First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Matt. 15:1-3, 7-20
1Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
2Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.
3But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?
... 7Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,
8This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
9But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.
10¶ And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:
11Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.
12Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?
13But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.
14Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.
15Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.
16And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?
17Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?
18But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.
19For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
- Matt. 23:1-8, 12, 23-28
1Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,
2Saying, The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:
3All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.
4For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.
5But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,
6And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,
7And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.
8But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
... 12And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.
23Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.
24Ye blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel.
25Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.
26Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.
27Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.
28Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
- Luke 6:39
39And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch?
- Luke 14:1-15
1And it came to pass, as he went into the house of one of the chief Pharisees to eat bread on the sabbath day, that they watched him.
2And, behold, there was a certain man before him which had the dropsy.
3And Jesus answering spake unto the lawyers and Pharisees, saying, Is it lawful to heal on the sabbath day?
4And they held their peace. And he took him, and healed him, and let him go;
5And answered them, saying, Which of you shall have an ass or an ox fallen into a pit, and will not straightway pull him out on the sabbath day?
6And they could not answer him again to these things.
7¶ And he put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out the chief rooms; saying unto them,
8When thou art bidden of any man to a wedding, sit not down in the highest room; lest a more honourable man than thou be bidden of him;
9And he that bade thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place; and thou begin with shame to take the lowest room.
10But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in the lowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh, he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: then shalt thou have worship in the presence of them that sit at meat with thee.
11For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.
12¶ Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee.
13But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind:
14And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
15¶ And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God.
- Rom. 7:18-22
18For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
- II Cor. 4:1, 2, 4, 6, 15-18
1Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not;
2But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.
... 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
... 6For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
... 15For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.
16For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;
18While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 494:15 Jesus
Jesus demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the Reason and Scienceinfinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring 18human sense to flee from its own convictions and seek safety in divine Science. Reason, rightly di-rected, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but 21sin, sickness, and death will seem real (even as the ex-periences of the sleeping dream seem real) until the Sci-ence of man’s eternal harmony breaks their illusion with 24the unbroken reality of scientific being.
- SH 495:2-3
- SH 36:14-15 (np)
The earthly 15price of spirituality in a material age and the great moral distance between Christianity and sensualism preclude Christian Science from finding favor with the worldly-18minded.
A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the un-limited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as 21Righteous retributionwell as of mercy. It is quite as impossible for sinners to receive their full punishment this side of the grave as for this world to bestow on the right-24eous their full reward. It is useless to suppose that the wicked can gloat over their offences to the last moment and then be suddenly pardoned and pushed into heaven, 27or that the hand of Love is satisfied with giving us only toil, sacrifice, cross-bearing, multiplied trials, and mock-ery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing.
30Vicarious suffering Religious history repeats itself in the suf-fering of the just for the unjust. Can God therefore overlook the law of righteousness which de-3737:1stroys the belief called sin? Does not Science show that sin brings suffering as much to-day as yesterday? They 3who sin must suffer. “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
History is full of records of suffering. “The blood of 6the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Mortals try in Martyrs inevitablevain to slay Truth with the steel or the stake, but error falls only before the sword of Spirit. 9Martyrs are the human links which connect one stage with another in the history of religion. They are earth’s lumi-naries, which serve to cleanse and rarefy the atmosphere of 12material sense and to permeate humanity with purer ideals. Consciousness of right-doing brings its own reward; but not amid the smoke of battle is merit seen and appreciated 15by lookers-on.
- SH 489:13
Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de-15Decalogue disregardedmands. How then can this sense be the God-given channel to man of divine blessings or understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de-18pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing? Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time the medium for sinning against God, at another the me-21dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con-tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not forth sweet waters and bitter.
- SH 490:20-16
Human belief — or knowledge gained from the so-called 21True nature and originmaterial senses — would, by fair logic, anni-hilate man along with the dissolving elements of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the 24nature and origin of man destroy all material sense with immortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushers in the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained 27in no other way.
Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either 30Sleep an illusionoblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream. Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he 491 491:1is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable. 3Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va-lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes. 6Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears.
Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter 9Man linked with Spiritcalling itself right. Man’s spiritual individual-ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man’s Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true 12origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and 15find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.
- SH 492:3, 22-8
For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its 6unlikeness, mortality.
The notion that mind and matter commingle in the human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even-24Scientific ultimatumtually submit to the Science of Mind, which denies this notion. God is Mind, and God is infinite; hence all is Mind. On this statement rests the 27Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di-vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality.
The conservative theory, long believed, is that there 30are two factors, matter and mind, uniting on some im-possible basis. This theory would keep truth and error always at war. Victory would perch on neither banner. 493 493:1On the other hand, Christian Science speedily shows Truth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun 3Victory for Truthappears to rise and set, and the earth to stand still; but astronomical science contradicts this, and explains the solar system as working on a differ-6ent plan. All the evidence of physical sense and all the knowledge obtained from physical sense must yield to Science, to the immortal truth of all things.
- SH 494:5-9
- SH 489:24-29
The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or error. Christian Science shows them to be false, be-Organic construction valuelesscause matter has no sensation, and no organic 27construction can give it hearing and sight nor make it the medium of Mind. Outside the material sense of things, all is harmony.
Hymn 166: “Think what spirit dwells within thee”
Hymn 431: “But by the life of Jesus taught”
Hymn 163: “Jesus, what precept is like thine”