January 10, 2018
Hymns: 297, 99, 49
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THE BIBLE

PROVERBS

8:11 … wisdom is better than rubies; all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.
16:3 Commit thy works unto the Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.

I SAMUEL (New International Version)

2 A certain man in Maon…was very wealthy.
3 His name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was an intelligent and beautiful woman, but her husband was surly and mean in his dealings.
4 While David was in the wilderness, he heard that Nabal was shearing sheep.
5 So he sent ten young men and said to them, “Go up to Nabal…
6 Say to him: ‘Long life to you!
7 “‘Now I hear that it is sheep-shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them,…
8 Therefore be favorable toward my men…Please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.’”
9 When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name…
10 Nabal answered…“Who is this David?…Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days.
11 Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered and give it to men coming from who knows where?”
12 David’s men …went back (and) reported every word.
13 David said…“strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David,…
14 One of the servants told Abigail, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.
15 Yet these men were very good to us…
17 see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
18 Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.
19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.” But she did not tell her husband Nabal.
20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down with her face to the ground.
24 …and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord…
25 Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent.
26 And now, my lord…since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal.
27 And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you.
28 “Please forgive your servant’s presumption…
30 When the Lord has fulfilled for my lord every good thing he promised concerning him and has appointed him ruler over Israel,…
31 my lord will not have on his conscience the staggering burden of needless bloodshed or of having avenged himself. And when the Lord your God has brought my lord success, remember your servant.”
32 David said to Abigail, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, who has sent you today to meet me.
33 May you be blessed for your good judgment and for keeping me from bloodshed this day and from avenging myself with my own hands.
34 Otherwise, as surely as the Lord, the God of Israel, lives, who has kept me from harming you, if you had not come quickly to meet me, not one male belonging to Nabal would have been left alive by daybreak.”
35 Then David accepted from her hand what she had brought him and said, “Go home in peace. I have heard your words and granted your request.”
36 When Abigail went to Nabal, he was in the house holding a banquet like that of a king. He was in high spirits and very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until daybreak.
37 Then in the morning, when Nabal was sober, his wife told him all these things, and his heart failed him and he became like a stone.
38 About ten days later, the Lord struck Nabal and he died.
39 When David heard that Nabal was dead…he sent word to Abigail, asking her to become his wife.
42 Abigail quickly …went with David’s messengers and became his wife.

PROVERBS

4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

LUKE

4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee
16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.

17 And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
20 And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
21 And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
22…And they said, Is not this Joseph’s son?
24 And he said, Verily I say unto you, No prophet is accepted in his own country.
28 And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
29 And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.
30 But he passing through the midst of them went his way,

PHILIPPIANS

2:5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus…
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

MARK

4:35 … when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.
36 And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships.
37 And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full.
38 And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish?
39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
40 And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?

PSALMS

91:1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

ACTS

22 …behold, I go bound in the spirit into Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
24 But none of these things move me,

SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES
By Mary Baker Eddy
SH 306:25-29

Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle, — is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal.

SH 563:1-7

Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense, harmony is the real and discord the unreal. We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and death. We may well be perplexed at human fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?

SH 366:25-29

The sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is God and God is All.

SH 513:26-6

God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind — being non-existent and consequently not within the range of immortal existence — could not by simulating deific power invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate persons or things upon its own plane, since nothing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive infinity, in which and of which God is the sole creator.

SH 514:10-14

Moral courage is “the lion of the tribe of Juda,” the king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open field, or rests in “green pastures, . . . beside the still waters”

SH 134:26

Jesus said: “I knew that Thou hearest me always;” and he raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There is divine authority for believing in the superiority of spiritual power over material resistance.

SH 495:19

When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious — as Life eternally is — can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence discord with harmony.

SH 99:23

The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God’s spiritual, perfect man.

SH 442:30-32

Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake.

SH 506:11-12

The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS
“Poise Precludes Pressure”
By Olivia P. Whittaker
Christian Science Sentinel, August 1968
…Christ Jesus proved the power of poise over and over again…Just think of what that calmness really meant… It was the tranquility of true being…It was Mind’s revelation of its own unassailable presence…Are we reacting to the outwardly apparent storms of evil that would press upon us today and rob us of our poise? Are we letting seemingly impenetrable clouds of self-will or self-pity mesmerize us with a burdened sense of responsibility? Are we allowing our thought to be tossed about by winds of hate or waves of fear? Are we admitting that world tension with its foaming billows of unrest can oppress us? Let us then remember the Christly rebuke, “Peace, be still.” Let us humbly acknowledge the one undisturbed Mind as the only presence or power there really is and accept this Mind as the Mind of all. As we do, the pressures in our experience will begin to give way, and we shall begin to feel the same “great calm” that quieted the Galilean Sea. Then we shall find our true poise appearing.
“Poise”
By Elizabeth Perkins
Christian Science Sentinel – April 1944
Poise in bearing and demeanor is the outward sign of properly balanced thought. Spiritual poise is the result of maintaining thought at one with the divine Mind. This poise is never thrown out of balance by the arguments of error or mortal mind, nor does it fall from the standard of Spirit and sink beneath the waves of matter. Such a condition of thought can be continually maintained only as the result of understanding God and perceiving what is the divine model.
…Christ Jesus’ calm courage and great confidence were evidenced when his fearful disciples awakened him in the midst of the storm. He did not become fearful too but, turning away from the evidence of the senses, was able to prove the omnipresence of the peace which God confers. On these and many other occasions Jesus proved his mastery over matter. He was able to do this because he was ever conscious of his oneness with God…
Since poise, like all spiritual qualities, emanates from divine Mind, we express it as we learn more of God through the study of Christian Science…Jesus overcame every attack of error, even death itself, and through it maintained a calm and steadfast bearing…Mrs. Eddy was able to meet attacks of error and establish a religion and found a great organization to protect it…
The commonest weapon used by the carnal mind against our composure is fear, but in Science we learn that fear is really powerless because God is all-power, all-presence, and all-knowledge. Fear would make us apprehensive of the future…But in the light of Christian Science our fears are seen to be a denial of God’s omnipotence, a belief in an existence apart from Him…
…As students of Christian Science we must silence all erroneous arguments, and so maintain our spiritual balance that we may bear steady witness to the truth which has been revealed to us… In conscious unity with our Father-Mother God, do we find the recipe for poise.