First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Matt. 4:17 Jesus, 23 Jesus, 24; 6:33, 34 (to 1st .)
Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.
24And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them.
33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.
- Matt. 5:1-8, 21-24, 33-35, 43-48
1And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:
2And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
3Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
6Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
21¶ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
22But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
23Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught against thee;
24Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.
33¶ Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oaths:
34But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
35Nor by the earth; for it is his footstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the city of the great King.
43¶ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.
44But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
46For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?
47And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?
48Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
- Matt. 6:6-15, 19-21
6But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11Give us this day our daily bread.
12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
14For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
15But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
19¶ Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:
20But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
21For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
- Matt. 7:1-5, 7-12, 24-29
1Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
7¶ Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
8For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
9Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent?
11If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
12Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.
24¶ Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:
25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.
26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:
27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.
28And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
29For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 271:20-30
Our Master said, “But the Comforter . . . shall 21teach you all things.” When the Science of Christianity New Testament basisappears, it will lead you into all truth. The Sermon on the Mount is the essence of this 24Science, and the eternal life, not the death of Jesus, is its outcome.
Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast 27them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity Modern evangelnow, as aforetime, to learn and to practise Christian healing. The Scriptures contain it. 30The spiritual import of the Word imparts this power.
- SH 248:29-4
Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, 30health, holiness, love — the kingdom of heaven — reign within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until they finally disappear.
249249:1 Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive 3ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.
- SH 573:31
- SH 576:21
- SH 12:22, 31-1
The common custom of praying for the recovery of the sick finds help in blind belief, whereas help should come 24from the enlightened understanding. Changes in belief may go on indefinitely, but they are the merchandise of human thought and not the outgrowth of divine Science.
In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail them-1313:1selves of God as “a very present help in trouble.”
- SH 79:17
Jesus cast out evil spirits, or false beliefs. The Apostle 18Paul bade men have the Mind that was in the Christ. Jesus did his own work by the one Spirit. He said: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” He never de-21scribed disease, so far as can be learned from the Gospels, but he healed disease.
- SH 122:1-23, 29-15
The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, — 3Opposing testimonyassigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and death; but the great facts of Life, rightly un-derstood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false 6witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, — the actual reign of harmony on earth. The material senses’ re-versal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nine-9teen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus; yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such 12as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure, from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status of happiness or misery.
15 The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of material sense. On the eye’s retina, sky and tree-tops Testimony of the sensesapparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet 18and mingle. The barometer, — that little prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of the senses, — points to fair weather in the midst of murky 21clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for himself.
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. The Ptole -maic blunder could not affect the harmony of 6being as does the error relating to soul and body, which reverses the order of Science and assigns to matter the power and prerogative of Spirit, so that man becomes 9the most absolutely weak and inharmonious creature in the universe.
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.
- SH 560:10-19
Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science inter-prets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great 12True estimate of God’s messengermiracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of 15heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of any-one whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again, 18without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can never understand the divine Principle.
- SH 561:1
- SH 174:9-21
The footsteps of thought, rising above material stand-points, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller; Rise of thoughtbut the angels of His presence — the spiritual 12intuitions that tell us when “the night is far spent, the day is at hand” — are our guardians in the gloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is 15a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for gen-erations yet unborn.
The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount 18are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking in their course all error and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven on earth. Truth is revealed. It needs only to 21be practised.
From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 431: “...But by the life of Jesus taught”
Hymn 386: “When Jesus our great Master came”
Hymn 461: “...These tender words of Jesus”
