First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Gen. 1:1-3
1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
- Ps. 143:1 (to :), 8, 10
1Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications:
... 8Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.
... 10Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.
- Ps. 144:3
3Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him!
- Ps. 146:3, 5-7 (to 1st :), 8, 10 (to 1st .)
3Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
... 5Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his God:
6Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:
7Which executeth judgment for the oppressed:
... 8The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind: the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down: the Lord loveth the righteous:
... 10The Lord shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, unto all generations.
- Isa. 26:1-4 We
We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
2Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
3Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
4Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
- Matt. 16:24
24¶ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
- John 3:1-8, 14 as, 17 God
1There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
- John 9:1-3, 5-7, 18, 39 (to ;)
1And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
2And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?
3Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
... 5As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
6When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay,
7And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way therefore, and washed, and came seeing.
18But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind, and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight.
39¶ And Jesus said, For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see;
- Gal. 5:1, 7, 9, 10 (to :), 13, 16-18, 24 they, 25
1Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
... 7Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
... 9A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
10I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded:
... 13For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
... 16This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
... they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 503:9-11
- SH 467:17-32
Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and 18God as not in man but as reflected by man. The greater Soul not confined in bodycannot be in the lesser. The belief that the greater can be in the lesser is an error that 21works ill. This is a leading point in the Science of Soul, that Principle is not in its idea. Spirit, Soul, is not confined in man, and is never in matter. We reason im-24perfectly from effect to cause, when we conclude that matter is the effect of Spirit; but a priori reasoning shows material existence to be enigmatical. Spirit gives 27the true mental idea. We cannot interpret Spirit, Mind, through matter. Matter neither sees, hears, nor feels.
Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, 30Sinlessness of Mind, Soulwe begin with Mind, which must be under-stood through the idea which expresses it and cannot be learned from its opposite, matter.
- SH 469:1-5 (to 1st .)
- SH 480:1-5, 12-16, 26-29, 31-32
When the substance of Spirit appears in Christian Sci-ence, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where 3the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is not, evil becomes nothing, — the opposite of the some-thing of Spirit.
Material sense has its realm apart from Science in the unreal. Harmonious action proceeds from Spirit, God. Inharmony has no 15Principle; its action is erroneous and presupposes man to be in matter.
The Bible declares: “All things were made by Him 27 [the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything Vapor and nothingnessmade that was made.” This is the eternal verity of divine Science. ... As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would vanish before the reality of good.
- SH 485:4-7, 19-24, 30
Science declares that Mind, not matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts 6this statement is the false sense, which ever betrays mortals into sickness, sin, and death.
The belief that life can be in matter or soul in body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg, 21is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth, destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in which man is perfect, even as the “Father which is in heaven 24is perfect.”
To say that strength is in matter, is like saying that the power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli-486486:1gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned 3falsehood’s true nature.
- SH 225:8
- SH 292:13
- SH 30:19
As the individual ideal of Truth, Christ Jesus came to rebuke rabbinical error and all sin, sickness, and death, — 21Rebukes helpfulto point out the way of Truth and Life. This ideal was demonstrated throughout the whole earthly career of Jesus, showing the difference between 24the offspring of Soul and of material sense, of Truth and of error.
- SH 289:2, 21-27 (to 2nd .), 31
Mortal man can never rise from the temporal débris 3 of error, belief in sin, sickness, and death, until he learns that God is the only Life. The belief that life and sensa-tion are in the body should be overcome by the under-6standing of what constitutes man as the image of God. Then Spirit will have overcome the flesh.
The belief that matter has life results, by the universal law of mortal mind, in a belief in death. So man, tree, and flower are supposed to die; but the fact remains, 24that God’s universe is spiritual and immortal.
The spiritual fact and the material belief of things are contradictions; but the spiritual is true, and therefore the 27Spiritual offspringmaterial must be untrue. Life is not in matter.
Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, — of Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be 290 290:1eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I am, the Be-ing who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase.
- SH 224:22-25
- SH 288:31-1
- SH 492:7-11
- SH 491:21-22
- SH 468:21
Hymn 354: “…The work to be performed is ours, The strength is all His own”
Hymn 482: “…Spirit made us knowing who we truly are”
Hymn 565: “Rise up and walk, take up your bed”