First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Jer. 4:2 The
2The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.
- Jer. 29:8 thus (to ;), 11 I, 13, 14 (to ;)
8thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel;
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.
... 13And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
14And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord;
- Job 2:1 there, 7-10
1there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
7¶ So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
8And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
9¶ Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
10But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
- Job 42:1, 2, 10
1Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
2I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
10And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
- Ezra 3:8, 10, 11 3rd And
8¶ Now in the second year of their coming unto the house of God at Jerusalem, in the second month, began Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, and Jeshua the son of Jozadak, and the remnant of their brethren the priests and the Levites, and all they that were come out of the captivity unto Jerusalem; and appointed the Levites, from twenty years old and upward, to set forward the work of the house of the Lord.
... 10And when the builders laid the foundation of the temple of the Lord, they set the priests in their apparel with trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise the Lord, after the ordinance of David king of Israel.
11 ... And all the people shouted with a great shout, when they praised the Lord, because the foundation of the house of the Lord was laid.
- Ezra 4:1-3
1Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the captivity builded the temple unto the Lord God of Israel;
2Then they came to Zerubbabel, and to the chief of the fathers, and said unto them, Let us build with you: for we seek your God, as ye do; and we do sacrifice unto him since the days of Esar–haddon king of Assur, which brought us up hither.
3But Zerubbabel, and Jeshua, and the rest of the chief of the fathers of Israel, said unto them, Ye have nothing to do with us to build an house unto our God; but we ourselves together will build unto the Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus the king of Persia hath commanded us.
- Mark 8:22-26
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.
- II Cor. 11:3 I, 14 for, 21, 22, 24-28, 32, 33
3I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
14 ... for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
... 21I speak as concerning reproach, as though we had been weak. Howbeit whereinsoever any is bold, (I speak foolishly,) I am bold also.
22Are they Hebrews? so am I. Are they Israelites? so am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? so am I.
... 24Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
25Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
26In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
27In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
28Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
... 32In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king kept the city of the Damascenes with a garrison, desirous to apprehend me:
33And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and escaped his hands.
- II Cor. 13:8 we
8we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 307:25 The
- SH 444:10
- SH 283:6-11 (to 1st .)
- SH 84:19-23
- SH 183:14, 19-29
Truth never made error necessary, nor devised a law to 15perpetuate error.
Laws of nature are laws of Spirit; but mortals commonly recognize as law that which hides the power of 21Spirit. Divine Mind rightly demands man’s entire obe-dience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made for any lesser loyalty. Obedience to Truth gives man 24power and strength. Submission to error superinduces loss of power.
Truth casts out all evils and materialistic methods 27with the actual spiritual law, — the law which gives Belief and understandingsight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, voice to the dumb, feet to the lame.
- SH 400:9, 26
9 Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine Eradicate error from thoughtMind, and abandon their material beliefs. 12Eradicate the image of disease from the per-turbed thought before it has taken tangible shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you pre-15vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy, if you understand that every disease is an error, and has no character nor type, except what mortal mind assigns to 18it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con-tending persistently for truth, you destroy error.
The action of so-called mortal mind must be 27destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani-fest as sin, sickness, and death.
- SH 282:28-24
Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of God or God’s absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither 30Truth is not invertedMind nor man, for it is not begotten of the Father. The rule of inversion infers from error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which 283 283:1dispels error. 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.
But what say prevalent theories? They insist that Life, or God, is one and the same with material life so-15called. They speak of both Truth and error as mind, and of good and evil as spirit. They claim that to be life which is but the objective state of material sense, — 18such as the structural life of the tree and of material man, — and deem this the manifestation of the one Life, God.
21 This false belief as to what really constitutes life so detracts from God’s character and nature, that the true Spiritual structuresense of His power is lost to all who cling to 24this falsity.
- SH 15:9, 25-30
To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, 12that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.
Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God. Self-forgetfulness, 27Trustworthy beneficencepurity, and affection are constant prayers. Practice not profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and 30they assuredly call down infinite blessings.
- SH 224:4-7, 8
- SH 326:20
- SH 454:18-21, 22
- SH 521:12
12 The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We should look away from the opposite supposition that man is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual 15record of creation, to that which should be engraved on the understanding and heart “with the point of a diamond” and the pen of an angel.
- SH 496:15
Hymn 195: “… Thy love, not mine, bids fear and doubt depart, And stills the tumult of my troubled breast”
Hymn 459: “… Be Truth our guardian, Love our guide, o'er every thought and step preside”
Hymn 499: “… Infinite light, bountiful, bright, Is ever present to guide thee”
