Wednesday Meeting Readings

First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

091216-Crime

Prayer about crime in our community and the world

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

The Bible:

Section I

Eph 4:17,19,20,22 put,23,28,29

17This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

19Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

20But ye have not so learned Christ;

22put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

28Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.

29Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

Ob 1:7 the men that (to 2nd :),17

7the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee:

17¶But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

Gen 4:8-11

8And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.

9¶And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother's keeper?

10And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground.

11And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;

Acts 6:8-10,12,13

8And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles among the people.

9¶Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.

10And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake.

12And they stirred up the people, and the elders, and the scribes, and came upon him, and caught him, and brought him to the council,

13And set up false witnesses, which said, This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place, and the law:

Acts 7:58 (to :),60 (to .)

58And cast him out of the city, and stoned him:

60And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.

II Cor 4:1 seeing,8,9,18 we

1seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;

8We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

9Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

18we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Matt 7:18,19

18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.

19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

Luke 11:14,15,17,19 if (to ?),37,39,43,44,46 Woe,52 ye have

14¶And he was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered.

15But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils.

17But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and a house divided against a house falleth.

19if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out?

37¶And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him: and he went in, and sat down to meat.

39And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness.

43Woe unto you, Pharisees! for ye love the uppermost seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets.

44Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are as graves which appear not, and the men that walk over them are not aware of them.

46Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers.

52ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered.

Luke 10:1,17-19

1After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come.

17¶And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

18And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

19Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Ex 20:13,15,16

13Thou shalt not kill.

15Thou shalt not steal.

16Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

Matt 5:8-10

8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

9Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

10Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

James 3:13-18

13Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.

14But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.

15This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.

16For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.

17But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.

18And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

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

35:30 (only)

30The design of Love is to reform the sinner.

96:12,31

12This material world is even now becoming the arena
for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord
Arena of
contest and 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.

During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor
to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but
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.

102:18-23,30-17

18The looms of crime, hidden in the dark re‐
cesses of mortal thought, are every hour weav‐
ing webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the
21present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare
the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on
the subject which the criminal desires.

30Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so‐
called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian
Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently
103:1promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore
in the community. The Apostle Paul refers to the
Mental
despotism 3personification of evil as "the god of this
world," and further defines it as dishonesty
and craftiness. Sin was the Assyrian moon-god.
6The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through
Liberation
of mental
powers Science, by which man can escape from sin
and mortality, blesses the whole human fam‐
9ily. As in the beginning, however, this libera‐
tion does not scientifically show itself in a knowledge of
both good and evil, for the latter is unreal.
12On the other hand, Mind-science is wholly separate
from any half-way impertinent knowledge, because Mind‐
science is of God and demonstrates the divine Principle,
15working out the purposes of good only. The maximum
of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all.
Evil is a suppositional lie.

104:29-21

Our courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as
Motives
considered 30well as the commission of a crime. Is it not
clear that the human mind must move the
body to a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the mur‐
105:1derer? The hands, without mortal mind to direct them,
could not commit a murder.

3Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals in order
to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence or to punish
Mental
crimes them. To say that these tribunals have no
6jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind,
would be to contradict precedent and to admit that the
power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal
9mind, evil, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is
recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime?
Can matter be punished? Can you separate the men‐
12tality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction?
Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case;
and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts rea‐
15sonably pass sentence, according to the motive.

When our laws eventually take cognizance of mental
crime and no longer apply legal rulings wholly to physical
Important
decision 18offences, these words of Judge Parmenter of
Boston will become historic: "I see no reason
why metaphysics is not as important to medicine as to
21mechanics or mathematics."

461:18-20 (to .),21-27

18 If you commit a
crime, should you acknowledge to yourself that you are
a criminal? Yes.

21 Usually to admit
that you are sick, renders your case less curable, while
to recognize your sin, aids in destroying it. Both sin and
24sickness are error, and Truth is their remedy. The truth
regarding error is, that error is not true, hence it is unreal.
To prove scientifically the error or unreality of sin, you
27must first see the claim of sin, and then destroy it.

407:17

Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Chris‐
18tian Science, and he will get the better of that desire,
and ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness,
and existence.

544:14-17,24-25

No mortal mind has the might
First evil
suggestion 15or right or wisdom to create or to destroy.
All is under the control of the one Mind,
even God.

24 Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a
material personality is not this likeness.

259:23-24,26

God, Spirit, works
Immortal
models 24spiritually, 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.

407:24

24 Let the perfect model be
present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized op‐
posite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light,
27and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your
consciousness.

470:32

The relations of God and man, divine Principle and
471:1idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows
no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine
3order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He cre‐
ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged
in its eternal history.

276:4,14-24

When the divine precepts
are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship,
6in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have
one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with
the Scriptural command: "Let this Mind be in you,
9which was also in Christ Jesus." Man and his Maker
are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness
is cognizant only of the things of God.

Harmony
15in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is
unreal and mortal.

If God is admitted to be the only Mind and Life,
18there ceases to be any opportunity for sin and death.
Perfection
requisite When we learn in Science how to be perfect
even as our Father in heaven is perfect,
21thought is turned into new and healthy channels, —
towards the contemplation of things immortal and away
from materiality to the Principle of the universe, includ‐
24ing harmonious man.

406:6-9,11-13

6 Sin will
submit to Christian Science when, in place of modes and
forms, the power of God is understood and demonstrated
9in the healing of mortals, both mind and body.

The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and
12spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth.
Sickness
will abate Then error disappears.

From the Christian Science Hymnal:
Hymn 179: "…Love now is dawning over every nation, Showing true brotherhood, publishing salvation"
Hymn 111: "…Forever firm Thy justice stands, As mountains their foundations keep"
Hymn 368: "Watchman, tell us of the night, What its signs of promise are"