First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Gen. 3:1-6, 8-13
1Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
2And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:
3But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.
4And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
5For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
6And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.
... 8And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden.
9And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
10And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.
11And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?
12And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.
13And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
- Ex. 3:1-6 (to 1st .), 7, 10-12 (to ;)
1Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb.
2And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
3And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt.
4And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.
5And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.
6Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
7¶ And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
... 10Come now therefore, and I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt.
11¶ And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?
12And he said, Certainly I will be with thee;
- Ex. 4:1-5
1And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
2And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
3And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
4And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
5That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
- Ps. 140:1-4 (to 1st ;), 6, 8 (to 1st .), 9, 11 (to :), 12, 13
1Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man;
2Which imagine mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war.
3They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is under their lips. Selah.
4Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
... 6I said unto the Lord, Thou art my God: hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.
... 8Grant not, O Lord, the desires of the wicked: further not his wicked device; lest they exalt themselves.
... 9As for the head of those that compass me about, let the mischief of their own lips cover them.
... 11Let not an evil speaker be established in the earth:
... 12I know that the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted, and the right of the poor.
13Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: the upright shall dwell in thy presence.
- Ps. 141:8-10 mine
mine eyes are unto thee, O God the Lord: in thee is my trust; leave not my soul destitute.
9Keep me from the snares which they have laid for me, and the gins of the workers of iniquity.
10Let the wicked fall into their own nets, whilst that I withal escape.
- II Cor. 11:3 I
I 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.
- Jude 1:1, 2, 7-10 as, 16-18, 20, 21, 24, 25
1Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called:
2Mercy unto you, and peace and love, be multiplied.
... as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
8Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.
9Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.
10But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
... 16These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
17But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ;
18How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.
... 20But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,
21Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.
... 24Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 544:13-25
In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might 15First evil suggestionor right or wisdom to create or to destroy. All is under the control of the one Mind, even God. The first statement about evil, — the first 18suggestion of more than the one Mind, — is in the fable of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re-corded, include nothing of the kind.
21 The serpent is supposed to say, “Ye shall be as gods,” but these gods must be evolved from materiality and be Material personalitythe very antipodes of immortal and spiritual 24being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a material personality is not this likeness.
- SH 491:21-22, 25
- SH 544:31-17
Error begins with corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin-545545:1ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con-ceptions.
3 “Behold, the man is become as one of us.” This could not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according to the record, material man was fast degenerating and 6never had been divinely conceived.
The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means this, — that mortals should so improve material belief 9Mental tillageby thought tending spiritually upward as to destroy materiality. Man, created by God, was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion 12of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions, 15and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a false view, destructive to existence and happiness.
- SH 554:8-28
Error is always error. It is no thing. Any statement 9of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone-Our conscious developmentous, because it is destitute of any knowledge of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of 12any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal is unconscious of his fœtal and infantile existence; but as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con-15scious matter, he learns to say, “I am somebody; but who made me?” Error replies, “God made you.” The first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the 18creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.
Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation 21better than we can, when he said, “He is a liar, and the Mendacity of errorfather of it.” Jesus also said, “Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?” 24This he said of Judas, one of Adam’s race. Jesus never intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, “Ye are of your father, the devil.” All these sayings were to 27show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is simply a falsity and illusion.
- SH 555:6, 18-23, 32-1
An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian Science: “I like your explanations of truth, but I do Ignorance the sign of errornot comprehend what you say about error.” 9This is the nature of error. The mark of igno-rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor can be understood. Error would have itself received as 12mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of 15Mind.
Only impotent error would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this 21sham unity man, as if man were the offspring of both Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea-tion rests on a spiritual basis. ... Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-556556:1lief in illusion or error.
- SH 556:5, 13
These false beliefs 6will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for-9mer things will have passed away.
Christian Science may ab-sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but 15the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known most fully to him who understands best the divine Life. Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come 18from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is darkness, but God’s creative mandate was, “Let there be light.” In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions. 21They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the 24dream.
- SH 419:20-22, 25-28
Mind produces all action. If the action proceeds from 21Truth, from immortal Mind, there is harmony; but mor-Conquer beliefs and fearstal mind is liable to any phase of belief. ... Never fear the mental malpractitioner, the mental assassin, who, in attempting to rule mankind, 27tramples upon the divine Principle of metaphysics, for God is the only power.
Hymn 405: “Glory be to God on high”
Hymn 148: “In heavenly Love abiding”
Hymn 578: “Sing a song, sing a song to God”