First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Luke 17:21 behold
behold, the kingdom of God is within you.
- Matt. 13:1, 24-27, 28-30 Wilt, 41, 43 (to 1st .)
1The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side.
24¶ Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:
25But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.
26But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
27So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?
... Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?
29But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.
30Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
41The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
... 43Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father.
- Prov. 24:5
5A wise man is strong; yea, a man of knowledge increaseth strength.
- Eccl. 2:26 (to :)
26For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy:
- Isa. 26:3
3Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
- Ps. 51:6, 10
6Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
... 10Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
- Mark 5:1, 2, 6-8, 13-15 2nd And (to :)
1And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes.
2And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit,
... 6But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him,
7And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not.
8For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit.
... And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea.
14And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country. And they went out to see what it was that was done.
15And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind:
- Eph. 4:22 put, 23, 24 put
put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
... put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
- I Cor. 15:53 this
this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
- Rom. 8:1, 2, 4-6, 9 ye (to 1st .)
1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
... 4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
5For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
... ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 251:15
We must learn how mankind govern the body, — whether through faith in hygiene, in drugs, or in will-Mortal mind’s disappearancepower. We should learn whether they govern 18the body through a belief in the necessity of sickness and death, sin and pardon, or govern it from the higher understanding that the divine Mind 21 makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind, 24and the healer of sin, disease, death. This process of higher spiritual understanding improves mankind until error disappears, and nothing is left which deserves to 27perish or to be punished.
- SH 209:31
Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to un-derstand God. It shows the superiority of faith by works 210 210:1over faith in words. Its ideas are expressed only in “new tongues;” and these are interpreted by the translation of 3the spiritual original into the language which human thought can comprehend.
- SH 128:11
The human 12mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowl-15edge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher 18realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.
- SH 598:23-30
One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual 24understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity. This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Sci -ence of being is understood, would bridge over with life 27discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are un-30known.
- SH 162:4-13
Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science 6Truth an alterativeacts as an alterative, neutralizing error with Truth. It changes the secretions, expels hu -mors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores 9carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.
12 Experiments have favored the fact that Mind governs the body, not in one instance, but in every instance.
- SH 297:24-28 (to 1st .)
- SH 442:19-25
An improved belief cannot retrograde. When Christ changes a belief of sin or of sickness into 21a better belief, then belief melts into spiritual understand-ing, and sin, disease, and death disappear. Christ, Truth, gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the ma-24terial, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man is clothed and fed spiritually.
- SH 332:9-11 Christ, 19 Jesus, 23-26 He, 29
Christ is the true idea voicing good, the divine message from God to men speak-The Son of Goding to the human consciousness.
Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ Holy Ghost or Comforteris the divine idea of God — the Holy Ghost, 21or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth.
He was appointed 24to speak God’s word and to appear to mortals in such Christ Jesusa form of humanity as they could understand as well as perceive. ... He expressed the highest type of 30divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age. Into the real and ideal man the fleshly element cannot enter. Thus it is that Christ illustrates the coincidence, 333 333:1or spiritual agreement, between God and man in His image.
- SH 561:16
John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life 18Divinity and humanity and its demonstration, — reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God. In divine revelation, material and corporeal self-21hood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood.
- SH xi:9
The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus’ time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their real-12ity in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works 15are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are the sign of Immanuel, or “God with us,” — a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and re-18peating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime, To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense], And recovering of sight to the blind, 21To set at liberty them that are bruised.
- SH 192:27-4
We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by follow-ing the example of our Master in the understanding of divine metaphysics. Christianity is the basis of true heal-30ing. Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power.
I was called to visit Mr. Clark in Lynn, who had been 193 193:1confined to his bed six months with hip-disease, caused by a fall upon a wooden spike when quite a boy. On enter-3Mind cures hip-diseaseing the house I met his physician, who said that the patient was dying.
- SH 193:7-8, 9-14 I (to 2nd .), 17-20, 32-9
The doctor went out. ... I went to his bedside. In a few moments his face changed; its death-pallor gave place to a natural hue. The eyelids 12closed gently and the breathing became natural; he was asleep. In about ten minutes he opened his eyes and said: “I feel like a new man. My suffering is all gone.”
I told him to rise, dress himself, and take supper with 18his family. He did so. The next day I saw him in the yard. Since then I have not seen him, but am informed that he went to work in two weeks.
It has been demonstrated to me that Life is God 194 194:1and that the might of omnipotent Spirit shares not its strength with matter or with human will. Review -3ing this brief experience, I cannot fail to discern the coincidence of the spiritual idea of man with the divine Mind.
6 A change in human belief changes all the physical symp-Change of belieftoms, and determines a case for better or for worse. When one’s false belief is corrected, 9Truth sends a report of health over the body.
- SH 207:16
- SH 300:13
The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the im-15The tares and wheatmutable and perfect. The inharmonious and self-destructive never touch the harmonious and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares 18and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Sci-ence separates the wheat from the tares, through the real-21ization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting the divine likeness.
- SH 572:19-22
- SH 573:3, 18
The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what the eye cannot see, — that which is in-visible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy 6Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the 9unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates states and stages of con-12sciousness.
Why? Because St. John’s corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was 21the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scrip-24tural authority for concluding that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men in this present state of existence, — that we can become conscious, 27here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain. This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science. Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will 30surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When you read this, remember Jesus’ words, “The kingdom of 574 574:1God is within you.” This spiritual consciousness is therefore a present possibility.
- SH 576:21-23
Hymn. 221: “O Jesus, our dear Master, Thy works now understood”
Hymn. 256: “O’er waiting harpstrings of the mind There sweeps a strain”
Hymn. 478: “From these Your children gathered in Your name”