First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Job 1:1, 3, 14-21 (to 1st ,), 21 the, 22
1There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.
... 3His substance also was seven thousand sheep, and three thousand camels, and five hundred yoke of oxen, and five hundred she asses, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the men of the east.
14And there came a messenger unto Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding beside them:
15And the Sabeans fell upon them, and took them away; yea, they have slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
16While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The fire of God is fallen from heaven, and hath burned up the sheep, and the servants, and consumed them; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
17While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, The Chaldeans made out three bands, and fell upon the camels, and have carried them away, yea, and slain the servants with the edge of the sword; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
18While he was yet speaking, there came also another, and said, Thy sons and thy daughters were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother’s house:
19And, behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead; and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
20Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
21And said, ... the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.
22In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
- Job 2:1, 3, 7-11
1Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the Lord.
... 3And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? and still he holdeth fast his integrity, although thou movedst me against him, to destroy him without cause.
7¶ So went Satan forth from the presence of the Lord, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.
8And he took him a potsherd to scrape himself withal; and he sat down among the ashes.
9¶ Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
10But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
11¶ Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him.
- Job 19:1, 2, 25-27
1Then Job answered and said,
2How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
... 25For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
26And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
27Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
- Job 38:1-3
1Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
2Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?
3Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
- Job 40:3-10
3¶ Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
4Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
5Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
6¶ Then answered the Lord unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
7Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
8Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?
9Hast thou an arm like God? or canst thou thunder with a voice like him?
10Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency; and array thyself with glory and beauty.
- Job 42:1, 2, 5, 10, 12, 13, 15-17
1Then Job answered the Lord, and said,
2I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee.
... 5I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.
10And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
... 12So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses.
13He had also seven sons and three daughters.
... 15And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren.
16After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, even four generations.
17So Job died, being old and full of days.
- Ps. 112:1-5 Blessed
Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly in his commandments.
2His seed shall be mighty upon earth: the generation of the upright shall be blessed.
3Wealth and riches shall be in his house: and his righteousness endureth for ever.
4Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness: he is gracious, and full of compassion, and righteous.
5A good man sheweth favour, and lendeth: he will guide his affairs with discretion.
- Ps. 105:1-4
1O give thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.
2Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.
3Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.
4Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 552:5-19
Heathen 6philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy-potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even 9where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un-discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness, and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist-12ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.
Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, “Man 15Emergence of mortalsthat is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.” Mortals must emerge from this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck 18open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward and upward.
- SH 360:22
- SH 320:4-3
Metaphors abound in the Bible, and names are often expressive of spiritual ideas. The most distinguished 6Interior meaningtheologians in Europe and America agree that the Scriptures have both a spiritual and lit-eral meaning. In Smith’s Bible Dictionary it is said: 9“The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest upon both the literal and moral;” and in the learned article on Noah in the same work, the familiar text, 12Genesis vi. 3, “And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh,” is quoted as follows, from the original Hebrew: “And Jehovah 15said, My spirit shall not forever rule [or be humbled] in men, seeing that they are [or, in their error they are] but flesh.” Here the original text declares plainly the 18spiritual fact of being, even man’s eternal and harmo-nious existence as image, idea, instead of matter (how-ever transcendental such a thought appears), and avers 21that this fact is not forever to be humbled by the belief that man is flesh and matter, for according to that error man is mortal.
24 The one important interpretation of Scripture is the spiritual. For example, the text, “In my flesh shall I Job, on the resurrection see God,” gives a profound idea of the di-27vine power to heal the ills of the flesh, and encourages mortals to hope in Him who healeth all our diseases; whereas this passage is continually quoted 30as if Job intended to declare that even if disease and worms destroyed his body, yet in the latter days he should stand in celestial perfection before Elohim, still clad 321 321:1in material flesh, — an interpretation which is just the op-posite of the true, as may be seen by studying the book 3of Job.
- SH 361:21
I have revised Science and Health only to give a clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning. Spir-itual ideas unfold as we advance. A human perception of 24divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order to be Science and subject to demonstration. A germ of in-finite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven, is the 27higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled until God prepares the soil for the seed. That which when sown bears immortal fruit, enriches mankind only 30when it is understood, — hence the many readings given the Scriptures, and the requisite revisions of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.
- SH 501:1
Scientific interpretation of the Scriptures prop-erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa-3Spiritual interpretationment, chiefly because the spiritual import of the Word, in its earliest articulations, often seems so smothered by the immediate context as to 6require explication; whereas the New Testament narra-tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il-lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence, 9but richly recompensing human want and woe with spiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi-cation of wonder and glory which angels could only 12whisper and which God illustrated by light and har-mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-called mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural 15good, are explained by that Love for whose rest the weary ones sigh when needing something more native to their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual 18evil.
- SH 257:22
Finite mind manifests all sorts of errors, and thus proves the material theory of mind in matter to be the 24Inexhaustible divine Loveantipode of Mind. Who hath found finite life or love sufficient to meet the demands of human want and woe, — to still the desires, to satisfy the aspira-27tions? Infinite Mind cannot be limited to a finite form, or Mind would lose its infinite character as inexhaustible Love, eternal Life, omnipotent Truth.
- SH 258:1, 25
A mortal, corporeal, or finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of 3Infinite physique impossiblelimitless, incorporeal Life and Love. Hence the unsatisfied human craving for something better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a 6material belief in a physical God and man. The insuffi-ciency of this belief to supply the true idea proves the falsity of material belief.
Mortals have a very imperfect sense of the spiritual man and of the infinite range of his thought. To him 27Individual permanencybelongs eternal Life. Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his 30high estate.
- SH 259:6
In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted 9their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow, — thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of 12scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Prin-ciple and idea, — perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration.
Hymn 174: “Like as a mother, God comforteth His children”
Hymn 40: “Come, ye disconsolate, where'er ye languish”
Hymn 424: “...Yes, God is Love: a thought like this Can every gloomy thought remove”