First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Ps. 88:1-3 (to :)
1O Lord God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before thee:
2Let my prayer come before thee: incline thine ear unto my cry;
3For my soul is full of troubles:
- Ps. 89:1, 2, 8, 9
1I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
2For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
... 8O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?
9Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.
- Deut. 30:3 the (to 2nd ,), 8, 9 (to 5th ,), 10, 11, 14 (to 3rd ,), 15, 16 (to :), 19, 20 (to 2nd :)
the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee,
... 8And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
9And the Lord thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the Lord will again rejoice over thee for good,
... 10If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul.
11¶ For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.
14But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart,
15¶ See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil;
16In that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply:
... 19I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:
20That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days:
- Luke 4:14-18 Jesus
Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.
15And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
16¶ And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.
17And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
- Luke 12:1-3, 6, 7
1In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
3Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
... 6Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God?
7But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.
- Rom. 8:1, 2, 14-17 (to 2nd ;), 24-28, 38, 39
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.
... 14For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
15For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
16The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
17And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
... 24For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
25But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
26Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
27And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
28And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
... 38For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 2:23 (only, to ?)
God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more?
- SH 3:4
Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The 6The spiritual mathematicsrule is already established, and it is our task to work out the solution. Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own 9work? His work is done, and we have only to avail ourselves of God’s rule in order to receive His bless-ing, which enables us to work out our own salvation.
- SH 14:25-13
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. The Father in secret is unseen to the physical senses, but He knows all things and rewards according to 9motives, not according to speech. To enter into the heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, 12that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine Principle, Love, which destroys all error.
- SH 317:11
- SH 259:6-21
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.
15 If man was once perfect but has now lost his perfection, then mortals have never beheld in man the reflex image The divine image not lostof God. The lost image is no image. The 18true likeness cannot be lost in divine reflection. Understanding this, Jesus said: “Be ye there -fore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is 21perfect.”
- SH 275:1 (only), 6-19
Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies. ... The starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might nor Mind, — that God is Love, and therefore He 9 is divine Principle.
To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle 12Divine synonyms of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one, — and are the Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, im-15mortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His 18 wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.
- SH 304:3, 17-18, 20
It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and good-Man inseparable from Loveness. Understanding this, Paul said: “Nei-6ther death, nor life, . . . nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from 9the love of God.” This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into 12sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death. The perfect man — governed 15by God, his perfect Principle — is sinless and eternal.
Divine Principle is the Life 18Harmony natural of man. ... Harmony in man is as beautiful 21as in music, and discord is unnatural, unreal.
- SH 475:5-22
Question. — What is man?
6Answer. — Man is not matter; he is not made up of brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The Fleshly factors unrealScriptures inform us that man is made in 9the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit. 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.
- SH 522:10
- SH 532:3 God
- SH 539:10-12, 27-30
- SH 487:3-6, 27
Hymn. 3: “A grateful heart a garden is Where there is always room”
Hymn. 278: “Pilgrim on earth, home and heaven are within thee”
Hymn. 517: “Joyfully we’re singing of our dear God’s grace”