First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Ps. 34:7, 8
7The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.
8O taste and see that the Lord is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.
- Judg. 13:2-5, 24
2¶ And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.
3And the angel of the Lord appeared unto the woman, and said unto her, Behold now, thou art barren, and bearest not: but thou shalt conceive, and bear a son.
4Now therefore beware, I pray thee, and drink not wine nor strong drink, and eat not any unclean thing:
5For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come on his head: for the child shall be a Nazarite unto God from the womb: and he shall begin to deliver Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.
24¶ And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him.
- Luke 1:26-31 in, 34, 35, 38, 46-50
in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary.
28And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God.
31And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.
... 34Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?
35And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
... 38And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
... 46And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord,
47And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.
48For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.
49For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.
50And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
- Luke 2:1, 3-22, 36-40
1And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Cæsar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
... 3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.
4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judæa, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David:)
5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.
6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.
17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.
18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.
20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
21And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
22And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;
... 36And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;
37And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.
38And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
39And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.
40And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 298:25-17
Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial 27Thought-angelsvisitants, flying on spiritual, not material, pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi-30vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious out-lines, making them human creatures with suggestive 299 299:1feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more reality than has the sculptor’s thought when he carves 3his “Statue of Liberty,” which embodies his concep-tion of an unseen quality or condition, but which has no physical antecedent reality save in the artist’s own ob-6servation and “chambers of imagery.”
My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried 9Our angelic messengersits fondest earthly hopes. With white fin-gers they point upward to a new and glo-rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels 12are God’s representatives. These upward-soaring beings never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi-15viduality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us, and we entertain “angels unawares.”
- SH 581:4
- SH 224:22-4
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. Will you open or close the door upon this angel visitant, who cometh in the quiet of meekness, as he 27came of old to the patriarch at noonday?
Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner is the Soul-inspired motto, “Slavery is abolished.” The 30Mental emancipationpower of God brings deliverance to the cap-tive. No power can withstand divine Love. What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God? 225 225:1Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves 3man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes man free.
- SH 521:12 We
- SH 482:19
Jesus was the highest human concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from 21Christ, the Messiah, — the divine idea of God outside the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his con-trol over matter. Angels announced to the Wisemen of 24old this dual appearing, and angels whisper it, through faith, to the hungering heart in every age.
- SH 574:25
Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sack-cloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-27Spiritual wedlockwinged dove descending upon you. The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel 30entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers: 575 575:1“Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb’s 3wife, — Love wedded to its own spiritual idea.” Then cometh the marriage feast, for this revelation will de-stroy forever the physical plagues imposed by material 6sense.
- SH 548:9
How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds cover the sun’s face! So Christian Science can be seen The clouds dissolvingonly as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away. 12Earth has little light or joy for mortals before Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension 15of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.
- SH 512:8
Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, 9and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an-Seraphic symbolsgels of His presence, which have the holiest charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of 12Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character-istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their natures are allied to God’s nature; and 15spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.
- SH 501:10-13
- SH 174:9
The footsteps of thought, rising above material stand-points, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller; Rise of thoughtbut the angels of His presence — the spiritual 12intuitions that tell us when “the night is far spent, the day is at hand” — are our guardians in the gloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is 15a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for gen-erations yet unborn.
- SH 191:4-13
As mortals give up the delusion that there is more than one Mind, more than one God, man in God’s likeness will 6appear, and this eternal man will include in that likeness no material element.
As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a 9misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine The immortal birthPrinciple of man dawns upon human thought, and leads it to “where the young child was,” 12— even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual sense of being and of what Life includes.
- SH 539:27-1
The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate Scientific offspringthe one Mind which makes and governs man 30and the universe. The Science of creation, so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus, inspired his wisest and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his 540 540:1marvellous demonstrations.
- SH 463:5
Teacher and student should also be familiar with the 6obstetrics taught by this Science. To attend properly Scientific obstetricsthe birth of the new child, or divine idea, you should so detach mortal thought from its 9material conceptions, that the birth will be natural and safe. Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual 12birth. A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive. The new idea, conceived and born of Truth and Love, is 15clad in white garments. Its beginning will be meek, its growth sturdy, and its maturity undecaying. When this new birth takes place, the Christian Science infant 18is born of the Spirit, born of God, and can cause the mother no more suffering. By this we know that Truth is here and has fulfilled its perfect work.
Hymn 11: “Angels at the Saviour’s birth”
Hymn 511: “It came upon a midnight clear”
Hymn 310: “Sing, ye joyous children, sing”
