First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Ps. 37:1-9, 18, 23-28 (to :), 30, 31, 37
1Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity.
2For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb.
3Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.
4Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
5Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.
6And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday.
7Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass.
8Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil.
9For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the Lord, they shall inherit the earth.
... 18The Lord knoweth the days of the upright: and their inheritance shall be for ever.
... 23The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord: and he delighteth in his way.
24Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the Lord upholdeth him with his hand.
25I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.
26He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.
27Depart from evil, and do good; and dwell for evermore.
28For the Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints; they are preserved for ever:
... 30The mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom, and his tongue talketh of judgment.
31The law of his God is in his heart; none of his steps shall slide.
... 37Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
- Gal. 3:26-28
26For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
27For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
- John 4:1-7, 9-21, 23-30 the, 39-42
1When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John,
2(Though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples,)
3He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee.
4And he must needs go through Samaria.
5Then cometh he to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well: and it was about the sixth hour.
7There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water: Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink.
... 9Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water?
12Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and his children, and his cattle?
13Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:
14But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
15The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.
16Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.
17The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:
18For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.
19The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.
21Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
... the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.
26Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.
27¶ And upon this came his disciples, and marvelled that he talked with the woman: yet no man said, What seekest thou? or, Why talkest thou with her?
28The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men,
29Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?
30Then they went out of the city, and came unto him.
39¶ And many of the Samaritans of that city believed on him for the saying of the woman, which testified, He told me all that ever I did.
40So when the Samaritans were come unto him, they besought him that he would tarry with them: and he abode there two days.
41And many more believed because of his own word;
42And said unto the woman, Now we believe, not because of thy saying: for we have heard him ourselves, and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world.
- Col. 3:1, 2, 9-11, 15 (to ,)
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.
... 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.
... 15And let the peace of God rule in your hearts,
- SH 476:28-5
When speaking of God’s children, not the children of men, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you;” 30The kingdom withinthat is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God’s image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the per-477477:1fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour 3saw God’s own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.
- SH 477:13-17
- SH 115:12-16
- SH 591:5, 16-19 (to ;)
- SH 475:5, 11, 28-1 The (to 1st .)
Question. — What is man?
Man is spiritual and perfect; and be-12cause he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so under-stood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of 15God, including all right ideas; the generic term for all that reflects God’s image and likeness; the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is 18the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; that which has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which 21possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.
The Man unfallenreal man cannot depart from holiness, nor 30can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not 476 476:1God’s man.
- SH 476:4, 9-10
- SH 470:21-24, 32
God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, Indestructible relationshipman, remains perfect. Man is the expression 24of God’s being.
The relations of God and man, divine Principle and 471 471:1idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine 3order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He cre-ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history.
- SH 471:13-18
- SH 84:28-14
All we correctly know of Spirit comes from God, divine Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian 30Scientific foreknowingScience. If this Science has been thoroughly learned and properly digested, we can know the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read 85 85:1the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of 3the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the ca-pacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the 6divine Mind.
Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and per-petuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not 9Value of intuitionevil. You will reach the perfect Science of healing when you are able to read the human mind after this manner and discern the error you would 12destroy. The Samaritan woman said: “Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?”
- SH 85:23-24
- SH 258:19-14
The infinite Principle is reflected by the infinite idea and spiritual individuality, but the material so-called senses 21have no cognizance of either Principle or its idea. The human capacities are enlarged and perfected in propor-tion as humanity gains the true conception of man and 24God.
Mortals have a very imperfect sense of the spiritual man and of the infinite range of his thought. To him 27Individual permanencybelongs eternal Life. Never born and never dying, it were impossible for man, under the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his 30high estate.
Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in Science the 259 259:1generic term man. Man is not absorbed in Deity, and God’s man discernedman cannot lose his individuality, for he re-3flects eternal Life; nor is he an isolated, soli-tary idea, for he represents infinite Mind, the sum of all substance.
6 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.
From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 370: “...We behold the perfect man”
Hymn 12: “...Man pure and upright, whole and free”
Hymn 406: “O Light, in Thy light we can see That man is ever one with Thee”
