First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- John 2:13-22 Jesus
Jesus went up to Jerusalem,
14And found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting:
15And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables;
16And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.
17And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.
18¶ Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
19Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
20Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
21But he spake of the temple of his body.
22When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said.
- John 3:1-16
1There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
11Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
12If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
13And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
14¶ And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
15That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
16¶ For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
- Acts 9:32-41 it
it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.
33And there he found a certain man named Æneas, which had kept his bed eight years, and was sick of the palsy.
34And Peter said unto him, Æneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately.
35And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord.
36¶ Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas: this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.
37And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber.
38And forasmuch as Lydda was nigh to Joppa, and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them.
39Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and shewing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them.
40But Peter put them all forth, and kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up.
41And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up, and when he had called the saints and widows, presented her alive.
- I John 1:1-5
1That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
2(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)
3That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ.
4And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full.
5This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
- I John 2:5 whoso, 17, 24, 25
whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
... 17And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
... 24Let that therefore abide in you, which ye have heard from the beginning. If that which ye have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.
25And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 46:13-7
The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit, and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses 15Corporeality and Spiritthat his body was not changed until he himself ascended, — or, in other words, rose even higher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince 18Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail-prints and the spear-wound.
Jesus’ unchanged physical condition after what seemed 21to be death was followed by his exaltation above all ma-Spiritual ascensionterial conditions; and this exaltation explained his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a 24probationary and progressive state beyond the grave. Jesus was “the way;” that is, he marked the way for all men. In his final demonstration, called the ascen-27sion, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he rose above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the material senses saw him no more.
30 His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Sci-4747:1ence, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment of Jesus’ teachings and demonstrations, which gave them 3Pentecostal powera faint conception of the Life which is God. They no longer measured man by material sense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master, 6they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter, but on the divine Principle of their work.
- SH 77:5-6, 9-11, 13-5
Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense 6until the Science of being is reached. ... Death will occur on the next plane of existence as on this, until the spiritual understanding of Life is reached.
The period required for this dream of material life, embracing its so-called pleasures and pains, to vanish 15A dream vanishingfrom consciousness, “knoweth no man . . . neither the Son, but the Father.” This period will be of longer or shorter duration according to the 18tenacity of error. Of what advantage, then, would it be to us, or to the departed, to prolong the material state and so prolong the illusion either of a soul inert or of a sinning, 21suffering sense, — a so-called mind fettered to matter.
Even if communications from spirits to mortal con-sciousness were possible, such communications would 24Progress and purgatorygrow beautifully less with every advanced stage of existence. The departed would gradually rise above ignorance and materiality, and Spiritualists 27would outgrow their beliefs in material spiritualism. Spiritism consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling that of blighted buds, — to a wretched purgatory, where 30the chances of the departed for improvement narrow into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of matter.
7878:1 The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak, the ferocious beast, — like the discords of disease, sin, 3Unnatural deflectionsand death, — are unnatural. They are the fal-sities of sense, the changing deflections of mor-tal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind.
- SH 91:16-8
Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of 18material selfhood aids the discernment of man’s spirit-ual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed 21the material senses.
Certain erroneous postulates should be here considered Erroneous postulatesin order that the spiritual facts may be better 24apprehended.
The first erroneous postulate of belief is, that substance, life, and intelligence are something apart from God.
27 The second erroneous postulate is, that man is both mental and material.
The third erroneous postulate is, that mind is both evil 30and good; whereas the real Mind cannot be evil nor the medium of evil, for Mind is God.
The fourth erroneous postulate is, that matter is in-9292:1telligent, and that man has a material body which is part of himself.
3 The fifth erroneous postulate is, that matter holds in itself the issues of life and death, — that matter is not only capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, but also 6capable of imparting these sensations. From the illusion implied in this last postulate arises the decomposition of mortal bodies in what is termed death.
- SH 251:8-11
- SH 289:14-30
The fact that the Christ, or Truth, overcame and still 15overcomes death proves the “king of terrors” to be but Death but an illusiona mortal belief, or error, which Truth destroys with the spiritual evidences of Life; and this 18shows that what appears to the senses to be death is but a mortal illusion, for to the real man and the real universe there is no death-process.
21 The belief that matter has life results, by the universal law of mortal mind, in a belief in death. So man, tree, and flower are supposed to die; but the fact remains, 24that God’s universe is spiritual and immortal.
The spiritual fact and the material belief of things are contradictions; but the spiritual is true, and therefore the 27Spiritual offspringmaterial must be untrue. Life is not in matter. Therefore it cannot be said to pass out of mat -ter. Matter and death are mortal illusions. Spirit and 30all things spiritual are the real and eternal.
- SH 427:29-14
The dream of death must 30be mastered by Mind here or hereafter. Thought will waken from its own material declaration, “I am dead,” to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, “There 428 428:1is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor reaction.”
3 Life is real, and death is the illusion. A demonstra-tion of the facts of Soul in Jesus’ way resolves the dark Vision openingvisions of material sense into harmony and 6immortality. Man’s privilege at this supreme moment is to prove the words of our Master: “If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.” To divest 9thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear, — this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep 12away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, “whose builder and maker is God.”
- SH 428:22, 32-4
The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We must hold 24The present immortalityforever the consciousness of existence, and sooner or later, through Christ and Christian Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence 27of man’s immortality will become more apparent, as ma-terial beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being are admitted.
It is a sin to believe 429 429:1that aught can overpower omnipotent and eternal Life, and this Life must be brought to light by the understand-3Careful guidanceing that there is no death, as well as by other graces of Spirit.
Hymn 135: “I know no life divided, O Lord of life, from Thee”
Hymn 429: “Thou art the Way, the Truth, the Life”
Hymn 436: “...Life is eternal, infinite light”