Service for Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011

Subject: Christ Jesus

 Hymn 2 

 Author Unknown

 A glorious day is dawning,

   And o'er the waking earth

 The heralds of the morning

   Are springing into birth.

 In dark and hidden places

   There shines the blessed light;

 The beam of Truth displaces

   The darkness of the night.

 The advocates of error

   Foresee the glorious morn,

 And hear in shrinking terror,

   The watchword of reform:

 It rings from hill and valley,

   It breaks oppression's chain.

 A thousand freemen rally,

   And swell the mighty strain.

 The watchword has been spoken,

   The light has broken forth,

 Far shines the blessed token

   Upon the startled earth.

 To hearts and homes benighted

   The blessed Truth is given,

 And peace and love, united,

   Point upward unto heaven.

Readings from the Bible.

Ephesians 5:1,2,6‑11,13,14

Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour. 

Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.  Be not ye therefore partakers with them.  For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. 

But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.  Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

Matthew 6:19‑22

#Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s prayer, with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science textbook.

Our Father which art in heaven,

Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Adorable One.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.

Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

Enable us to know – as in heaven, so on earth

God is omnipotent, supreme.

Give us this day our daily bread;

Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections;

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And Love is reflected in love;

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;

And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.

For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.

For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

 Hymn 401

 John Marriott*

 Thou whose almighty Word

 Chaos and darkness heard,

   And took their flight;

 Hear us, we humbly pray,

 And where the Gospel‑day

 Sheds not its glorious ray,

   Let there be light.

 Christ, thou dost come to bring

 On thy redeeming wing

   Healing and sight,

 Health to the sick in mind,

 Sight to the inly blind;

 Ah, now to all mankind

   Let there be light.

 Spirit of truth and love,

 Life‑giving, holy dove,

   Speed forth thy flight;

 Move on the waters' face,

 Bearing the lamp of grace,

 And in earth's darkest place

   Let there be light.

Solo: "Christ My Refuge"  – Words by Mary Baker Eddy.

The lesson-sermon from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, read by the First and Second Readers.




The content of the Lesson Sermon may be found in the Christian Science Quarterly. You may also read the Lesson-Sermon for this week online by clicking here.

 Hymn 35 

 Charles Wesley

 Christ, whose glory fills the skies,

   Christ, the true, the perfect Light,

 Sun of righteousness, arise,

   Triumph o'er the shades of night;

 Dayspring from on high, be near,

 Daystar, in my heart appear.

 Dark and cheerless is the morn

   Uncompanioned, Lord, by thee;

 Joyless is the day's return,

   Till thy mercy's beams I see;

 Till they inward light impart,

 Glad my eyes, and warm my heart.

 Visit then this soul of mine,

   Pierce the gloom of sin and grief;

 Fill me, radiancy divine,

   Scatter all my unbelief;

 More and more thyself display,

 Shining to the perfect day.

"The Scientific Statement of Being" (S&H p. 468} and the correlative scripture according to I John 3:1-3.

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.468



1John.3

[1] 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.
[2] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
[3] And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Benediction

II Corinthians 4:6 God

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