First Church of Christ, Scientist, La CaÑada Flintridge

Wednesday Meeting Readings

1. Ps 142:4-7

   4I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

   5I cried unto thee, O Lord: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

   6Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

   7Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.

2. Ps 139:7-12

   7Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?

   8If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.

   9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

   10Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

   11If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.

   12Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

3. Eccl 9:4 to (to :)

   4to him that is joined to all the living there is hope:

4. Isa 54:2-8, 10-12

   2Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

   3For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

   4Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more.

   5For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

   6For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God.

   7For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee.

   8In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.

   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.

5. Isa 43:1, 4-7, 18, 19

   1But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine.

   4Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.

   5Fear not: for I am with thee: I will bring thy seed from the east, and gather thee from the west;

   6I will say to the north, Give up; and to the south, Keep not back: bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth;

   7Even every one that is called by my name: for I have created him for my glory, I have formed him; yea, I have made him.

   18¶Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

   19Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

6. Isa 35:1, 2 (to :)

   1The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

   2It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing:

7. John 4:5-7, 9-18, 28, 29

   5Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.

   6Now Jacob's well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.

   7There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.

   9Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.

   10Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

   11The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?

   12Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?

   13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

   14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

   15The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

   16Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

   17The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

   18For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

   28The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,

   29Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?

8. John 10:22-30

   22¶And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter.

   23And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon's porch.

   24Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly.

   25Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me.

   26But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you.

   27My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

   28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

   29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.

   30I and my Father are one.

9. I John 4:16

   16And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

1. S&H 597:16
   wilderness. Loneliness; doubt; darkness.

   Spon-
   taneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a
   18material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense
   unfolds the great facts of existence.

   
   
2. S&H 215:15
   15

   We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real
   as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal
   Light and
   darkness sense of the absence of light, at the coming of
   18which darkness loses the appearance of reality.

   
   

   So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional
   absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before
   21truth and love.

   
   
3. S&H 548:12
   12

   Earth has little light or joy for mortals before
   Life is spiritually learned.

   Every agony of mortal error
   helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension
   15of immortal Truth.

   This is the new birth going on
   hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true
   ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.

   
   
4. S&H 550:15-20 The
   15

   The
   continual contemplation of existence as material and cor-
   Stages of
   existence poreal” as beginning and ending, and with
   18birth, decay, and dissolution as its component
   stages ” hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes
   our standard to trail in the dust.

   
   
5. S&H 319:5
   To calculate one's life-prospects
   6from a material basis, would infringe upon
   spiritual law and misguide human hope.

   Having faith
   in the divine Principle of health and spiritually under-
   9standing God, sustains man under all circumstances;
   whereas the lower appeal to the general faith in material
   means (commonly called nature) must yield to the all-
   12might of infinite Spirit.

   
   
6. S&H 536:24
   24

   Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep-
   tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the
   True
   attainment immortal side.

   Through toil, struggle, and sor-
   27row, what do mortals attain?

   They give up
   their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal
   and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached.

   
   
7. S&H 246:1-3
   246:1

   Man is not
   a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and
   Man
   reflects God 3sorrow, sickness and health, life and death.

   
   
8. S&H 503:24
   24

   God creates neither erring thought,
   mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love.

   
   
9. S&H 60:2
   Science inevitably lifts one's being higher in the scale of
   3harmony and happiness.

   
   
10. S&H 503:12-15
    12

    Divine Science, the Word of
    God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "God
    is All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines
    15the universe.

    
    
11. S&H 66:11
    Spiritual development germi-
    12nates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes,
    but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher
    joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth.

    Each suc-
    15cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine
    goodness and love.

    
    
12. S&H 266:6
    6

    Would existence without personal friends be to you
    a blank?

    Then the time will come when you will be
    Uses of
    adversity solitary, left without sympathy; but this
    9seeming vacuum is already filled with divine
    Love.

    When this hour of development comes, even if
    you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will
    12force you to accept what best promotes your growth.

    
    

    Friends will betray and enemies will slander, until the
    lesson is sufficient to exalt you; for "man's extremity
    15is God's opportunity."

    The author has experienced the
    foregoing prophecy and its blessings.

    Thus He teaches
    mortals to lay down their fleshliness and gain spirituality.

    18

    This is done through self-abnegation.

    Universal Love
    is the divine way in Christian Science.

    
    
13. S&H 57:18-30
    18

    Happiness is spiritual,
    born of Truth and Love.

    It is unselfish; therefore
    it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to
    21share it.

    
    

    Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even
    though it meet no return.

    Love enriches the nature, en-
    Help and
    discipline 24larging, purifying, and elevating it.

    The wintry
    blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affec-
    tion, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance
    27of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to
    God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases
    to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for
    30heaven.

    
    
14. S&H 303:25
    God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would
    be a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed.

    He would be
    Man's entity
    spiritual 27without a witness or proof of His own na-
    ture.

    Spiritual man is the image or idea of
    God, an idea which cannot be lost nor sep-
    30arated from its divine Principle.

    When the evidence
    before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the
    apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from
    304:1God, from the sweet sense and presence of Life and
    Truth.

    
    
15. S&H 304:9-14, 16-19
    9

    This is the doctrine of Christian
    Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its
    manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into
    12sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can
    never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind
    nor life result in death.

    
    

    Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled
    by it and abides with it.

    Divine Principle is the Life
    Harmony
    natural 18of man.

    Man's happiness is not, therefore, at
    the disposal of physical sense.

    
    
16. S&H 191:8
    As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a
    9misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine
    The immortal
    birth Principle of man dawns upon human thought,
    and leads it to "where the young child was,"
    12 ” even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual
    sense of being and of what Life includes.

    Thus the whole
    earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light,
    15chasing away the darkness of error.

    
    
17. S&H 521:12
    12

    The harmony and immortality of man are intact.

    We
    should look away from the opposite supposition that man
    is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual
    15record of creation, to that which should be engraved on
    the understanding and heart "with the point of a diamond"
    and the pen of an angel.

    
    
18. S&H 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.

    
    
19. S&H 298:8-24
    What is termed material sense can report only a mor-
    9tal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can
    Truth's
    witness bear witness only to Truth.

    To material sense,
    the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected
    12by Christian Science.

    
    

    Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in-
    volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real-
    15ity.

    Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in
    matter.

    This human belief, alternating between a sense
    of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never
    18reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal.

    
    

    When the real is attained, which is announced by Science,
    joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat.

    Spirit-
    21ual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle,
    and admit no materialistic beliefs.

    Spiritual ideas lead
    up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual sense
    24of being.

    
    
20. S&H 513:6-7
    6

    Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of
    Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings.