First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- II Sam. 8:15
15And David reigned over all Israel; and David executed judgment and justice unto all his people.
- II Sam. 9:1-11, 12 2nd And, 13 (to ;)
1And David said, Is there yet any that is left of the house of Saul, that I may shew him kindness for Jonathan’s sake?
2And there was of the house of Saul a servant whose name was Ziba. And when they had called him unto David, the king said unto him, Art thou Ziba? And he said, Thy servant is he.
3And the king said, Is there not yet any of the house of Saul, that I may shew the kindness of God unto him? And Ziba said unto the king, Jonathan hath yet a son, which is lame on his feet.
4And the king said unto him, Where is he? And Ziba said unto the king, Behold, he is in the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, in Lo–debar.
5¶ Then king David sent, and fetched him out of the house of Machir, the son of Ammiel, from Lo–debar.
6Now when Mephibosheth, the son of Jonathan, the son of Saul, was come unto David, he fell on his face, and did reverence. And David said, Mephibosheth. And he answered, Behold thy servant!
7¶ And David said unto him, Fear not: for I will surely shew thee kindness for Jonathan thy father’s sake, and will restore thee all the land of Saul thy father; and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually.
8And he bowed himself, and said, What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look upon such a dead dog as I am?
9¶ Then the king called to Ziba, Saul’s servant, and said unto him, I have given unto thy master’s son all that pertained to Saul and to all his house.
10Thou therefore, and thy sons, and thy servants, shall till the land for him, and thou shalt bring in the fruits, that thy master’s son may have food to eat: but Mephibosheth thy master’s son shall eat bread alway at my table. Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants.
11Then said Ziba unto the king, According to all that my lord the king hath commanded his servant, so shall thy servant do. As for Mephibosheth, said the king, he shall eat at my table, as one of the king’s sons.
And all that dwelt in the house of Ziba were servants unto Mephibosheth.
13So Mephibosheth dwelt in Jerusalem: for he did eat continually at the king’s table;
- Job 8:3
3Doth God pervert judgment? or doth the Almighty pervert justice?
- Job 37:23
23Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict.
- Ps. 89:1, 5-9, 11, 13-16
1I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
... 5And the heavens shall praise thy wonders, O Lord: thy faithfulness also in the congregation of the saints.
6For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?
7God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.
8O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?
9Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
... 11The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.
... 13Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.
14Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.
15Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.
16In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.
- Prov. 21:1-3, 15, 21
1The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.
2Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord pondereth the hearts.
3To do justice and judgment is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.
... 15It is joy to the just to do judgment: but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.
... 21He that followeth after righteousness and mercy findeth life, righteousness, and honour.
- Eccl. 5:7 in, 8
in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear thou God.
8¶ If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.
- John 13:1, 33, 34
1Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.
33Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you.
34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
- I Pet. 1:22
22Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently:
- I Pet. 2:17 (to 1st .)
17Honour all men.
- I John 4:11-21
11Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.
12No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
13Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
14And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world.
15Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
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.
17Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
19We love him, because he first loved us.
20If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
21And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 454:9, 17-23, 29-31
Human hate has no legiti-mate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned. That evil or matter has neither intelligence nor power, 12is the doctrine of absolute Christian Science, and this is the great truth which strips all disguise from error.
Love for God and man is the true 18incentive in both healing and teaching. Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to 21speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of Truth. Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept.
The superiority of spir-30itual power over sensuous is the central point of Chris-tian Science.
- SH 64:1-2
- SH 234:25-3
Sin and disease must be thought before they can be manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first 27instance, or they will control you in the second. Jesus declared that to look with desire on forbidden objects was to break a moral precept. He laid great stress on the 30action of the human mind, unseen to the senses.
Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one’s belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and 235 235:1malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected 3lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.
- SH 570:4
- SH 447:1-2
- SH 106:7-14
God has endowed man with inalien-Proper self-government able rights, among which are self-government, 9reason, and conscience. Man is properly self-governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.
12 Man’s rights are invaded when the divine order is in-terfered with, and the mental trespasser incurs the divine penalty due this crime.
- SH 104:29-15
Our courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as 30Motives consideredwell as the commission of a crime. Is it not clear that the human mind must move the body to a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the mur-105105:1derer? The hands, without mortal mind to direct them, could not commit a murder.
3 Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals in order to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence or to punish Mental crimesthem. To say that these tribunals have no 6jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind, would be to contradict precedent and to admit that the power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal 9mind, evil, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime? Can matter be punished? Can you separate the men-12tality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction? Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case; and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts rea-15sonably pass sentence, according to the motive.
- SH 105:22
Whoever uses his developed mental powers like an es-caped felon to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity oc-24Evil let loosecurs is never safe. God will arrest him. Di-vine justice will manacle him. His sins will be millstones about his neck, weighing him down to the 27depths of ignominy and death. The aggravation of er-ror foretells its doom, and confirms the ancient axiom: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”
- SH 403:14-20, 26-27
You command the situation if you understand that 15mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the Error’s power imaginarytruth of being. Mortal mind is constantly producing on mortal body the results of false 18opinions; and it will continue to do so, until mortal error is deprived of its imaginary powers by Truth, which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion.
The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike 27the immortal Mind.
- SH 404:3-15, 19-21 (np)
If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and Appetites to be abandoneddestroy these errors with the truth of being, — 6by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering which his submission to such habits brings, and by con-vincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe-9tites. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body. Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked 12motives which produce them. If the evil is over in the repentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on the individual, you can remove this disorder as God’s law is 15fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime.
This con-viction, that there is no real pleasure in sin, 21is one of the most important points in the theology of Christian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new and true view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure, 24and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and increases his ability to master evil and to love good.
Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and 27the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require Sin or fear the root of sicknessthe same method and are inseparable in Truth. Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth, 30make a man sick, and neither material medi-cine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body, unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him 405 405:1from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind. Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence 3of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the lowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer.
Christian Science commands man to master the pro-6pensities, — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, Mental conspiratorsto conquer lust with chastity, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with hon-9esty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success. They will deliver you 12to the judge, the arbiter of truth against error. The judge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence of the moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and 15body. Both will be manacled until the last farthing is paid, — until you have balanced your account with God. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 18reap.” The good man finally can overcome his fear of sin. This is sin’s necessity, — to destroy itself. Im-mortal man demonstrates the government of God, good, 21in which is no power to sin.
- SH 339:1-3 The, 8-10
The destruction of sin is the divine method of pardon. Divine Life destroys death, Truth destroys 3Divine pardonerror, and Love destroys hate.
God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it 9Evil not produced by Godgood. Therefore evil, being contrary to good, is unreal, and cannot be the product of God.
Hymn 82: “God is working His purpose out”
Hymn 221: “...Through love and brotherhood”
Hymn 416: “Be true and list the voice within”
