Readings for October 6, 2021
From The Bible
In the beginning was the Word, ... and the Word was God.
(John 1:1 (to 1st ,), 1 2nd and)
Thus saith the LORD, ...
I have made the earth, and created man upon it: ...
I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways: ...
I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. ...
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.
(Isaiah 45:11 (to 1st ,), 12 (to :), 13 (to :), 19, 2
¶ And Rebekah spake unto Jacob her son, saying, ...
Go now to the flock, ... and I will make them savoury meat for thy father, ...
And thou shalt bring it to thy father, that he may eat, and that he may bless thee before his death. ...
... ¶ And he came unto his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I; who art thou, my son? And Jacob said unto his father, I am Esau thy firstborn; ...
And he said, Art thou my very son Esau? And he said, I am. ...
... ¶ And it came to pass, as soon as Isaac had made an end of blessing Jacob, ... that Esau his brother came in from his hunting. ...
And Isaac trembled very exceedingly, and said, ...
... Thy brother came with subtilty, and hath taken away thy blessing. ...
... ¶ And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: ...
(Genesis 27:6 (to 2nd ,), 9 (to 1st ,), 9 2nd and (to 2nd ,), 10, 18, 19 (to ;), 24, 30 (to 2nd ,), 30 that, 33 (to 2nd ,), 35 Thy, 41 (to :))
O LORD my God, ... if there be iniquity in my hands; If I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; ...
Let the enemy persecute my soul, and take it; ... and lay mine honour in the dust. ...
Arise, O LORD, ... and awake for me to the judgment that thou hast commanded. ...
... judge me, O LORD, ... according to mine integrity that is in me.
... for the righteous God trieth the hearts and reins.
(Psalms 7:3 (to ,), 3 2nd if, 4 (to ;), 5 (to ;), 5 2nd and (to 1st .), 6 (to 2nd ,), 6 and, 8 2nd judge (to 2nd ,), 8 2nd according, 9 for)
And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau his brother unto the land of Seir, ...
... saying, ...
... and I have sent to tell my lord, that I may find grace in thy sight. ¶ And the messengers returned to Jacob, saying, We came to thy brother Esau, and also he cometh to meet thee, and four hundred men with him. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed: ...
... ¶ And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, ...
I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which thou hast shewed unto thy servant; ...
Deliver me, I pray thee, ... from the hand of Esau: ...
... ¶ And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. ...
And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. ...
And Jacob lifted up his eyes, and looked, and, behold, Esau came, ...
And Esau ran to meet him, and embraced him, and fell on his neck, and kissed him: and they wept. ...
And Jacob said, ... I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me.
(Genesis 32:3 (to ,), 4 saying (to 2nd ,), 5–7 5th and (to :), 9 (to 3rd ,), 10 (to 1st ;), 11 (to 2nd ,), 11 2nd from (to :), 24, 26–28; 33:1 (to 5th ,), 4, 10 (to 1st ,), 10 3rd I)
Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? ...
... therefore take heed to your spirit, that ye deal not treacherously.
(Malachi 2:10 (to 2nd ?), 16 therefore)
... thus saith the LORD that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; ...
Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: ...
(Isaiah 43:1 thus (to ;), 4 (to :))
¶ When Jesus came into the coasts of Cæsarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that thou art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.
(Matthew 16:13–16)
Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, ... If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness of me. ...
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, ...
Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God? If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
(John 10:24 (to 2nd ,), 24 If, 25, 31–34 (to 1st ,), 36–38)
Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. ...
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.
(I John 3:7, 9)
Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, ...
(I John 3:1, 2 (to 2nd ,))
... the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. ...
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
(I Corinthians 12:7 the; 13:11, 12)
Selections from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 475:7–11)
MAN. The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spiritual image and likeness of God; ...
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 591:5–6 (to ;))
... the conscious identity of being as found in Science, in which man is the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; that which has no separate mind from God; ...
... The real man cannot depart from holiness, nor can God, by whom man is evolved, engender the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not God's man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals. ...
... Mortals will disappear, and immortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen children of God. They never had a perfect state of being, which may subsequently be regained. ... Sin, sickness, and death must disappear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal man.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 475:16–19 the (to ;), 28–1 The (to 2nd .); 476:11–15, 18)
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)
JACOB. A corporeal mortal embracing duplicity, repentance, sensualism. ... the revelation of Science, in which the so-called material senses yield to the spiritual sense of Life and Love.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 589:4–5, 5 the)
Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, — struggling with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter with its false pleasures and pains, — when an angel, a message from Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew, or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; ... When Jacob was asked, “What is thy name?” he straightway answered; and then his name was changed to Israel, ...
The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had conquered material error with the understanding of Spirit and of spiritual power. This changed the man. He was no longer called Jacob, but Israel, — a prince of God, or a soldier of God, who had fought a good fight.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 308:16–21 (to ;), 28–30 (to ,); 309:7–12)
Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The continual contemplation of existence as material and corporeal — as beginning and ending, and with birth, decay, and dissolution as its component stages — hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes our standard to trail in the dust.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 550:15–20)
Continuing our definition of man, let us remember that harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and is always beyond and above the mortal illusion of any life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact, not fable. The Science of being reveals man as perfect, even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind, of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all being, and because this real man is governed by Soul instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called laws of matter.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 302:14)
... Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the reflection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelligence of man, which is individualized, but not in matter.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 477:20–24 Identity)
Few persons comprehend what Christian Science means by the word reflection. To himself, mortal and material man seems to be substance, but his sense of substance involves error and therefore is material, temporal.
On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit, ...
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 301:5–11 (to 3rd ,))
Your mirrored reflection is your own image or likeness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in accord with yours. Now compare man before the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; and when we subordinate the false testimony of the corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see this true likeness and reflection everywhere.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 515:25)
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.
The suppositional antipode of divine infinite Spirit is the so-called human soul or spirit, in other words the five senses, — the flesh that warreth against Spirit. These so-called material senses must yield to the infinite Spirit, named God.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 200:16–24)
Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed. ...
Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 476:6 (only), 21–22)
We should examine ourselves and learn what is the affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way only can we learn what we honestly are.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 8:28–30)
Anatomy, when conceived of spiritually, is mental self-knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to discover their quality, quantity, and origin. Are thoughts divine or human? That is the important question. This branch of study is indispensable to the excision of error. The anatomy of Christian Science teaches when and how to probe the self-inflicted wounds of selfishness, malice, envy, and hate. ... It unfolds the hallowed influences of unselfishness, philanthropy, spiritual love.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 462:20–27, 28–30)
At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 571:15–18)
In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted their lives higher than their poor thought-models would allow, — thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, sinning, and dying. 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. 259:6)
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. In this perfect man the Saviour saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 476:28–5)
He claimed no intelligence, action, nor life separate from God. Despite the persecution this brought upon him, he used his divine power to save men both bodily and spiritually.
The question then as now was, How did Jesus heal the sick? His answer to this question the world rejected. He appealed to his students: ...
... “But whom say ye that I am?” ...
With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” That is: The Messiah is what thou hast declared, — Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and Love, ...
It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the sick ...
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 136:5–11 (to :); 137:9 But (only), 16–21 (to ,); 138:6–8 (to sick))
CHRIST. The divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 583:10)
... The word Christ is not properly a synonym for Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human name, which belonged to him in common with other Hebrew boys and men, ... On the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine title of Jesus. ... The name is synonymous with Messiah, ...
... Throughout all generations both before and after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spiritual idea, — the reflection of God, — has come with some measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of Love.
(Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 333:3–6 The (to ,), 7–9, 10 (only, to ,), 19–26)
Hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal
Hymn 475
Forget not who you are, O child of God, / For God demands of you reflection pure; / Your heritage is goodly, and your home, / In Spirit's warm embrace, is safe, secure.
You are the child of Spirit, sinless, pure— / Yours is a perfect beauty, born of Soul— / Complete with health, vitality, and grace. / For is not God, your Father, perfect, whole?
Your understanding, too, comes straight from God. / For in that Mind, magnificent and clear, / You are conceived by Love, a perfect child, / Unhampered by the flesh, or doubt, or fear.
So now look up to God's pure holy light / And greet with fearless joy each coming day. / Of royal birth, you are a King's own child— / And God is yours, and you are God's alway.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 475)
Hymn 382
What is thy birthright, man, / Child of the perfect One; / What is thy Father's plan / For His beloved son?
Thou art Truth's honest child, / Of pure and sinless heart; / Thou treadest undefiled / In Christly paths apart.
Vain dreams shall disappear / As Truth dawns on the sight; / The phantoms of thy fear / Shall flee before the light.
Take then the sacred rod; / Thou art not error's thrall; / Thou hast the gift of God— / Dominion over all.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 382)
Hymn 467
Eternal Mind the Potter is, / And thought th' eternal clay: / The hand that fashions is divine, / His works pass not away. / Man is the noblest work of God, / His beauty, power and grace, / Immortal; perfect as his Mind / Reflected face to face.
God could not make imperfect man / His model infinite; / Unhallowed thought He could not plan, / Love's work and Love must fit. / Life, Truth and Love the pattern make, / Christ is the perfect heir; / The clouds of sense roll back, and show / The form divinely fair.
God's will is done; His kingdom come; / The Potter's work is plain. / The longing to be good and true / Has brought the light again. / And man does stand as God's own child, / The image of His love. / Let gladness ring from every tongue, / And heaven and earth approve.
(Christian Science Hymnal, No. 467)
