Wednesday Evening Readings
February 13, 2019
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Readings From The Bible And Science & Health With Key To The Scriptures By Mary Baker Eddy
GENESIS
2:6 … there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH
SH 245:32 (only)
The infinite never began nor will it ever end.
SH 580:21-26 (to ;)
The name Adam represents the false supposition that Life is not eternal, but has beginning and end; that the infinite enters the finite, that intelligence passes into non-intelligence, and that Soul dwells in material sense; that immortal Mind results in matter, and matter in mortal mind;
SH 585:23-26 (to ,)
Eve. A beginning; mortality; that which does not last forever; a finite belief concerning life, substance, and intelligence in matter; error; the belief that the human race originated materially instead of spiritually, …
SH 478:24-26
From beginning to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material human beliefs and of nothing else.
SH 468:27-2
Life is without beginning and without end. Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite; eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of matter.
SH 469:3
Matter is a human concept. Life is divine Mind. Life is not limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life. If Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending.
SH 331:5
If life were in mortal man or material things, it would be subject to their limitations and would end in death.
I KINGS
3:5 ¶ In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.
6 And Solomon said, …
7 … I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.
9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad:
10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.
11 And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;
12 Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart;
14 And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH
SH 244:23-24, 25-27
Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has neither birth nor death.
He does not pass from matter to Mind, from the mortal to the immortal, from evil to good, or from good to evil.
SH 245:1-13, 21-23, 25-31
The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the benefits of destroying that illusion, are illustrated in a sketch from the history of an English woman, published in the London medical magazine called The Lancet.
Disappointed in love in her early years, she became insane and lost all account of time. Believing that she was still living in the same hour which parted her from her lover, taking no note of years, she stood daily before the window watching for her lover’s coming. In this mental state she remained young. Having no consciousness of time, she literally grew no older. Some American travellers saw her when she was seventy-four, and supposed her to be a young woman.
Years had not made her old, because she had taken no cognizance of passing time nor thought of herself as growing old.
She could not age while believing herself young, for the mental state governed the physical.
Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the foregoing proves it possible to be young at seventy-four; and the primary of that illustration makes it plain that decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of nature, but an illusion.
SH 261:11-24
Under the strong impulse of a desire to perform his part, a noted actor was accustomed night after night to go upon the stage and sustain his appointed task, walking about as actively as the youngest member of the company. This old man was so lame that he hobbled every day to the theatre, and sat aching in his chair till his cue was spoken, — a signal which made him as oblivious of physical infirmity as if he had inhaled chloroform, though he was in the full possession of his so-called senses.
Detach sense from the body, or matter, which is only a form of human belief, and you may learn the meaning of God, or good, and the nature of the immutable and immortal.
SH 247:10-15
Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion form the transient standards of mortals. Immortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its own, —the radiance of Soul.
SH 310:31-32
There is neither growth, maturity, nor decay in Soul.
JOSHUA
14: 6¶ … the children of Judah came unto Joshua in Gilgal: and Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenezite said unto him…
7 Forty years old was I when Moses the servant of the Lord sent me from Kadesh–barnea to espy out the land; and I brought him word again as it was in mine heart.
9 And Moses sware on that day, saying, Surely the land whereon thy feet have trodden shall be thine inheritance, and thy children’s for ever, because thou hast wholly followed the Lord my God.
10 And now, behold, the Lord hath kept me alive, as he said, these forty and five years, even since the Lord spake this word unto Moses, while the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness: and now, lo, I am this day fourscore and five years old.
11 As yet I am as strong this day as I was in the day that Moses sent me: as my strength was then, even so is my strength now, for war, both to go out, and to come in.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH
SH 248:5-8
Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom.
SH 246:1-5, 10-11
Man is not a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and sorrow, sickness and health, life and death. Life and its faculties are not measured by calendars.
The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and gives ugliness to age.
SH 191:16-19
The human thought must free itself from self-imposed materiality and bondage. It should no longer ask of the head, heart, or lungs: What are man’s prospects for life?
GENESIS
5:9¶ … Enos lived ninety years, and begat Cainan:
10 And Enos lived after he begat Cainan eight hundred and fifteen years, and begat sons and daughters:
9:28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
29 And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years:
DEUTERONOMY
34: 7 … Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH
SH 246:17
Never record ages. Chronological data are no part of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are so many conspiracies against manhood and womanhood. Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness.
JOB
11:14 If iniquity be in thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy tabernacles.
15 For then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear:
17 And thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt be as the morning.
18 And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, … thou shalt take thy rest in safety.
20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail, and they shall not escape, and their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH
SH 266:29
Man is deathless, spiritual. He is above sin or frailty. He does not cross the barriers of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with God and the universe.
SH 244:19
If man flickers out in death or springs from matter into being, there must be an instant when God is without His entire manifestation, — when there is no full reflection of the infinite Mind.
SH 282:3
The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight line. The circle represents the infinite without beginning or end; the straight line represents the finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in a self-made and temporary material existence. Eternal Mind and temporary material existence never unite in figure or in fact.
COLOSSIANS
3:1 If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2 Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
9 … put off the old man with his deeds;
10 … put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
24 Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.
SCIENCE AND HEALTH
SH 246:27-28
Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the demonstration thereof.
SH 249:18-20
Life is, like Christ, “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.” Organization and time have nothing to do with Life.
SH 519:14
Mortals can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till, in the language of the apostle, “we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ”?
SH 305:22
In the illusion of life that is here to-day and gone to-morrow, man would be wholly mortal, were it not that Love, the divine Principle that obtains in divine Science, destroys all error and brings immortality to light. Because man is the reflection of his Maker, he is not subject to birth, growth, maturity, decay. These mortal dreams are of human origin, not divine.
SH 406:20
We can, and ultimately shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direction of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go on until we arrive at the fulness of God’s idea, and no more fear that we shall be sick and die.
SH 520:26 (only) growth
… growth is the eternal mandate of Mind.
Publications Excerpt:
“The Fallacy of Old Age”
By Myrtle A. Cash
The Christian Science Sentinel
March 29,1969
What a fallacy it is that man, made in the eternal likeness of an eternal God, can fade into old age, decrepitude, and death! Rather, the fears and illusions of the physical senses should weaken and die out as one advances in the understanding of Christian Science. In this Science the student learns that his true body, or spiritual identity, is as intact, ageless, and immortal as Life, or God. Such realization comes as a light from heaven, harmony, where Spirit reigns supreme. It brings peace, joy, health, and strength.
True followers of Christ, Truth, walk their advancing way in serenity as they rise constantly higher in the demonstration of their true, spiritual identity, expressing health and holiness in increasing measure. Journeying faithfully on with their hand in God’s, they grow daily in the confident understanding of the unchanging reality of God’s perfect creation.
Made in the likeness of Spirit, man reflects the unchanging vigor and loveliness of fadeless Life, Truth, and Love. Christ Jesus proved this to be true. If death were real, his resurrection and ascension could not have taken place. Jesus left no matter body behind him. He rose above the entire material belief of existence. He proved that in Truth the one true spiritual body, or identity, reflects the agelessness and deathlessness of God, the only cause and creator.
Man’s being is as eternal as the Mind that forms it. One who understands that man’s faculties are spiritual and grounded in Spirit, Principle, Truth, finds that his human sight remains un-dimmed and his memory and hearing intact. Because he knows that man reflects God’s goodness and wholeness, his strength is durable. He finds constant expression of his real, spiritual identity in helpfulness and kindliness.
There is but one true man, God’s ageless expression. Holding to this spiritual ideal, we will go forward in confidence.