Theme: Rejoice
Hymn 10
Frederic W. Root – Based on hymn by Martin
Luther
All power is given unto our Lord,
On Him we place reliance;
With truth from out His sacred word
We bid our foes defiance.
With Him we shall prevail,
Whatever may assail;
He is our shield and tower,
Almighty is His power;
His kingdom is forever.
Rejoice, ye people, praise His name,
His care doth e'er surround us.
His love to error's thralldom came,
And from its chains unbound us.
Our Lord is God alone,
No other power we own;
No other voice we heed,
No other help we need;
His kingdom is forever.
O then give thanks to God on high,
Who life to all is giving;
The hosts of death before Him fly,
In Him we all are living.
Then let us know no fear,
Our King is ever near;
Our stay and fortress strong,
Our strength, our hope, our song;
His kingdom is forever.
Readings from the Bible.
I Chronicles 16:7‑12 David,23‑32
David delivered first this psalm to thank the
Lord into the hand of Asaph and his brethren.
Give thanks unto the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds
among the people. Sing unto him, sing
psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of
them rejoice that seek the Lord. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face
continually. Remember his marvellous
works that he hath done, his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;
Sing unto the Lord, all the
earth; shew forth from day to day his salvation. Declare his glory among the heathen: his
marvellous works among all nations. For
great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: he also is to be feared above all
gods. For all the gods of the people are
idols: but the Lord made the heavens.
Glory and honour are in his presence; strength and gladness are in his
place. Give unto the Lord, ye kindreds of the people, give unto the Lord glory
and strength. Give unto the Lord the
glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come before him: worship the Lord
in the beauty of holiness. Fear before
him, all the earth: the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth
rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth. Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof:
let the fields rejoice, and all that is therein.
Psalms 5:1‑3,11,12
Give ear to my words, O Lord,
consider my meditation. Hearken unto the
voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray. My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O
Lord; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up.
But let all those that put
their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou
defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee. For thou, Lord, wilt bless the righteous;
with favour wilt thou compass him as with a shield.
Psalms 9:1,2,7‑11 the,14 I
will
I will praise thee, O Lord,
with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works. I will be glad and rejoice in thee: I will
sing praise to thy name, O thou most High.
the Lord shall endure for
ever: he hath prepared his throne for judgment.
And he shall judge the world in righteousness, he shall minister
judgment to the people in uprightness.
The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of
trouble. And they that know thy name
will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek
thee. Sing praises to the Lord, which
dwelleth in Zion: declare among the people his doings.
I will rejoice in thy salvation.
Psalms 32:11
Be glad in the Lord, and
rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
Psalms 33:1‑9
Rejoice in the Lord, O ye
righteous: for praise is comely for the upright. Praise the Lord with harp: sing unto him with
the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings.
Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise. For the word of the Lord is right; and all
his works are done in truth. He loveth
righteousness and judgment: the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. By the word of the Lord were the heavens
made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together
as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord: let all the
inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.
Psalms 40:16
Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually,
The Lord be magnified.
Psalms 70:1‑4
Make haste, O God, to deliver
me; make haste to help me, O Lord. Let
them be ashamed and confounded that seek after my soul: let them be turned
backward, and put to confusion, that desire my hurt. Let them be turned back
for a reward of their shame that say, Aha, aha.
Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: and let such
as love thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.
Isaiah 35:1‑10
The wilderness and the solitary
place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the
rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and
rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it,
the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and
the excellency of our God. #Strengthen
ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be
strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a
recompence; he will come and save you.
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf
shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame
man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness
shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground shall become a pool,
and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each
lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way
of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the
wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous
beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall
walk there: And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with
songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness,
and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Philippians 3:1 (to 1st .)
Finally, my brethren, rejoice
in the Lord.
Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in the Lord alway:
and again I say, Rejoice.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
15:25
Christians rejoice in secret beauty and
bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God. Self‑forgetfulness, purity, and affection are
constant prayers. Practice not
profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of
omnipotence and they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthiness is the foundation of enlightened
faith. Without a fitness for holiness,
we cannot receive holiness.
22:11‑29
"Work out your own salvation," is
the demand of Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you. "Occupy till I come!" Wait for your reward, and "be not weary
in well doing." If your endeavors
are beset by fearful odds, and you receive no present reward, go not back to
error, nor become a sluggard in the race.
When the smoke of battle clears away, you
will discern the good you have done, and receive according to your
deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver
us from temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and purified.
Final deliverance from error, whereby we
rejoice in immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not reached
through paths of flowers nor by pinning one's faith without works to another's
vicarious effort. Whosoever believeth
that wrath is righteous or that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does
not understand God.
28:32
There is too much animal courage in society
and not sufficient moral courage.
Christians must take up arms against error at home and abroad. They must grapple with sin in themselves and
in others, and continue this warfare until they have finished their
course. If they keep the faith, they
will have the crown of rejoicing.
34:29‑18
What a contrast between our Lord's last
supper and his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples in the bright
morning hours at the joyful meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom had passed into glory, and his
disciples' grief into repentance,‑‑hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced of the fruitlessness of their toil
in the dark and wakened by their Master's voice, they changed their methods,
turned away from material things, and cast their net on the right side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore
of time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal sensuousness, or the
burial of mind in matter, into newness of life as Spirit.
This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the
dawn of a new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists
commemorate. They bow before Christ,
Truth, to receive more of his reappearing and silently to commune with the
divine Principle, Love. They celebrate
their Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh after death, its
exemplification of human probation, and his spiritual and final ascension above
matter, or the flesh, when he rose out of material sight.
140:4‑13
That God is a corporeal being, nobody can
truly affirm. The Bible represents Him
as saying: "Thou canst not see My face; for there shall no man see Me, and
live." Not materially but
spiritually we know Him as divine Mind, as Life, Truth, and Love. We shall obey and adore in proportion as we
apprehend the divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no more over
the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence of our God. Religion will then be of the heart and not of
the head.
249:6
Let us feel the divine energy
of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor
material power as able to destroy. Let
us rejoice that we are subject to the divine "powers that be." Such
is the true Science of being. Any other
theory of Life, or God, is delusive and mythological.
265:23‑5
Who that has felt the loss of human peace has
not gained stronger desires for spiritual joy?
The aspiration after heavenly good comes even before we discover what
belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss of
earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform us that the
pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is spiritual.
The pains of sense are salutary, if they
wrench away false pleasurable beliefs and transplant the affections from sense
to Soul, where the creations of God are good, "rejoicing the heart." Such is the sword of Science, with which
Truth decapitates error, materiality giving place to man's higher individuality
and destiny.
342:16‑28
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 speaks to the dumb the words
of Truth, and they answer with rejoicing.
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"?
561:32‑21
John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the
immaculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual idea as the Messiah,
who would baptize with the Holy Ghost,‑‑divine Science. As Elias presented the idea of the fatherhood
of God, which Jesus afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this
figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God's motherhood. The moon is under her feet. This idea reveals the universe as secondary
and tributary to Spirit, from which the universe borrows its reflected light,
substance, life, and intelligence.
The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve
stars. The twelve tribes of Israel with
all mortals,‑‑separated by belief from man's divine origin and the true idea,‑‑will
through much tribulation yield to the activities of the divine Principle of man
in the harmony of Science. These are the
stars in the crown of rejoicing. They
are the lamps in the spiritual heavens of the age, which show the workings of
the spiritual idea by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting the
light which shines "unto the perfect day" as the night of materialism
wanes.
572:23‑574:2
The Revelator had not yet passed the
transitional stage in human experience called death, but he already saw a new
heaven and a new earth. Through what
sense came this vision to St. John? Not
through the material visual organs for seeing, for optics are inadequate to
take in so wonderful a scene. Were this
new heaven and new earth terrestrial or celestial, material or spiritual? They could not be the former, for the human
sense of space is unable to grasp such a view.
The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet beholding what
the eye cannot see,‑‑that which is invisible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy Writ sustains the fact
in Science, that the heavens and earth to one human consciousness, that
consciousness which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the unillumined
human mind, the vision is material. This
shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms matter and spirit indicates
states and stages of consciousness.
Accompanying this scientific consciousness
was another revelation, even the declaration from heaven, supreme harmony, that
God, the divine Principle of harmony, is ever with men, and they are His
people. Thus man was no longer regarded
as a miserable sinner, but as the blessed child of God. Why?
Because St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and earth had
vanished, and in place of this false sense was the spiritual sense, the
subjective state by which he could see the new heaven and new earth, which
involve the spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scriptural authority for concluding
that such a recognition of being is, and has been, possible to men in this
present state of existence,‑‑that we can become conscious, here and now, of a
cessation of death, sorrow, and pain.
This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science. Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality
of being will surely appear sometime and in some way. There will be no more pain, and all tears
will be wiped away. When you read this,
remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you." This spiritual consciousness is therefore a
present possibility.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer. Hymn 304
"Feed My Sheep" – Mary Baker Eddy
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.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 263
From the Swedish of J. O. Wallin
Only God can bring us gladness,
Only God can give us peace;
Joys are vain that end in sadness,
Joy divine shall never cease.
Mid the shade of want and sorrow
Undisturbed, our hearts rejoice;
Patient, wait the brighter morrow;
Faithful, heed the Father's voice.
As the stars in order going,
All harmonious, He doth move;
Heavenly calm and comfort showing,
Comes the healing word of Love.
Who the word of wisdom heareth
Feels the Father Love within,
Where as dawn the shadow cleareth,
Love outshines the night of sin.
So we find the true atonement,
Know in God the perfect Friend;
For in Love is our at‑one‑ment,
Where all hearts in Him may blend.
Here from prisoning pain and sorrow
Have we all a sure release,
Only God can bring us gladness,
Only God can give us peace.
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