First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Ps. 4:1, 3 know, 5, 6 Lord, 8
1Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.
3 ... know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him.
... 5Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.
6 ... Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.
... 8I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.
- Ps. 5:1-5, 7 (to :), 8, 11 let, 12
1Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation.
2Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray.
3My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
4For thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness: neither shall evil dwell with thee.
5The foolish shall not stand in thy sight: thou hatest all workers of iniquity.
... 7But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy:
... 8Lead me, O Lord, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.
11 ... let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.
12For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
- Prov. 16:1, 3, 5-7, 19, 32
1The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord.
... 3Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.
... 5Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
6By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.
7When a man’s ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
... 19Better it is to be of an humble spirit with the lowly, than to divide the spoil with the proud.
... 32He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.
- I
Sam. 17:1 (to 1st ,), 2 (to 1st ,), 3 (to :), 4, 5, 7-12 (to ;), 13 (to
:), 14 (to :), 15-17, 20 (to ;), 22-24 3rd and, 26, 28, 29, 31-37,
40-43, 45, 46 (to 1st ;), 47 (to ,), 48-50
1Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle,
... 2And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together,
... 3And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side:
4¶ And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.
5And he had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.
... 7And the staff of his spear was like a weaver’s beam; and his spear’s head weighed six hundred shekels of iron: and one bearing a shield went before him.
8And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me.
9If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
10And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together.
11When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.
12¶ Now David was the son of that Ephrathite of Beth–lehem–judah, whose name was Jesse;
13And the three eldest sons of Jesse went and followed Saul to the battle:
... 14And David was the youngest:
... 15But David went and returned from Saul to feed his father’s sheep at Beth–lehem.
16And the Philistine drew near morning and evening, and presented himself forty days.
17And Jesse said unto David his son, Take now for thy brethren an ephah of this parched corn, and these ten loaves, and run to the camp to thy brethren;
20¶ And David rose up early in the morning, and left the sheep with a keeper, and took, and went, as Jesse had commanded him;
22 ... and came and saluted his brethren.
23And as he talked with them, behold, there came up the champion, the Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, out of the armies of the Philistines, and spake according to the same words: and David heard them.
24And all the men of Israel, when they saw the man, fled from him, and were sore afraid.
... 26And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
28¶ And Eliab his eldest brother heard when he spake unto the men; and Eliab’s anger was kindled against David, and he said, Why camest thou down hither? and with whom hast thou left those few sheep in the wilderness? I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of thine heart; for thou art come down that thou mightest see the battle.
29And David said, What have I now done? Is there not a cause?
31And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him.
32¶ And David said to Saul, Let no man’s heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.
33And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.
34And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father’s sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:
35And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.
36Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.
37David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the Lord be with thee.
40And he took his staff in his hand, and chose him five smooth stones out of the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag which he had, even in a scrip; and his sling was in his hand: and he drew near to the Philistine.
41And the Philistine came on and drew near unto David; and the man that bare the shield went before him.
42And when the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.
43And the Philistine said unto David, Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves? And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
... 45Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied.
46This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand;
... 47And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s,
... 48And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose, and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army to meet the Philistine.
49And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
50So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and smote the Philistine, and slew him; but there was no sword in the hand of David.
- Num. 6:22-26
22¶ And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,
23Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel, saying unto them,
24The Lord bless thee, and keep thee:
25The Lord make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee:
26The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.
- SH 580:28-30
- SH 276:4-28
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.
12 The realization that all inharmony is unreal brings objects and thoughts into human view in their true light, and presents them as beautiful and immortal. 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 requisiteWhen 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.
Material beliefs and spiritual understanding never mingle. The latter destroys the former. Discord is the 27nothingness named error. Harmony is the somethingness named Truth.
- SH 466:20-23
- SH 96:12-4
12 This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord Arena of contestand 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.
21 Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is 24changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.
As this consummation draws nearer, he who has shaped his course in accordance with divine Science 27Millennial glorywill endure to the end. As material knowl-edge diminishes and spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally 30instead of materially.
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but 97 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.
- SH 226:14-17
- SH 72:30-32
- SH 224:8
- SH 222:31-2
- SH 467:1-13
3Answer. — The first demand of this Science is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This me is Spirit. Two chief commandsTherefore the command means this: Thou shalt 6have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second is like unto it, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” 9It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact 12becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brother-hood of man will be established.
From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 75: “God comes with succor speedy”
Hymn 236: “O peace of the world, O hope in each breast”
Hymn 9: “All glory be to God most high, And on the earth be peace”
