Wednesday Readings for March 9th, 2022

From The Bible

The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.
(Isaiah 40:8)

Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
(Malachi 2:10)

Wisdom is better than weapons of war: but one sinner destroyeth much good.
(Ecclesiastes 9:18)

... wherefore came this mad fellow to thee? ...
(II Kings 9:11 wherefore (to 2nd ?))

... the LORD, the God of Israel, saith ... take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously. ...

Behold, I will send my messenger, ... even the messenger of the covenant, ...

... and he shall purify the sons of Levi, ... that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness. ...

And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, ... and fear not me, saith the LORD of hosts. For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
(Malachi 2:16 the (to 1st saith), 16 take; 3:1 (to 2nd ,), 1 even (to 6th ,), 3 3rd and (to 1st ,), 3 that, 5 (to 6th ,), 5 8th and, 6 )

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, ...

... came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. ...

And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, ...

... ¶ And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; ...

And the Lord said unto him, Arise, ... and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: ...

Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: ...

But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, ...

For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. And Ananias went his way, ... and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, ... hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost. And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, ...

And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.
(Acts 9:1 (to 2nd ,), 3–6 came, 8, 9 (to ,), 10 (to ;), 11 (to 2nd ,), 11 3rd and (to :), 13, 15 (to 2nd ,), 16, 17 (to 1st ,), 17 3rd and (to 5th ,), 17 hath, 18 (to 2nd ,), 20)

¶ And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, ...

And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, ... and he healed them.
(Matthew 4:23 (to 3rd ,), 24 (to 3rd ,), 24 7th and)

¶ And, behold, one came and said unto him, ... what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, ... if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.
(Matthew 19:16 (to 3rd ,), 16 what, 17 (to 1st ,), 17 if)

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. ...

Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.
(Matthew 5:44, 45, 48)

And it came to pass, that, as Jesus sat at meat in his house, many publicans and sinners sat also together with Jesus and his disciples: ...

And when the scribes and Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
(Mark 2:15 (to :), 16, 17)

And there appeared another wonder in heaven; ... behold a great red dragon, ...

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
(Revelation 12:3 (to ;), 3 behold (to 1st ,), 17)

And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: ...

And 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: ...
(Revelation 12:9 (to :), 10 (to :))

Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, ... whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother. For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
(I John 3:7–10 (to 1st ,), 10 whosoever, 11 )

... be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. ...

Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not. ...

Recompense to no man evil for evil. ...

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. ...

Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: ...

Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.
(Romans 12:2 be, 14, 17 (to 1st .), 21; 13:1 (to :), 10)

Selections from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy

Enable us to know, — as in heaven, so on earth, — God is omnipotent, supreme.

(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 17:2)

GOD. The ... all-loving, ... Principle; Mind; ... Love; ...
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 587:5 (only, to The), 6 all-loving (only, to ,), 6–7 Principle (to 1st ;), 7 Love (only, to 1st ;))

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.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 305:22–27)

Christian Science reveals God, not as the author of sin, sickness, and death, but as divine Principle, Supreme Being, Mind, exempt from all evil.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 127:16–19)

Christian Science explains all cause and effect as mental, not physical. ... It shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought. In divine Science, the universe, including man, is spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Science shows that what is termed matter is but the subjective state of what is termed by the author mortal mind.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 114:23–24, 25)

MORTAL MIND. Nothing claiming to be something, for Mind is immortal; ... error creating other errors; ... the opposite of Spirit, and therefore the opposite of God, or good; ... the belief that there can be more than one creator; ...
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 591:25–26 (to 1st ;), 26–27 error (to ;); 592:3–4 the (to ;), 6–7 the (to 1st ;))

The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelligence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood of man at the very outset.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 541:16)

Mortal mind rules all that is mortal. ... The action of so-called mortal mind must be destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony of being. ...

... Any human error is its own enemy, and works against itself; it does nothing in the right direction and much in the wrong. If so-called mind is cherishing evil passions and malicious purposes, ... it engenders disease and death.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 400:22–23, 26–28; 401:1–5 (to 1st ,), 6 it)

From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and death, envy, hatred, and revenge, — all evil, — are typified by a serpent, or animal subtlety.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 564:24–26)

Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a diviner sense, harmony is the real and discord the unreal. ... 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? The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, — the belief that substance, life, and intelligence can be material. This dragon stands for the sum total of human error. The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that matter has power of its own, and that by means of an evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be broken.

The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of God.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 563:1–2, 4–18)

When speaking of God's children, not the children of men, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is within you;” that is, Truth and Love reign in the real man, showing that man in God's image is unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the perfect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal man appears to mortals.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 476:28–2)

The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea, — perfect God and perfect man, — as the basis of thought and demonstration.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 259:11)

Man is spiritual and perfect; ...

Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 475:11 (only, to ;), 28–31)

Immortals, or God's children in divine Science, are one harmonious family; but mortals, or the “children of men” in material sense, are discordant and ofttimes false brethren.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 444:27)

Paul was not at first a disciple of Jesus but a persecutor of Jesus' followers. ...

Saul of Tarsus beheld the way — the Christ, or Truth — only when his uncertain sense of right yielded to a spiritual sense, which is always right. Then the man was changed. ... He learned the wrong that he had done in persecuting Christians, whose religion he had not understood, and in humility he took the new name of Paul. He beheld for the first time the true idea of Love, and learned a lesson in divine Science.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 324:19–20; 326:23–26, 27)

The great truth in the Science of being, that the real man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible; for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 200:16)

Inasmuch as God is good and the fount of all being, He does not produce moral or physical deformity; therefore such deformity is not real, but is illusion, the mirage of error.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 243:32–3)

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.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 495:14)

Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine Mind, and abandon their material beliefs. ... By lifting thought above error, or disease, and contending persistently for truth, you destroy error.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 400:9–11, 18)

Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 234:31–3)

We should become more familiar with good than with evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we bar our doors against the approach of thieves and murderers. We should love our enemies and help them on the basis of the Golden Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and others.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 234:9)

Passions, selfishness, false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirituality, and the superabundance of being is on the side of God, good. ...

The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 201:9, 17–18)

Love for God and man is the true incentive in both healing and teaching. Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way. ... Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 454:17–19, 22–23)

It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brotherhood of man will be established.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 467:9–13)

... Mind is God. The exterminator of error is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind — called devil or evil — is not Mind, is not Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There can be but one Mind, because there is but one God; ...

... With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 469:13–18 Mind (to ;), 30–5)

Behold, I give unto you power . . . over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 438:5)

[LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: ...
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 578:13–14 (to :))

Hymnals

Hymn No. 32

Brood o'er us with Thy shelt'ring wing, / 'Neath which our spirits blend / Like brother birds, that soar and sing, / And on the same branch bend. / The arrow that doth wound the dove / Darts not from those who watch and love.

If thou the bending reed wouldst break / By thought or word unkind, / Pray that his spirit you partake, / Who loved and healed mankind: / Seek holy thoughts and heavenly strain, / That make men one in love remain.

Learn, too, that wisdom's rod is given / For faith to kiss, and know; / That greetings glorious from high heaven, / Whence joys supernal flow, / Come from that Love, divinely near, / Which chastens pride and earth-born fear,

Through God, who gave that word of might / Which swelled creation's lay: / “Let there be light, and there was light.” / What chased the clouds away? / 'Twas Love whose finger traced aloud / A bow of promise on the cloud.

Thou to whose power our hope we give, / Free us from human strife. / Fed by Thy love divine we live, / For Love alone is Life; / And life most sweet, as heart to heart / Speaks kindly when we meet and part.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 32)

Hymn No. 266

Our God is Love, and all His sons / His image bear, we know; / The heart with love to God inspired, / With love to man will glow.

Teach us to love each other, Lord, / As we are loved by Thee; / None who are truly born of God / Can live in enmity.

Heirs of the same immortal bliss, / Our hopes and aims the same, / In bonds of love our hearts unite, / To praise His holy name.

So may we all with one accord / Learn how true Christians love; / And glorify our Father's grace, / And seek that grace to prove.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 266)

Hymn No. 438

Amazing grace! how sweet the sound, / That saved a soul like me. / I once was lost, but now am found, / Was blind, but now I see.

/ 'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, / And grace my fears relieved; / How precious did that grace appear / The hour I first believed!

Through many dangers, toils, and snares, / I have already come; / 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, / And grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me, / His word my hope secures; / He will my shield and portion be / As long as life endures.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 438)