First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Deut. 11:1, 7 your, 8, 13, 16, 18
1Therefore thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.
7 ... your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which he did.
8Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
13¶ And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the Lord your God, and
to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
... 16Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them;
18¶ Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.
- Jonah 1:1-12, 15, 17
1Now the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their wickedness is come up before me.
3But Jonah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord, and went down to Joppa; and he found a ship going to Tarshish: so he paid the fare thereof, and went down into it, to go with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord.
4¶ But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea, and there was a mighty tempest in the sea, so that the ship was like to be broken.
5Then the mariners were afraid, and cried every man unto his god, and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea, to lighten it of them. But Jonah was gone down into the sides of the ship; and he lay, and was fast asleep.
6So the shipmaster came to him, and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.
7And they said every one to his fellow, Come, and let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this evil is upon us. So they cast lots, and the lot fell upon Jonah.
8Then said they unto him, Tell us, we pray thee, for whose cause this evil is upon us; What is thine occupation? and whence comest thou? what is thy country? and of what people art thou?
9And he said unto them, I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven, which hath made the sea and the dry land.
10Then were the men exceedingly afraid, and said unto him, Why hast thou done this? For the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord, because he had told them.
11¶ Then said they unto him, What shall we do unto thee, that the sea may be calm unto us? for the sea wrought, and was tempestuous.
12And he said unto them, Take me up, and cast me forth into the sea; so shall the sea be calm unto you: for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you.
15So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
17¶ Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
- Jonah 2:1, 2, 10
1Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish’s belly,
2And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice.
10¶ And the Lord spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.
- Jonah 3:1, 2, 5 (to 1st ,), 10 (to 1st ;)
1And the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee.
5¶ So the people of Nineveh believed God,
10¶ And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way;
- Ps. 31:19, 24
19Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
... 24Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord.
- I Kings 8:61
61Let your heart therefore be perfect with the Lord our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day.
- Eph. 5:15, 17, 19, 20
15See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
... 17Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.
... 19Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
20Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ;
- Col. 3:12-16
12Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
14And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
15And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
- SH vii:13-20
The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the 15portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-18stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is Life eternal.
- SH 390:4
We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim-6Ultimate harmonyply because, to the mortal senses, there is seem-ing discord. It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and 9the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.
- SH 451:8
Students of Christian Science, who start with its letter 9and think to succeed without the spirit, will either make Treasure in heavenshipwreck of their faith or be turned sadly awry. They must not only seek, but strive, 12to enter the narrow path of Life, for “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.” Man walks in the 15direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure is, there will his heart be also. If our hopes and affec-tions are spiritual, they come from above, not from be-18neath, and they bear as of old the fruits of the Spirit.
- SH 387:13
Our thinkers do not die early because they faithfully perform the natural functions of being. If printers and 15Right never punishableauthors have the shortest span of earthly ex-istence, it is not because they occupy the most important posts and perform the most vital functions in 18society. That man does not pay the severest penalty who does the most good. By adhering to the realities of eternal existence, — instead of reading disquisitions on 21the inconsistent supposition that death comes in obedience to the law of life, and that God punishes man for doing good, — one cannot suffer as the result of any labor of 24love, but grows stronger because of it. It is a law of so-called mortal mind, misnamed matter, which causes all things discordant.
- SH 355:11-7 (to 2nd .)
9Let discord of every name and nature 12be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense of Life and being take possession of human consciousness.
What is the relative value of the two conflicting the-15ories regarding Christian healing? One, according to the commands of our Master, heals the sick. The other, popular religion, declines to admit that Christ’s religion 18has exercised any systematic healing power since the first century.
The statement that the teachings of Christian Sci-21ence in this work are “absolutely false, and the most Conditions of criticismegregious fallacies ever offered for accept-ance,” is an opinion wholly due to a misap-24prehension both of the divine Principle and practice of Christian Science and to a consequent inability to demon-strate this Science. Without this understanding, no one 27is capable of impartial or correct criticism, because demon-stration and spiritual understanding are God’s immortal keynotes, proved to be such by our Master and evidenced 30by the sick who are cured and by the sinners who are reformed.
Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in sup-356356:1port of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so antagonistic that the material thought must become spir-3Weakness of material theoriesitualized before the spiritual fact is attained. So-called material existence affords no evidence of spiritual existence and immortality. Sin, 6sickness, and death do not prove man’s entity or immor-tality. Discord can never establish the facts of harmony.
- SH 40:1-5
- SH 128:4, 27-10
The term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to His government of the universe, 6Practical Scienceinclusive of man. From this it follows that business men and cultured scholars have found that Christian Science enhances their endurance and 9mental powers, enlarges their perception of character, gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human 12mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowl-15edge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher 18realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.
27 Science relates to Mind, not matter. It rests on fixed Principle and not upon the judgment of false sensation. Mathematics and scientific logicThe addition of two sums in mathematics must 30always bring the same result. So is it with logic. If both the major and the minor propo -sitions of a syllogism are correct, the conclusion, if properly 129 129:1drawn, cannot be false. So in Christian Science there are no discords nor contradictions, because its logic is as 3harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syl-logism or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic. Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in 6premise or conclusion.
If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can dis-Truth by inversioncover it by reversing the material fable, be the 9fable pro or con, — be it in accord with your preconceptions or utterly contrary to them.
- SH 357:17
History teaches that the popular and false notions 18about the Divine Being and character have originated Anthropomorphismin the human mind. As there is in reality but one God, one Mind, wrong notions about God 21must have originated in a false supposition, not in im-mortal Truth, and they are fading out. They are false claims, which will eventually disappear, according to the 24vision of St. John in the Apocalypse.
- SH 359:11
Even though you aver that the material senses are 12indispensable to man’s existence or entity, you must change the human concept of life, and must at length know yourself spiritually and scientifically. The evi-15dence of the existence of Spirit, Soul, is palpable only to spiritual sense, and is not apparent to the material senses, which cognize only that which is the opposite of Spirit.
- SH 427:13
Death is but another phase of the dream that exist-ence can be material. Nothing can interfere with the 15Mortality vanquishedharmony of being nor end the existence of man in Science. Man is the same after as before a bone is broken or the body guillotined. If man 18is never to overcome death, why do the Scriptures say, “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”? The tenor of the Word shows that we shall obtain the victory 21over death in proportion as we overcome sin. The great difficulty lies in ignorance of what God is. God, Life, Truth, and Love make man undying. Immortal Mind, 24governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.
Hymn 518: “Think what spirit dwells within you”
Hymn 519: “... loving is the only way to think, and speak, and be”
Hymn 6: “Abide not in the realm of dreams”
