First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge
Wednesday Meeting Readings
Section I
7How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
8They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
9For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.
3For the Lord shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.
4¶Hearken unto me, my people; and give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people.
5My righteousness is near; my salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust.
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.
23And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
24Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
25And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
26And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
27And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
28And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
29And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.
30But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.
31And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.
32And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.
33And all the city was gathered together at the door.
34And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.
35And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.
36And Simon and they that were with him followed after him.
37And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee.
2In the visions of God brought he me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain, by which was as the frame of a city on the south.
3And he brought me thither, and, behold, there was a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed; and he stood in the gate.
4And the man said unto me, Son of man, behold with thine eyes, and hear with thine ears, and set thine heart upon all that I shall shew thee; for to the intent that I might shew them unto thee art thou brought hither: declare all that thou seest to the house of Israel.
1Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar.
2Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.
3And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ancles.
4Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.
5Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.
6¶And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river.
7Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.
8Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.
9And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live:
12And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.
Sickness
has been combated for centuries by doctors using ma‐
18terial remedies; but the question arises, Is there less
sickness because of these practitioners? A vigorous
"No" is the response deducible from two connate
21facts, — the reputed longevity of the Antediluvians,
and the rapid multiplication and increased violence of
diseases since the flood.
230:1If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true,
it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs,
3or without, to destroy a quality or condition of Truth?
But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening from
this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health,
6holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the for‐
ever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth,
which casts out error and heals the sick. This is the sal‐
9vation which comes through God, the divine Principle,
Love, as demonstrated by Jesus.
Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the
18five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick‐
Mind destroys
all ills ness is a belief, which must be annihilated by
the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of
21so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the
body. Christian Science takes away this physical sense
of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or
24mental inharmony. That man is material, and that mat‐
ter suffers, — these propositions can only seem real and
natural in illusion.
15Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor
can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the sub‐
Health and
the senses ject of health. The Science of Mind-healing
18shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind
to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. There‐
fore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testi‐
21mony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously
existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; and
thus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows
24false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic.
6 The schools have rendered
faith in drugs the fashion, rather than faith in Deity. By
trusting matter to destroy its own discord, health and
9harmony have been sacrificed. Such systems are barren
of the vitality of spiritual power, by which material sense
is made the servant of Science and religion becomes
12Christlike.
Material medicine substitutes drugs for the power of
God — even the might of Mind — to heal the body.
Drugs and
divinity 15Scholasticism clings for salvation to the per‐
son, instead of to the divine Principle, of the
man Jesus; and his Science, the curative agent of God,
18is silenced. Why? Because truth divests material drugs
of their imaginary power, and clothes Spirit with suprem‐
acy. Science is the "stranger that is within thy gates,"
21remembered not, even when its elevating effects prac‐
tically prove its divine origin and efficacy.
Which was first, Mind or medicine? If Mind was
27first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have
Question of
precedence been the first medicine. God being All-in‐
all, He made medicine; but that medicine was
30Mind. It could not have been matter, which departs
from the nature and character of Mind, God.
9Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they
forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine
Eradicate
error from
thought Mind, and abandon their material beliefs.
12Eradicate the image of disease from the per‐
turbed thought before it has taken tangible
shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you pre‐
15vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy,
if you understand that every disease is an error, and has
no character nor type, except what mortal mind assigns to
18it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con‐
tending persistently for truth, you destroy error.
When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed
21mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought
Mortal mind
controlled alone creates the suffering. Mortal mind
rules all that is mortal. We see in the body
24the images of this mind, even as in optics we see painted
on the retina the image which becomes visible to the
senses. The action of so-called mortal mind must be
27destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony
of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani‐
fest as sin, sickness, and death.
If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science
27for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the su‐
All evil
unnatural premacy 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
131:1not 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.
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.
I have never supposed the world would immediately
27witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin,
Full fruitage
yet to come disease, and death would not be believed for
an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that,
30as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and
temperance have received an impulse, health has been
restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres‐
349:1ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is
more generally understood?
Hymn 70: "God giveth light to all Who ask with prayer sincere"
Hymn 57: "Father, to Thee we turn away from sorrow, Thou art the fountain whence our healing flows"
Hymn 440: "Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God"
