First Church of Christ, Scientist, La Cañada Flintridge, California
Wednesday Meeting Readings
- Ex. 23:20
20¶ Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
- Gen. 28:10-13 (to :), 15, 16
10¶ And Jacob went out from Beer–sheba, and went toward Haran.
11And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night, because the sun was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
12And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
13And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac:
... 15And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.
16¶ And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not.
- Ps. 8:4, 5
4What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
5For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
- Ps. 91:9-12
9Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
- Dan. 8:15, 16
15¶ And it came to pass, when I, even I Daniel, had seen the vision, and sought for the meaning, then, behold, there stood before me as the appearance of a man.
16And I heard a man’s voice between the banks of Ulai, which called, and said, Gabriel, make this man to understand the vision.
- Dan. 9:4 (to 1st ,), 21-23 whiles (to ;)
4And I prayed unto the Lord my God,
whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.
22And he informed me, and talked with me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill and understanding.
23At the beginning of thy supplications the commandment came forth, and I am come to shew thee;
- Dan. 10:11 O (to 1st .), 12 Fear, 19 peace, 20 (to 1st ,), 21 I (to :)
O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent.
... Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
... peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.
20Then said he,
... I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth:
- Matt. 4:1-11
1Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
2And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.
3And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
4But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
8Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
9And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
10Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
11Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.
- Rev. 12:7-10
7And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,
8And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
9And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.
10And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.
- Heb. 13:2
2Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
- SH 581:4
- SH 174:6-16
Nothing save divine power is capable of doing so much for man as he can do for himself.
9 The footsteps of thought, rising above material stand-points, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller; Rise of thoughtbut the angels of His presence — the spiritual 12intuitions that tell us when “the night is far spent, the day is at hand” — are our guardians in the gloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is 15a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for gen-erations yet unborn.
- SH 299:7
My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried 9Our angelic messengersits fondest earthly hopes. With white fin-gers they point upward to a new and glo-rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels 12are God’s representatives. These upward-soaring beings never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi-15viduality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us, and we entertain “angels unawares.”
- SH 298:25-1
Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial 27Thought-angelsvisitants, flying on spiritual, not material, pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God, winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi-30vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious out-lines, making them human creatures with suggestive 299 299:1feathers; but this is only fancy.
- SH 372:14-17, 18
When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely, 15he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject Veritable successto matter, nor disobey the law of God. There-fore he will be as the angels in heaven. ... How, then, in Christianity any more than in Christian Science, can we believe in the reality and power of both Truth and error, 21Spirit and matter, and hope to succeed with contraries? Matter is not self-sustaining. Its false supports fail one after another. Matter succeeds for a period only by 24falsely parading in the vestments of law.
- SH 512:8, 20-25
Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, 9and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an-Seraphic symbolsgels of His presence, which have the holiest charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of 12Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character-istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do know that their natures are allied to God’s nature; and 15spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.
Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and 21perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the one Multiplication of pure ideasMind emanate all form, color, quality, and quantity, and these are mental, both primarily 24and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only through the spiritual senses.
- SH 548:5-6, 13
In this Science, we dis-6cover man in the image and likeness of God.
Every agony of mortal error helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension 15of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.
- SH 566:29
The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God’s divine 30Angelic officesmessages, different offices. Michael’s charac-teristic is spiritual strength. He leads the hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and 567 567:1fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering 3Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through 6the understanding of God. The Gabriel of His presence has no contests. To infinite, ever-present Love, all is Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death. 9Against Love, the dragon warreth not long, for he is killed by the divine Principle. Truth and Love prevail against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with 12them. Thus endeth the conflict between the flesh and Spirit.
- SH 567:18-5
That false claim — that ancient belief, that old serpent whose name is devil (evil), claiming that there is intelli-Dragon cast down to earthgence in matter either to benefit or to injure 21men — is pure delusion, the red dragon; and it is cast out by Christ, Truth, the spiritual idea, and so proved to be powerless. The words “cast 24unto the earth” show the dragon to be nothingness, dust to dust; and therefore, in his pretence of being a talker, he must be a lie from the beginning. His angels, or mes-27sages, are cast out with their author. The beast and the false prophets are lust and hypocrisy. These wolves in sheep’s clothing are detected and killed by innocence, the 30Lamb of Love.
Divine Science shows how the Lamb slays the wolf. 568 568:1Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error. Ever since the foundation of the world, ever since error would 3Warfare with errorestablish material belief, evil has tried to slay the Lamb; but Science is able to destroy this lie, called evil.
- SH 568:24-30
For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and mag-nify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty Pæan of jubileeconquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter 27than has ever before reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her 30primal and everlasting strain.
From the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 9: “…God's angels ever come and go, All winged with light and love”
Hymn 598: “Where you're going, Love will lead you, Where you're walking, Love will guide”
Hymn 272: “Our God shall reign where'er the sun Does his successive journeys run”