Readings for September 22, 2021

From The Bible

Ezek. 34:11 thus, 12, 16 (to 2nd ,)

I Sam. 30:1–6, 8, 9 (to 2nd ,), 11, 13, 15–17 (to :), 18, 19

... thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and

seek them out. As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among

his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them

out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. ...

I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, ...

And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third

day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag,

and burned it with fire; And had taken the women captives, that were therein:

they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their

way. ¶ So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with

fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives.

Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept,

until they had no more power to weep. And David's two wives were taken

captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite.

And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because

the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his

daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. ...

And David inquired at the Lord, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I

overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake

them, and without fail recover all. So David went, he and the six hundred men

that were with him, ...

... ¶ And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and

gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water; ...

Joel 2:19 the (to 2nd ,), 25 I (to 1st ,), 26 (to :)

Luke 19:1–10

And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And

he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left

me, because three days agone I fell sick. ...

And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company? And he

said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into

the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company. ¶ And when

he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth,

eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had

taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. And David

smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: ...

And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David

rescued his two wives. And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor

great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken

to them: David recovered all.

... the Lord will answer and say unto his people, ...

... I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, ...

And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your

God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: ...

And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And, behold, there was a man

named Zacchæus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich.

And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he

was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to

see him: for he was to pass that way. And when Jesus came to the place, he

looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchæus, make haste, and come

down; for to-day I must abide at thy house. And he made haste, and came down,

and received him joyfully. And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying,

Mark 5:21 (to :), 25–34

Mark 16:15, 17, 18

That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. And Zacchæus stood,

and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor;

and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him

fourfold. And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house,

forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. For the Son of man is come to seek

and to save that which was lost.

And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people

gathered unto him: ...

And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years, And had

suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and

was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse, When she had heard of Jesus, came

in the press behind, and touched his garment. For she said, If I may touch but his

clothes, I shall be whole. And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried

up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague. And Jesus,

immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him

about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes? And his disciples said

unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who

touched me? And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing. But

the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell

down before him, and told him all the truth. And he said unto her, Daughter, thy

faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every

creature. ...

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out

devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if

they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the

sick, and they shall recover.

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

SH 87:23–25 (to 2nd .)

SH 302:9

SH 208:20

SH 1:10

SH 390:4

SH 245:32–8

Do not suppose that any mental concept is gone because you do not think of it.

The true concept is never lost.

The notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleasures and pains, the

birth, sin, sickness, and death of matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this

belief is all that will ever be lost.

Let us learn of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of Spirit, the

kingdom of heaven, — the reign and rule of universal harmony, which cannot be

lost nor remain forever unseen.

Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and

no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded

and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds.

We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we should never deny the

everlasting harmony of Soul, simply because, to the mortal senses, there is

seeming discord. It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle,

which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him

restores harmony. Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures

and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.

The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind and its formations can never

be annihilated. Man is not a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and

sorrow, sickness and health, life and death. Life and its faculties are

not measured by calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal

likeness of their Maker. Man is by no means a material germ rising from the

imperfect and endeavoring to reach Spirit above his origin.

SH 124:25

SH 347:14–27, 30–31

SH 147:6

SH 162:4–28

Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things. We tread on forces.

Withdraw them, and creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them

forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they belong wholly to divine

Mind, are inherent in this Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and

classification.

Christ, as the spiritual or true idea of God, comes now as of old,

preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the sick, and casting out

evils. Is it error which is restoring an essential element of Christianity, —

namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science of Christianity which is

restoring it, and is the light shining in darkness, which the darkness

comprehends not.

If Christian Science takes away the popular gods, — sin, sickness, and death, —

it is Christ, Truth, who destroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness.

The dream that matter and error are something must yield to reason and

revelation. ... The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmonious unreal.

Late in the nineteenth century I demonstrated the divine rules of Christian

Science. They were submitted to the broadest practical test, and everywhere,

when honestly applied under circumstances where demonstration was humanly

possible, this Science showed that Truth had lost none of its divine and healing

efficacy, even though centuries had passed away since Jesus practised these

rules on the hills of Judæa and in the valleys of Galilee.

Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of Truth, which invigorates

and purifies. Christian Science acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with

Truth. It changes the secretions, expels humors, dissolves tumors,

relaxes rigid muscles, restores carious bones to soundness. The effect

of this Science is to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it may

SH 259:11–21

SH 215:4

yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.

Experiments have favored the fact that Mind governs the body, not in one

instance, but in every instance. The indestructible faculties of Spirit exist

without the conditions of matter and also without the false beliefs of

a so-called material existence. Working out the rules of Science in

practice, the author has restored health in cases of both acute and chronic

disease in their severest forms. Secretions have been changed, the structure has

been renewed, shortened limbs have been elongated, ankylosed joints have been

made supple, and carious bones have been restored to healthy conditions. I have

restored what is called the lost substance of lungs, and healthy organizations

have been established where disease was organic. Christian Science heals

organic disease as surely as it heals what is called functional, for it requires only

a fuller understanding of the divine Principle of Christian Science to

demonstrate the higher rule.

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.

If man was once perfect but has now lost his perfection, then mortals have never

beheld in man the reflex image of God. The lost image is no image. The true

likeness cannot be lost in divine reflection. Understanding this, Jesus

said: “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in

heaven is perfect.”

If Spirit, Soul, could sin or be lost, then being and immortality would be lost,

together with all the faculties of Mind; but being cannot be lost while God

exists. Soul and matter are at variance from the very necessity of

their opposite natures. Mortals are unacquainted with the reality of

existence, because matter and mortality do not reflect the facts of Spirit.

Printed from CONCORD: A CHRISTIAN SCIENCE STUDY RESOURCE, published by The Christian

Science

Board of Directors in Boston, MA, USA at concord.christianscience.com. This content may be under copyright

and may not be further

reproduced or distributed, unless permitted under the Terms of Service.

SH 215:22

SH 216:28

SH 487:6

SH 359:31

With its divine proof, Science reverses the evidence of material sense. Every

quality and condition of mortality is lost, swallowed up in immortality. Mortal

man is the antipode of immortal man in origin, in existence, and in his relation

to God.

When you say, “Man's body is material,” I say with Paul: Be “willing rather to

be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” Give up

your material belief of mind in matter, and have but one Mind, even

God; for this Mind forms its own likeness. The loss of man's identity through

the understanding which Science confers is impossible; and the notion of such a

possibility is more absurd than to conclude that individual musical tones are lost

in the origin of harmony.

There is more Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually than

materially. There is more Science in the perpetual exercise of the

Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost they cannot be, while Mind remains. The

apprehension of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf centuries

ago, and it will repeat the wonder.

When others see them as I do, in their true light and loveliness, —

and know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn from

Truth, — they will find that nothing is lost, and all is won, by a right estimate of

what is real.”