First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Isa. 2:2 it (to ;), 3
it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills;
... 3And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
- Isa. 54:2, 3, 11 behold, 12, 17
2Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;
3For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.
behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.
12And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.
17¶ No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.
- John 4:23 the, 24
the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
- Mark 1:21, 23-28
21And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue, and taught.
... 23And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out,
24Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.
25And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace, and come out of him.
26And when the unclean spirit had torn him, and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him.
27And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.
28And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.
- Matt. 16:5-18 when
when his disciples were come to the other side, they had forgotten to take bread.
6¶ Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
7And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have taken no bread.
8Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves, because ye have brought no bread?
9Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
10Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets ye took up?
11How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
12Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
13¶ When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?
14And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.
15He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am?
16And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar–jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
- I Pet. 3:8, 13, 15
8Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:
... 13And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?
... 15But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
- I Pet. 2:1, 2, 5, 6, 7 the, 9
1Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
2As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
... 5Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
... the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
... 9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 583:12
- SH 140:20
- SH 136:1-6, 11-14
Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught 3The Christ-missionhis followers that his religion had a divine Principle, which would cast out error and heal both the sick and the sinning. He claimed no intelli-6gence, action, nor life separate from God.
He appealed to his students: “Whom do 12men say that I, the Son of man, am?” That is: Who or what is it that is thus identified with casting out evils and healing the sick?
- SH 137:16-18, 21-9
With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: “Thou 18A divine responseart the Christ, the Son of the living God!” ... This assertion elicited from Jesus the benediction, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 24but my Father which is in heaven;” that is, Love hath shown thee the way of Life!
Before this the impetuous disciple had been called 27only by his common names, Simon Bar-jona, or son of The true and living rockJona; but now the Master gave him a spir-itual name in these words: “And I say also 30unto thee, That thou art Peter; and upon this rock [the meaning of the Greek word petros, or stone] I will build my church; and the gates of hell [hades, the under-138138:1world, or the grave] shall not prevail against it.” In other words, Jesus purposed founding his society, not 3on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God-power which lay behind Peter’s confession of the true Messiah.
6 It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the Sublime summarysick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm 9of harmony.
- SH 465:17-1 Principle
- SH 35:19-20 2nd Our
- SH 331:18-22 God, 26-27 Life
God is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Prin-ciple, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and The universal causethere is no other self-existence. He is all-21inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real and eternal and by nothing else.
Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person 27 called God, — that is, the triply divine Principle, Love.
- SH 583:14
The Church is that institution, which affords proof of 15its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the dormant understanding from material beliefs to the ap-prehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of 18divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and healing the sick.
- SH 110:25-26, 30
- SH 274:12-13, 23-26, 30
The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demon-strate Truth and Life.
Divine Science is absolute, and permits no half-way 24position in learning its Principle and rule — establishing Impossible partnershipit by demonstration. The conventional firm, called matter and mind, God never formed. ... This suppositional partner-ship is already obsolete, for matter, examined in the light of divine metaphysics, disappears.
- SH 95:30-32
- SH 243:25
- SH 275:20, 31
Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understand-21ing, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is The divine completenessGod, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — that is, all power, all presence, all Science. 24Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.
Truth, spiritually discerned, is scientifically understood. It casts out error and heals the sick.
- SH 200:16
- SH 303:16
- SH 275:6-12, 14-15, 17
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. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, im-15mortality, cause, and effect belong to God. ... 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 336:14-15
- SH 393:16-18
- SH 240:10-11
- SH 135:26
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.
Hymn 537: “O church of God, built on a firm foundation”
Hymn 290: “Press on, press on, ye sons of light, Untiring in your holy fight”
Hymn 176: “Long hast thou stood, O church of God, Long mid the tempest's assailing”