Wednesday Bible Readings

September 25th, 2024

From The Bible

John 1:1 (to 1st ,), 1 2nd and, 3–5

In the beginning was the Word, ... and the Word was God. … All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. 

Isa. 56:1 (to 1st ,)

Thus saith the Lord, ...

Isa. 55:8 my (to 2nd ,), 9

... my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, ...For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 

Eccl. 1:2 (to 2nd ,), 2 all; 2:4, 5 (to ,), 11

Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, ... all is vanity. ...I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards: I made me gardens and orchards, ...Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun. 

Eccl. 7:29

Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions. 

Gen. 3:1 (to .), 2 (to ,), 3–5 of, 23 (to ,)

Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. ...And the woman said unto the serpent, ...
... of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. ...Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, ...

Gen. 10:1 (to 1st ,); 11:1, 4 (to 4th ,), 5, 6 (to 2nd ,), 6 now, 7 let (to 3rd ,), 8, 9 (to ;)

Now these are the generations of the sons of Noah, ... And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. ...And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, ...And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, ... now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. ... let us go down, and there confound their language, ...So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; ...

Jer. 9:23, 24 (to :)

¶ Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty manglory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: ...

Job 3:2, 3

And Job spake, and said, Let the day perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, There is a man child conceived. 

Job 38:1–4, 36; 42:1, 2, 5

Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. ...Who hath put wisdom in the inward parts? or who hath given understanding to the heart? … Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. … I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. 

Prov. 2:6

For the Lord giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding. 

Ps. 18:28 the

... the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness. 

II Cor. 4:6

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to givethe light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

Matt. 5:1 (to 1st :), 2 2nd and; 6:22, 23 (to .), 24 Ye

And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: ... and taught them, saying, ...The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. ...
... Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 

John 8:12

¶ Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. 

John 7:14–16

¶ Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. 

John 5:19 Verily, 30 (to 1st :)

... Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. ...

I can of mine own self do nothing: ...

Ps. 118:27 (to :)

God is the Lord, which hath shewed us light: ...

Rom. 11:33

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! 

I Cor. 1:20 (to 1st ?), 20 3rd where

Where is the wise? ... where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? 

I Cor. 2:16

For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

SH 525:17–20, 22–25 (to ;)

In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were made through the Word of God, “and without Him [the logos, or word] was not anything made that was made.” ... In the Science of Genesis we read that He saw everything which He had made, “and, behold, it was very good.” The corporeal senses declare otherwise; ...

SH 92:11–16

In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve. This represents the serpent in the act of commending to our first parents the knowledge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter, or evil, instead of from Spirit. 

SH 529:21–23

Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the metaphor only as evil. 

SH 481:12–15

The forbidden fruit of knowledge, against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death, and good and evil to be capable of commingling. 

SH 306:32–2

The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter. 

SH 170:32

Matter, which takes divine power into its own hands and claims to be a creator, is a fiction, in which paganism and lust are so sanctioned by society that mankind has caught their moral contagion. 

SH 534:18–20

Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: “The carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 

SH 583:20–21 (to ;), 23 the

Creator. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating divine Principle of all that is real and good; ... the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Principle; God, who made all that was made and could not create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself. 

SH 469:7–8 (to .), 9

Question. — What is intelligence? 
Answer. ... It is the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, — Life, Truth, and Love, — named God. 

SH 256:6–7

Mind, not matter, is the creator. 

SH 287:24–25

The supposition that life, substance, and intelligence are in matter, or of it, is an error. 

SH 269:29–5; 270:7

The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter; (2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life. The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist and cooperate. One only of the following statements can be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that everything is Mind. Which one is it? …. Matter and Mind are opposites. ... If one is real, the other must be unreal. Only by understanding that there is but one power, — not two powers, matter and Mind, — are scientific and logical conclusions reached. Few deny the hypothesis that intelligence, apart from man and matter, governs the universe; and it is generally admitted that this intelligence is the eternal Mind or divine Principle, Love. 

SH 249:32

We run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind, then mind to be in matter and matter to be a lawgiver, unintelligence to act like intelligence, and mortality to be the matrix of immortality. 

SH 192:1

The belief that a pulpy substance under the skull is mind is a mockery of intelligence, a mimicry of Mind. 

SH 478:20–23, 24–27

How can intelligence dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the functions of Mind. ... From beginning to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material human beliefs and of nothing else. That only is real which reflects God. 

SH 78:24

God is not in the medley where matter cares for matter, where spiritism makes many gods, and hypnotism and electricity are claimed to be the agents of God’s government. 

SH 450:29–2

Knowing the claim of animal magnetism, that all evil combines in the belief of life, substance, and intelligence in matter, electricity, animal nature, and organic life, who will deny that these are the errors which Truth must and will annihilate? 

SH 171:25–27

The so-called laws of matter are nothing but false beliefs that intelligence and life are present where Mind is not. 

SH 263:1, 20

Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to be independent workers, personal authors, and even privileged originators of something which Deity would not or could not create. The creations of mortal mind are material. Immortal spiritual man alone represents the truth of creation. ...There can be but one creator, who has created all. Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery of some distant idea of Truth; else it is a new multiplication or self-division of mortal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the infinite. 

SH 581:17–22

Babel. Self-destroying error; a kingdom divided against itself, which cannot stand; material knowledge. The higher false knowledge builds on the basis of evidence obtained from the five corporeal senses, the more confusion ensues, and the more certain is the downfall of its structure. 

SH 124:3–4 (to 2nd ,), 7–9 (to ,), 11–12

Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge, — a law of mortal mind, a blind belief, ... Having neither moral might, spiritual basis, nor holy Principle of its own, this belief mistakes effect for cause and seeks to find life and intelligence in matter, ... In a word, human belief is a blind conclusion from material reasoning. 

SH 567:18 (only, to ,), 19–21 claiming (to ,), 21–23 and

That false claim — that ancient belief, ... claiming that there is intelligence in matter either to benefit or to injure men — is pure delusion, ... and it is cast out by Christ, Truth, the spiritual idea, and so proved to be powerless. 

SH 262:9–18

We cannot fathom the nature and quality of God’s creation by diving into the shallows of mortal belief. We must reverse our feeble flutterings — our efforts to find life and truth in matter — and rise above the testimony of the material senses, above the mortal to the immortal idea of God. These clearer, higher views inspire the Godlike man to reach the absolute centre and circumference of his being. 
Job said: “I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee.” 

SH 215:12

Whatever is governed by God, is never for an instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence and Life. 

SH 273:29–3

Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opinions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to morals and health when it is opposed promptly and persistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain existence. 

SH 284:28–32

According to Christian Science, the only real senses of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind. Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation nor report goes from material body to Mind. The intercommunication is always from God to His idea, man. 

SH 72:9–12 As

As light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God, is the only truth-giver to man.

Hymn. 201

O do not bar your mind / Against the light of good; / But open wide, let in the Word, / And Truth will be your food. 

Truth will from error free / Your long enslaved mind, / And bring the light of liberty / Where it shall be enshrined. 

Hid treasures it reveals / To all who know its power; / And all who will may light receive / In this most gracious hour. 

Then open wide your heart / To Truth and Light and Love; / You then shall know your life is hid / With Christ in God above. 

Words: Charles Parsons

Music: Henry J. Gauntlett

Hymn. 240

O Spirit, source of light, / Thy grace is unconfined; / Dispel the gloomy shades of night, / Reveal the light of Mind. 

Now to our eyes display / The truth Thy words reveal; / Cause us to run the heavenly way, / Delighting in Thy will. 

Thy teachings make us know / The mysteries of Thy love; / The vanity of things below, / The joy of things above. 

Words: Benjamin Beddome, adapted

Music: Arr. from G. F. Händel

Hymn. 29

Breaking through the clouds of darkness, / Black with error, doubt, and fear; / Lighting up each somber shadow, / With a radiance soft and clear; / Filling every heart with gladness, / That its holy power feels, / Comes the Christian Science gospel, / Sin it kills and grief it heals. 

Christlike in its benedictions, / Godlike in its strength sublime; / Conquering every subtle error, / With a meekness all divine, / It has gone across the ocean, / It is known in every land, / And our sisters and our brothers / Are united in one band. 

Words: Florence L. Heywood