First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w221228DT
Who is the “new man"?
Wednesday, December 28, 2022
The Bible
  1. Gen. 17:1-5 when, 10 (to ;), 15-17, 19

    when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

    2And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.

    3And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying,

    4As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

    5Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee.

    10This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee;

    15And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

    16And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

    17Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

    ... 19And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

  2. Gen. 18:11-14 (to ?), 19 (to ;)

    11Now Abraham and Sarah were old and well stricken in age; and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women.

    12Therefore Sarah laughed within herself, saying, After I am waxed old shall I have pleasure, my lord being old also?

    13And the Lord said unto Abraham, Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a surety bear a child, which am old?

    14Is any thing too hard for the Lord?

    19For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment;

  3. II Cor. 5:17 if

    if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

  4. Eph. 4:1-3, 17-24

    1I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,

    2With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

    3Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

    ... 17This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

    18Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:

    19Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

    20But ye have not so learned Christ;

    21If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:

    22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;

    23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;

    24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

  5. Col. 3:1, 2, 4-17, 23, 24

    1If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

    2Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

    ... 4When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

    5Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

    6For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience:

    7In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them.

    8But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth.

    9Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;

    10And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

    11Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

    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.

    17And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

    ... 23And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;

    24Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.


Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
  1. SH 276:19

    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.

  2. SH 299:31-12

        If man were solely a creature of the material senses, he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable 300 300:1and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from 3Old and new manmatter. Finite sense has no true apprecia-tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi-nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes 6trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image of God.

    9    So far as the scientific statement as to man is under-stood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true reflection of God — the real man, or the new man (as 12St. Paul has it).

  3. SH 263:7-19 (np)

        When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence with the spiritual and works only as God works, 9Mortal man a mis-creatorhe will no longer grope in the dark and cling to earth because he has not tasted heaven. Carnal beliefs defraud us. They make man an involun-12tary hypocrite, — producing evil when he would create good, forming deformity when he would outline grace and beauty, injuring those whom he would bless. He 15becomes a general mis-creator, who believes he is a semi-god. His “touch turns hope to dust, the dust we all have trod.” He might say in Bible language: “The 18good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.”

        There can be but one creator, who has created all. 21Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery No new creationof some distant idea of Truth; else it is a new multiplication or self-division of mor-24tal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the infinite.

    27    The multiplication of a human and mortal sense of per-sons and things is not creation. A sensual thought, like an atom of dust thrown into the face of spiritual im-30mensity, is dense blindness instead of a scientific eternal consciousness of creation.

        The fading forms of matter, the mortal body and ma-264264:1terial earth, are the fleeting concepts of the human mind. They have their day before the permanent facts and their 3Mind’s true cameraperfection in Spirit appear. The crude crea-tions of mortal thought must finally give place to the glorious forms which we sometimes behold in the 6camera of divine Mind, when the mental picture is spir-itual and eternal. Mortals must look beyond fading, finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. 9Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we 12have our being.

        As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were 15Self-completeness invisible, will become visible. When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self-com-18pleteness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness.

  4. SH vii:27

        Since the author’s discovery of the might of Truth in viii viii:1the treatment of disease as well as of sin, her system has been fully tested and has not been found wanting; but 3to reach the heights of Christian Science, man must live in obedience to its divine Principle. To develop the full might of this Science, the discords of corporeal sense 6must yield to the harmony of spiritual sense, even as the science of music corrects false tones and gives sweet con-cord to sound.

  5. SH 13:25

    Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle, Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal 27creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely physical, and are ignorant of man as God’s image or re-flection and of man’s eternal incorporeal existence. The 30world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, — blind to the reality of man’s existence, — for the world of sen-sation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.

  6. SH 120:15

        Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the sub-Health and the sensesject 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.

  7. SH 122:29-4

        Our theories make the same mistake regarding Soul 30 and body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system. They insist that soul is in body and mind therefore tribu-tary to matter. Astronomical science has destroyed the 123 123:1false theory as to the relations of the celestial bodies, and Christian Science will surely destroy the greater error as 3Ptolemaic and psychical errorto our terrestrial bodies. The true idea and Principle of man will then appear.

  8. SH 123:11

        The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that 12Seeming and beingmatter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of 15material sense with spiritual ideas.

  9. SH 256:5

    All 6things are created spiritually. Mind, not matter, is the creator. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man.

  10. SH 259:6-21, 26

        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.

    15    If man was once perfect but has now lost his perfection, then mortals have never beheld in man the reflex image The divine image not lostof God. The lost image is no image. The 18true likeness cannot be lost in divine reflection. Understanding this, Jesus said: “Be ye there -fore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is 21perfect.”

    Immortal 27ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine 30concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious results.

  11. SH 276:12

        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.

  12. SH 302:19

    The Science of being reveals man as perfect, even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind, 21of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all being, and because this real man is governed by Soul instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called 24laws of matter.

  13. SH 303:28-30

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

From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 258: “Oft to every man and nation”
Hymn 533: “My life flows on in endless song”
Hymn 437: “All my hope on God is founded”