First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Ps. 126:1-6 (to 3rd ,)
1When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream.
2Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them.
3The Lord hath done great things for us; whereof we are glad.
4Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.
5They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.
6He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
- Ps. 127:3-5 (to :)
3Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them:
- Ps. 128:1-4
1Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his ways.
2For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
3Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
4Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord.
- Isa. 54:10-14, 15 whosoever, 17
10For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
11¶ O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
12And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
13And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of thy children.
14In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake.
17¶ No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
- Isa. 55:3, 6-13
3Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.
6¶ Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:
7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
8¶ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
9For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater:
11So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
12For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
- Mark 9:17-29 one, 36, 37
one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit;
18And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not.
19He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me.
20And they brought him unto him: and when he saw him, straightway the spirit tare him; and he fell on the ground, and wallowed foaming.
21And he asked his father, How long is it ago since this came unto him? And he said, Of a child.
22And ofttimes it hath cast him into the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him: but if thou canst do any thing, have compassion on us, and help us.
23Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
24And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
25When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him.
26And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead.
27But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose.
28And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out?
29And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.
36And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them: and when he had taken him in his arms, he said unto them,
37Whosoever shall receive one of such children in my name, receiveth me: and whosoever shall receive me, receiveth not me, but him that sent me.
- Mark 10:13-16
13¶ And they brought young children to him, that he should touch them: and his disciples rebuked those that brought them.
14But when Jesus saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.
15Verily I say unto you, Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein.
16And he took them up in his arms, put his hands upon them, and blessed them.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 236:28-10
Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While 30age is halting between two opinions or battling with false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards Truth.
237237:1 A little girl, who had occasionally listened to my ex-planations, badly wounded her finger. She seemed not 3to notice it. On being questioned about it she answered ingenuously, “There is no sensation in matter.” Bound-ing off with laughing eyes, she presently added, “Mamma, 6my finger is not a bit sore.”
It might have been months or years before her parents would have laid aside their drugs, or reached the mental 9Soil and seedheight their little daughter so naturally at-tained.
- SH 237:15
Children should be taught the Truth-cure, Christian Science, among their first lessons, and kept from discuss-Teaching childrening or entertaining theories or thoughts about 18sickness. To prevent the experience of error and its sufferings, keep out of the minds of your children either sinful or diseased thoughts. The latter should 21be excluded on the same principle as the former. This makes Christian Science early available.
- SH 130:20-11
Laboring long to shake the adult’s 21faith in matter and to inculcate a grain of faith in God, — an inkling of the ability of Spirit to make the body har-monious, — the author has often remembered our Master’s 24love for little children, and understood how truly such as they belong to the heavenly kingdom.
If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science 27for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the su-All evil unnaturalpremacy of good, ought we not, contrari-wise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims 30of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to love sin and unnatural to forsake it, — no longer imagine evil to be ever-present and good absent? Truth should 131 131:1not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem 3so real as health. There is no error in Science, and our lives must be governed by reality in order to be in har-mony with God, the divine Principle of all being.
6 When once destroyed by divine Science, the false evi-dence before the corporeal senses disappears. Hence the The error of carnalityopposition of sensuous man to the Science of 9Soul and the significance of the Scripture, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.
- SH 323:32-4
- SH 476:6-13
Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed. Error will cease to claim that soul is in body, that life Mortals are not immortalsand intelligence are in matter, and that 9this matter is man. God is the Principle of man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and im-12mortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man.
- SH 582:28
- SH 583:5-8 (to ;)
- SH 288:3-19
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.
9 Superstition and understanding can never combine. When the final physical and moral effects of Christian Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth 12and error, understanding and belief, Science and material sense, foreshadowed by the prophets and inaugurated by Jesus, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign. The 15lightnings and thunderbolts of error may burst and flash till the cloud is cleared and the tumult dies away in the distance. Then the raindrops of divinity refresh the 18earth. As St. Paul says: “There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God” (of Spirit).
- SH 96:12-20 (np)
This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord Arena of contestand dismay; on the other side there will be 15Science and peace. The breaking up of mate-rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new 18phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb-ances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.
21 Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is 24changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.
As this consummation draws nearer, he who has shaped his course in accordance with divine Science 27Millennial glorywill endure to the end. As material knowl-edge diminishes and spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally 30instead of materially.
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but 97 97:1those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They 3will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.
In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and 6so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the Dangerous resemblancesmore impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac-cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce 9and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science the flight of one and the blow of the other will become harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the 12more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing 15the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes for destruction. The more material the belief, the more 18obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do-main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like-ness of Spirit, his original being.
Hymn 43: “...O peaceful words of Jesus, Which come to end all strife”
Hymn 347: “...His children shall. be taught of Him And great shall be their peace”
Hymn 236: “O peace of the world, O hope in each breast”