Newsworthy: the Lord God Omnipotent Reigneth!

Wednesday Evening Readings for April 14, 2021

Deut. 32:3 I (to :), 4
… I will publish the name of the Lord: …

He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

I Sam. 17:10, 26 (to 2nd ,), 26 who, 32 (to ,), 32 thy, 45 (to 1st ,), 45 I (to 4th ,), 45 whom, 46 (to 1st ;), 47 for (to ,), 49 (to 4th ,), 49 5th and, 50 (to 1st ,), 51 6th And
And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. …

And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, … who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God? …

… ¶ And David said to Saul, … thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine. …

Then said David to the Philistine, … I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, … whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; …

… for the battle is the Lord’s, …

And David put his hand in his bag, and took thence a stone, and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, … and he fell upon his face to the earth. So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, …

… And when the Philistines saw their champion was dead, they fled.

Zech. 3:7 (to ;); 4:6 Not
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; …

… Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.

Num. 23:5, 6 (to 1st ,), 7 2nd and (to 3rd ,), 7 saying (to 6th ,), 7 defy, 8 2nd how, 11 Balak, 12, 20
And the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus thou shalt speak. And he returned unto him, …

… and said, Balak the king of Moab hath brought me from Aram, … saying, Come, … defy Israel.

… how shall I defy, whom the Lord hath not defied? …

… Balak said unto Balaam, What hast thou done unto me? I took thee to curse mine enemies, and, behold, thou hast blessed them altogether. And he answered and said, Must I not take heed to speak that which the Lord hath put in my mouth? …

Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed; and I cannot reverse it.

Ps. 5:12 thou (to 
… thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous; …

Isa. 42:11 2nd let, 12 (to ,)
… let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord, …

Matt. 4:23 (to 1st ,), 24
¶ And Jesus went about all Galilee, …

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 those that had the palsy; and he healed them.

Luke 9:1, 2; 10:1, 17, 18 (to ,), 19, 20
Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.

After these things the Lord appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. …

… ¶ And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, …

Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Matt. 5:2, 11, 12 (to 2nd :), 43, 44 (to 3rd ,), 44 and
And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, …

Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: …

… ¶ Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, … and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Ps. 47:1
O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.

II Tim. 2:19 Let, 24 the, 25 (to 1st ;); 3:1, 2 (to 2nd ,), 2 unthankful, 3 trucebreakers (to 3rd ,), 3 despisers, 12, 14, 15–17 which
… Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. …

… the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; …

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, … unthankful, unholy,

… trucebreakers, false accusers, … despisers of those that are good, …

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. …

But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

… which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Ps. 26:2 O (to 2nd ,), 2 prove, 3, 7
… O Lord, … prove me; try my reins and my heart. For thy lovingkindness is before mine eyes: and I have walked in thy truth. …

That I may publish with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all thy wondrous works.

Rev. 19:6 Alleluia
… Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

SH 497:3 As
… As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

SH 479:18–19, 21 Genesis (only, to 1st ,), 21–23
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. … (Genesis i. 1, …In the vast forever, in the
Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit and its innumerable creations.

SH 502:24–28 This (to 1st .), 29–3
This word beginning is employed to signify the only, — that is, the eternal verity and unity of God and man, including the universe. The creative Principle — Life, Truth, and Love — is God. … There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected.

SH 207:20–23
There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause.

SH 168:15
Because man-made systems insist that man becomes sick and useless, suffers and dies, all in consonance with the laws of God, are we to believe it? Are we to believe an authority which denies God’s spiritual command relating to perfection, — an authority which Jesus proved to be false? He did the will of the Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called material law, but in accordance with God’s law, the law of Mind.

SH 126:15–23, 26–29 and
The point at issue between Christian Science on the one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall Science explain cause and effect as being both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative hypotheses?

I have set forth Christian Science and its application to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them. … and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles.

SH 342:7–23, 24
He that decries this Science does it presumptuously, in the face of Bible history and in defiance of the direct command of Jesus, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel,” to which command was added the promise that his students should cast out evils and heal the sick. He bade the seventy disciples, as well as the twelve, heal the sick in any town where they should be hospitably received.

If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes an accident. Shall it be denied that a system which works according to the Scriptures has Scriptural authority?

Christian Science awakens the sinner, reclaims the infidel, and raises from the couch of pain the helpless invalid. … It causes the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the blind to see. Who would be the first to disown the Christliness of good works, when our Master says, “By their fruits ye shall know them”?

SH 130:26–32
If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the supremacy of good, ought we not, contrariwise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to love sin and unnatural to forsake it, — no longer imagine evil to be ever-present and good absent?

SH 339:7–10 Since
… Since God is All, there is no room for His unlikeness. God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it good. Therefore evil, being contrary to good, is unreal, and cannot be the product of God.

SH 4:22
We reach the Science of Christianity through demonstration of the divine nature; but in this wicked world goodness will “be evil spoken of,” and patience must bring experience.

SH 96:12–13, 15–18
This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. … The breaking up of material
beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears.

SH 196:31–2
The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and diseases among the human family. It does this by giving names to diseases and by printing long descriptions which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought.

SH 186:5–6 (to ,), 9–14 Spirit, 19–20
Christian Science destroys material beliefs through the understanding of Spirit, … Spirit and matter, good and evil, light and darkness, cannot mingle.

Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It is unreal, because it presupposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent. …

… The only power of evil is to destroy itself. It can never destroy one iota of good.

SH 563:1–7 (to ?)
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 97:21–3
The broadest facts array the most falsities against themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its inarticulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.

“He uttered His voice, the earth melted.” This Scripture indicates that all matter will disappear before the supremacy of Spirit.

Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apostolic
work of casting out error and healing the sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recompense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of existence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love.

SH 288:3
The suppositional warfare between truth and error is only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spiritual senses and the testimony of the material senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the understanding of divine Love.

SH 567:3–6 Truth
Truth and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through the understanding of God.

SH 109:32
The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, — Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science, — contradict forever the belief that matter can be actual.

These eternal verities reveal primeval existence as the radiant reality of God’s creation, in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wisdom good.

SH 368:2–4
The confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact that Truth is real and error is unreal.

SH 174:14
Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for generations yet unborn.

SH 427:22
God, Life, Truth, and Love make man undying. Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.

SH 16:26 (only); 17:2
Our Father which art in heaven, / …

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

Hymn. 204

O Father, Thy kingdom is come upon earth, / Thou rulest in all Thy creation; / Thou sendest Thy witnesses, telling Thy worth, / To call and entreat every nation, / With news of Thy mighty salvation.

They lift up a light amid shadows of fear, / And Love is Thy banner above them; / No trouble shall touch them, no foes that appear / Shall e’er from their loyalty move them; / ‘Tis Thou dost uphold and approve them.

They go in Thy strength, and they speak in Thy name, / With power of Thy promise forth faring, / And during the battle the victory claim,— / Their trust in Thy truth is their daring, / Salvation to all men declaring.
Words: Lina Sandell Berg
Music: Gunnar Wennerberg

Hymn. 425

O weary pilgrim, lift your head, / For joy cometh in the morning; / For God in His own Word hath said / That joy cometh in the morning.

REFRAIN / Joy cometh in the morning, / Joy cometh in the morning; / Weeping may endure for a night, / But joy cometh in the morning.

Our God shall wipe all tears away, / For joy cometh in the morning; / Sorrow and sighing flee away, / For joy cometh in the morning. / / REFRAIN
Words: M. M. Wienland
Music: Edmund S. Lorenz

Hymn. 574

Shepherd, show me how to go / O’er the hillside steep, / How to gather, how to sow, — / How to feed Thy sheep; / I will listen for Thy voice, / Lest my footsteps stray; / I will follow and rejoice / All the rugged way.

Thou wilt bind the stubborn will, / Wound the callous breast, / Make self-righteousness be still, / Break earth’s stupid rest. / Strangers on a barren shore, / Lab’ring long and lone, / We would enter by the door, / And Thou know’st Thine own;

So, when day grows dark and cold, / Tear or triumph harms, / Lead Thy lambkins to the fold, / Take them in Thine arms; / Feed the hungry, heal the heart, / Till the morning’s beam; / White as wool, ere they depart, / Shepherd, wash them clean.
Words: Mary Baker Eddy
Music: Andrew D. Brewis, alt.