recognize matter? Can the infinite dwell in the finite or know aught un-15like the infinite? Can Deity be known through the material senses? Can the material senses, which re-ceive no direct evidence of Spirit, give correct testimony 18as to spiritual life, truth, and love?

        The answer to all these questions must forever be in the negative.

    21    The physical senses can obtain no proof of God.

  4. SH 521:29

    The history of error 30or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence 522 522:1of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction to the true.

  5. SH 287:27-8

    The five mate-rial senses testify to truth and error as united in a mind both good and evil. Their false evidence will finally 30yield to Truth, — to the recognition of Spirit and of the spiritual creation.

        Truth cannot be contaminated by error. The state-288288:1ment that Truth is real necessarily includes the correlated statement, that error, Truth’s unlikeness, is unreal.

    3    The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spir-The great conflictitual senses and the testimony of the material 6senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the un-derstanding of divine Love.

  6. SH 543:17-18, 26-28

        All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate-18rial senses. 24 ... Ideas of Truth alone are reflected 27in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is seen that man springs solely from Mind.

  7. SH 83:16

    The belief that the universe, in-cluding man, is governed in general by material laws, but 18that occasionally Spirit sets aside these laws, — this be-lief belittles omnipotent wisdom, and gives to matter the precedence over Spirit.

  8. SH 170:22-24, 28-31

        Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to 24Causation consideredhuman progress.

        The description of man as purely physical, or as both material and spiritual, — but in either case dependent 30upon his physical organization, — is the Pandora box, from which all ills have gone forth, especially despair.

  9. SH 231:16, 30

    God is not the author of mortal discords. Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have 18only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine Truth and Love destroy.

    30    Man, governed by his Maker, having no other Mind, — planted on the Evangelist’s statement that “all things were made by Him [the Word of God]; and without 232 232:1Him was not anything made that was made,” — can triumph over sin, sickness, and death.

  10. SH 307:26

    Man 27Higher statuteswas not created from a material basis, nor bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never made; his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher 30law of Mind.

  11. SH 389:28-11

        A case of convulsions, produced by indigestion, came under my observation. In her belief the woman had 30chronic liver-complaint, and was then suffering from a complication of symptoms connected with this belief. I cured her in a few minutes. One instant she spoke de-390390:1spairingly of herself. The next minute she said, “My food is all digested, and I should like something more 3to eat.”

        We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim-6Ultimate harmonyply because, to the mortal senses, there is seem-ing discord. It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and 9the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.

  12. SH 461:11

    Only by the illumination of the spiritual sense, can 12the light of understanding be thrown upon this Science, because Science reverses the evidence before the material senses and furnishes the eternal interpretation of God and 15man.

  13. SH 428:19-29

    We must realize the ability of mental might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them 21with the life which is spiritual, not material.

        The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We must hold 24The present immortalityforever the consciousness of existence, and sooner or later, through Christ and Christian Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence 27of man’s immortality will become more apparent, as ma-terial beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being are admitted.

  14. SH 471:13-20

        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. Hence the spirit-uality of the universe is the only fact of creation.


From the Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 237: “… Listening thus to hear the message, Far from sense and hid in Soul”
Hymn 553: “Far beyond the bounds of matter, Unrestrained by fear or time”
Hymn 591: “… whichever way we face, Spirit is there”