First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California

Wednesday Meeting Readings

w251203GB
Spiritual facts are true, but not the material belief
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
The Bible
  1. Ps. 56:1 (to ;), 3-5 (to :), 6, 7 (to ?), 9-11 (to :), 12, 13

    1Be merciful unto me, O God: for man would swallow me up;

    ... 3What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

    4In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.

    5Every day they wrest my words:

    ... 6They gather themselves together, they hide themselves, they mark my steps, when they wait for my soul.

    7Shall they escape by iniquity?

    ... 9When I cry unto thee, then shall mine enemies turn back: this I know; for God is for me.

    10In God will I praise his word: in the Lord will I praise his word.

    11In God have I put my trust:

    ... 12Thy vows are upon me, O God: I will render praises unto thee.

    13For thou hast delivered my soul from death: wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling, that I may walk before God in the light of the living?

  2. Ex. 3:11, 12 (to ;)

    11And Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt?

    12And he said, Certainly I will be with thee;

  3. Ex. 4:1-4

    1And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.

    2And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.

    3And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.

    4And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:

  4. I Kings 18:41, 42 2nd And (to ;), 43-45 (to 1st .), 46 (to ;)

    41And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain.

    ... And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel;

    ... 43And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times.

    44And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.

    45And it came to pass in the mean while, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain.

    ... 46And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah;

  5. John 4:46-53

    46So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum.

    47When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judæa into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death.

    48Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.

    49The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die.

    50Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.

    51And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.

    52Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.

    53So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house.

  6. Eph. 6:10 my, 13-17, 23

    my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

    ... 13Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

    14Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

    15And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

    16Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

    17And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

    ... 23Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

  7. Heb. 11:1, 3, 8 (to ;), 10, 32-34

    1Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

    ... 3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

    ... 8By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed;

    ... 10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

    ... 32And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthæ; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:

    33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

    34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.


Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy

  1. SH 69:2-5

    The scientific fact that man and the universe 3are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease.

  2. SH 297:12 (only), 16

        Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. ... The only fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither 18scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis-solution.

  3. SH 207:27 (only)

        The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things.

  4. SH 546:23-26

        Christian Science is dawning upon a material age. 24The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine Dawning of spiritual factsin the darkness, though the darkness, com-prehending them not, may deny their reality.

  5. SH 492:3-12

    For right reasoning there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its 6unlikeness, mortality.

        Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, 9Mind one and allwill uplift the physical and moral standard of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy 12all error, and bring immortality to light.

  6. SH 428:8-12

    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.

  7. SH 295:11

    Mortals are not like immortals, 12created in God’s own image; but infinite Spirit being all, mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and 15forever intact, will appear.

  8. SH 321:6-11, 16

        The Hebrew Lawgiver, slow of speech, despaired of making the people understand what should be revealed Fear of the serpent overcometo him. When, led by wisdom to cast down his 9rod, he saw it become a serpent, Moses fled be-fore it; but wisdom bade him come back and handle the serpent, and then Moses’ fear departed. ... The illusion of Moses lost its power to alarm him, when he discovered that what he apparently saw was really 18but a phase of mortal belief.

  9. SH 493:24

    That man is material, and that mat -ter suffers, — these propositions can only seem real and natural in illusion. Any sense of soul in matter is not the 27reality of being.

  10. SH 283:13-24

        But what say prevalent theories? They insist that Life, or God, is one and the same with material life so-15called. They speak of both Truth and error as mind, and of good and evil as spirit. They claim that to be life which is but the objective state of material sense, — 18such as the structural life of the tree and of material man, — and deem this the manifestation of the one Life, God.

    21    This false belief as to what really constitutes life so detracts from God’s character and nature, that the true Spiritual structuresense of His power is lost to all who cling to 24this falsity.

  11. SH 257:6

    The theory that Spirit is not the only substance and creator is pantheistic het-erodoxy, which ultimates in sickness, sin, and death; it is 9the belief in a bodily soul and a material mind, a soul governed by the body and a mind in matter. This be-lief is shallow pantheism.

  12. SH 103:17, 20-23 (to 1st .)

    Evil is a suppositional lie.

    It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and 21is both evil and good; that evil is as real as good and more powerful. This belief has not one qual-ity of Truth.

  13. SH 222:31

    We must destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in 223 223:1matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and per-fect. Paul said, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not 3fulfil the lust of the flesh.” Sooner or later we shall learn that the fetters of man’s finite capacity are forged by the illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter 6instead of in Spirit.

  14. SH 379:9-14, 25-29 The

        A felon, on whom certain English students experi-mented, fancied himself bleeding to death, and died be-Power of imaginationcause of that belief, when only a stream of 12warm water was trickling over his arm. Had he known his sense of bleeding was an illusion, he would have risen above the false belief.

    The quickened pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, dry skin, pain in the 27Fevers the effect of fearhead and limbs, are pictures drawn on the body by a mortal mind. The images, held in this disturbed mind, frighten conscious thought.

  15. SH 546:1-5

    The false belief that spirit is now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman-3Mortality mythicalcipated from it, — this belief alone is mortal. Spirit, God, never germinates, but is “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.”

  16. SH 491:12, 21-22

    It is only by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and 15find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.

    Science reveals material man as never the real being.

  17. SH 287:22-23

        Error is false, mortal belief; it is illusion, without spir-itual identity or foundation, and it has no real existence.

  18. SH 471:13-20

        The facts of divine Science should be admitted, — although the evidence as to these facts is not supported 15by evil, by matter, or by material sense, — because the evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God’s re-18flection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirit-uality of the universe is the only fact of creation.

From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 6: “Abide not in the realm of dreams, O man, however fair it seems”
Hymn 511: “It came upon the midnight clear, That glorious song of old”
Hymn 73: “Glory, honor, praise, and pure oblations Unto God the Lord belong”