First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Isa. 35:1 3rd the, 2, 4-6, 9
the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
2It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.
4Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
6Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.
... 9No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:
- Matt. 5:6
6Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
- Prov. 16:3, 22 (to :)
3Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.
... 22Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it:
- I Kings 18:46
46And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins, and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.
- I Kings 19:4 (to :), 5-8
4¶ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree:
... 5And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat.
6And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.
7And the angel of the Lord came again the second time, and touched him, and said, Arise and eat; because the journey is too great for thee.
8And he arose, and did eat and drink, and went in the strength of that meat forty days and forty nights unto Horeb the mount of God.
- II Kings 4:1-7, 42-44
1Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.
2And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.
3Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.
4And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.
5So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.
6And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.
7Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.
42¶ And there came a man from Baal–shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.
43And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.
44So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.
- John 6:1, 2, 26-28, 31, 32, 35 (to ;), 63 (to ;), 63 3rd the
1After these things Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.
2And a great multitude followed him, because they saw his miracles which he did on them that were diseased.
26Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled.
27Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed.
28Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
... 31Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat.
32Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
... 35And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger;
... 63It is the spirit that quickeneth; ... the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
- Phil. 4:19 my, 20
my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
20Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 331:3-6, 11 The, 18-20 He, 22
If life were in mortal man or mate-rial things, it would be subject to their limi-tations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator 6reflected in His creations.
The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From 12this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence Allness of Spiritexcept the divine Mind and His ideas. The Scriptures also declare that God is Spirit. 15Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything in God’s universe expresses Him.
He is divine Prin-ciple, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and The universal causethere is no other self-existence. ... He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and in-24dividuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all is Spirit and spiritual.
- SH 135:6-8, 17, 26
The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God’s unchangeable law.
There is to-day danger of repeating 18the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel and asking: “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” What cannot God do?
Christianity as Jesus taught it was not 27a creed, nor a system of ceremonies, nor a special gift from a ritualistic Jehovah; but it was the demonstration of divine Love casting out error and healing the sick, 30not merely in the name of Christ, or Truth, but in demon-stration of Truth, as must be the case in the cycles of divine light.
- SH 442:22-25
- SH 273:24-3
Jesus walked on the waves, fed the multitude, healed the sick, and raised the dead in direct opposition to material laws. His acts were 27the demonstration of Science, overcoming the false claims of material sense or law.
Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opin-30ions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to morals and health when it is opposed promptly and per-274274:1sistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain ex-3Material knowledge illusiveistence.
- SH 14:25-6
Entirely separate from the belief and dream of mate-rial living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual under-27standing and the consciousness of man’s dominion over the whole earth. This understanding casts out error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak 30“as one having authority.”
“When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 15 15:1 which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.”
3 So spake Jesus. The closet typifies the sanctuary of Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but Spiritual sanctuarylets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to 6error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa.
- SH 15:16-18, 21
- SH 304:16-18, 20
- SH 96:12-18, 21
This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord Arena of contestand dismay; on the other side there will be 15Science and peace. The breaking up of mate-rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new 18phases until their nothingness appears.
Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is 24changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.
- SH 409:20
The real man is 21spiritual and immortal, but the mortal and imperfect so-called “children of men” are counterfeits from the beginning, to be laid aside for the pure reality. This 24mortal is put off, and the new man or real man is put on, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of man and seek the true model.
- SH 388:12-16, 22-24
Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutri-ment of life, and there follows the necessity for another Sustenance spiritualadmission in the opposite direction, — that 15food has power to destroy Life, God, through a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity.
The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that 24God sustains manGod is our Life.
- SH 71:2
- SH 143:26-31
- SH 410:9-17
The Scriptures say, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God,” show-12ing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind objects to making this teaching practical.
Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. 15The more difficult seems the material condition to be Love casteth out fearovercome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith and the purer our love.
Hymn 75: “God comes, with succor speedy, To those who suffer wrong”
Hymn 101: “He sent His Word, His holy Word, And grieving hearts were healed”
Hymn 537: “O church of God, built on a firm foundation”