First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w250129WMGC
Does Spirit or matter govern nature, including rain?
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
The Bible
  1. Zech. 10:1

    1Ask ye of the Lord rain in the time of the latter rain; so the Lord shall make bright clouds, and give them showers of rain, to every one grass in the field.

  2. Ezek. 34:26

    26And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.

  3. Lev. 26:3-5

    3If ye walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;

    4Then I will give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

    5And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.

  4. Deut. 32:1, 2

    1Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

    2My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

  5. Isa. 55:6-12 (to :)

    6Seek 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.

    8For 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:

  6. I Kings 17:1 Elijah

    Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.

  7. I Kings 18:1, 17, 18, 41-45 (to 1st .)

    1And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth.

    17And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel?

    18And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.

    41And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.

    42So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,

    43And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.

    44And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.

    45And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.

  8. Ps. 68:9

    9Thou, O God, didst send a plentiful rain, whereby thou didst confirm thine inheritance, when it was weary.

  9. Jer. 14:22

    22Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can cause rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou he, O Lord our God? therefore we will wait upon thee: for thou hast made all these things.

  10. Jer. 10:12, 13

    12He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.

    13When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

  11. Hos. 10:12

    12Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

  12. Joel 2:23 rejoice

    rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month.


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

  1. SH 539:14

    Has Spirit 15 resigned to matter the government of the universe?

  2. SH 183:19-21

    Laws of nature are laws of Spirit; but mortals commonly recognize as law that which hides the power of 21Spirit.

  3. SH 349:31

        In Christian Science, substance is understood to be Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe 350 350:1substance to be matter. They think of matter as some-thing and almost the only thing, and of the things which 3Substance spiritualpertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very far removed from daily experience. Christian Science takes exactly the opposite view.

  4. SH 259:23-24, 26

    God, Spirit, works 24Immortal modelsspiritually, not materially. ... Immortal 27ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine 30concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious results.

  5. SH 296:23

    When the evidence of Spirit 24Mixed testimony and matter, Truth and error, seems to com-mingle, it rests upon foundations which time is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony 27of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error, and aids in taking the next step and in understanding 30the situation in Christian Science.

  6. SH 430:6-7

    Faith should enlarge its borders and strengthen its base by resting upon Spirit instead of matter.

  7. SH 421:15-18 (to 1st .)

    Insist vehe-mently on the great fact which covers the whole ground, that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside 18Him.

  8. SH 393:16-18

        Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God’s govern-18No pain in matterment.

  9. SH 239:18-20

    If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to Spirit.

  10. SH 494:10

    Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon-12strated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.

  11. SH 410:14-17

        Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. 15The more difficult seems the material condition to be Love casteth out fearovercome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love.

  12. SH 119:17-18, 21

        In one sense God is identical with nature, but this na-18ture is spiritual and is not expressed in matter. ... God is natural good, and is repre -sented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature 24of Spirit, God.

  13. SH 83:13

    The scientific mani-Natural wondersfestation of power is from the divine nature 15and is not supernatural, since Science is an explication of nature. 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.

  14. SH 118:26

        The definitions of material law, as given by natural 27science, represent a kingdom necessarily divided against Certain contradictionsitself, because these definitions portray law as physical, not spiritual. Therefore they con -30tradict the divine decrees and violate the law of Love, in which nature and God are one and the natural order of heaven comes down to earth.

  15. SH 240:1-11

        Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions, 3Some lessons from naturesunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, — all point to Mind, the spiritual 6intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hiero-glyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons. The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns nat -9urally towards the light.

        In the order of Science, in which the Principle is above what it reflects, all is one grand concord.

  16. SH 326:8

    All nature teaches God’s 9love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.

  17. SH 286:22-26

    Material and temporal thoughts are human, Spiritual thoughtsinvolving error, and since God, Spirit, is the 24only cause, they lack a divine cause. The temporal and material are not then creations of Spirit. They are but counterfeits of the spiritual and eternal.

  18. SH 257:12

        Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the sub-stance of an idea is very far from being the supposed sub-stance of non-intelligent matter. Hence the Father Mind 15 is not the father of matter. The material senses and human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into material beliefs, and would say that an anthropomorphic 18God, instead of infinite Principle, — in other words, divine Love, — is the father of the rain, “who hath begotten the drops of dew,” who bringeth “forth Mazzaroth in his sea-21son,” and guideth “Arcturus with his sons.”

  19. SH 109:32

        The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omni-110110:1presence, omniscience, — Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science, — contradict 3God’s allness learnedforever the belief that matter can be actual. These eternal verities reveal primeval exist-ence as the radiant reality of God’s creation, 6in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wis-dom good.

  20. SH 281:28-30

    Our The true new ideafalse views of matter perish as we grasp 30the facts of Spirit.

  21. SH 289:29 Spirit

    Spirit and 30all things spiritual are the real and eternal.

From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 458: “God's blessings come as showers” (verse 2)
Hymn 119: “Let the Love ... in quickening showers descend” (verse 2)
Hymn 97: “...Showers of rain will fall from heaven”