Service for Wednesday, May 30, 2012


Theme: Know

 Hymn 7 
 Bertha H. Woods – Based on hymn by H. F. Lyte

 Abide with me; fast breaks the morning light;
 Our daystar rises, banishing all night;
 Thou art our strength, O Truth that maketh free,
 We would unfailingly abide in Thee.

 I know no fear, with Thee at hand to bless,
 Sin hath no power and life no wretchedness;
 Health, hope and love in all around I see
 For those who trustingly abide in Thee.

 I know Thy presence every passing hour,
 I know Thy peace, for Thou alone art power;
 O Love divine, abiding constantly,
 I need not plead, Thou dost abide with me.

Readings from the Bible.

Deuteronomy 8:2,3
And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.  And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live.

I Kings 8:56‑60
Blessed be the Lord, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.  The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers: let him not leave us, nor forsake us: That he may incline our hearts unto him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, which he commanded our fathers.  And let these my words, wherewith I have made supplication before the Lord, be nigh unto the Lord our God day and night, that he maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel at all times, as the matter shall require: That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God, and that there is none else.

Psalms 20:1‑3 (to ;),4-7
The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee; Send thee help from the sanctuary, and strengthen thee out of Zion; Remember all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacrifice;  Grant thee according to thine own heart, and fulfil all thy counsel.  We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the Lord fulfil all thy petitions.  Now know I that the Lord saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand.  Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the Lord our God.

Psalms 46:1‑3 (to 1st .),4‑7 (to 1st .),8‑11 (to 1st .)
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof.

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.  God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.  The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations he hath made in the earth.  He maketh wars to cease unto the end of the earth; he breaketh the bow, and cutteth the spear in sunder; he burneth the chariot in the fire.  Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.  The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

Psalms 51:6‑12
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.  Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Psalms 89:8‑15
O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?  Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.  Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.  The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.  The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.  Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.  Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face.  Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.

Psalms 100:1‑5
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.  Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.  Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.  For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psalms 143:8
Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.

Proverbs 4:1,5
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding. 

Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.

Ecclesiastes 3:14
I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.

Isaiah 45:1 (to 1st ,),2‑6
Thus saith the Lord to his anointed,

I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron: And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.  For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.  I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me.  I am the Lord, and there is none else.

Romans 8:28
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

I Corinthians 2:12
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

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

vii:13
  The time for thinkers has come.  Truth, independent of doctrines and time‑honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity.  Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling away.  Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping‑stone to faith.  The only guarantee of obedience is a right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is Life eternal.  Though empires fall, "the Lord shall reign forever."

11:21
  Petitions bring to mortals only the results of mortals' own faith.  We know that a desire for holiness is requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we desire holiness above all else, we shall sacrifice everything for it.  We must be willing to do this, that we may walk securely in the only practical road to holiness.  Prayer cannot change the unalterable Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us into all Truth.  Such a desire has little need of audible expression.  It is best expressed in thought and in life. 

17:2‑3
  Enable us to know,‑‑as in heaven, so on earth,‑‑God is
    omnipotent, supreme. 

84:3‑6 np
  The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing evil and mistaking fact for fiction,‑‑predicting the future from a groundwork of corpo‑reality and human belief.  When sufficiently advanced in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit.  It is the prerogative of the ever‑present, divine Mind, and of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know the past, the present, and the future. 
  Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee and foretell events which concern the universal welfare, to be divinely inspired,‑‑yea, to reach the range of fetterless Mind. 
  To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind‑science by which we discern man's nature and existence.  This true conception of being destroys the belief of spiritualism at its very inception, for without the concession of material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no basis upon which to build. 
  All we correctly know of Spirit comes from God, divine Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian Science.  If this Science has been thoroughly learned and properly digested, we can know the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read the stars or calculate an eclipse.  This Mind‑reading is the opposite of clairvoyance.  It is the illumination of the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the capacity of Soul, not of material sense.  This Soul‑sense comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the divine Mind. 

95:6
We approach God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidelity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all human need and are able to discern the thought of the sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them.  Error of any kind cannot hide from the law of God. 

200:25
  St. Paul said: "For I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." (I Cor. ii. 2.)  Christian Science says:  I am determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him glorified. 

242:9
  There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ in divine Science shows us this way.  It is to know no other reality‑‑to have no other consciousness of life‑‑than good, God and His reflection, and to rise superior to the so‑called pain and pleasure of the senses. 

258:13
  God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis.  Mind manifests all that exists in the infinitude of Truth.  We know no more of man as the true divine image and likeness, than we know of God. 

323:13
  In order to apprehend more, we must put into practice what we already know.  We must recollect that Truth is demonstrable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated.  If "faithful over a few things," we shall be made rulers over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost.  When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from material sense, removes thought from the body, and elevates even mortal mind to the contemplation of something better than disease or sin.  The true idea of God gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that there are other minds, and destroys mortality. 

390:12
  When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science.  Let your higher sense of justice destroy the false process of mortal opinions which you name law, and then you will not be confined to a sick‑room nor laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last farthing, the last penalty demanded by error.  "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him."  Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought.  Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin.  You have no law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying that necessity and healing the sick. 

519:11
Human capacity is slow to discern and to grasp God's creation and the divine power and presence which go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin.  Mortals can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old man and reach the spiritual image and likeness.  What can fathom infinity!  How shall we declare Him, till, in the language of the apostle, "we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ"? 

569:6‑14
  The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many," is literally fulfilled, when we are conscious of the supremacy of Truth, by which the nothingness of error is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in proportion to its wickedness.  He that touches the hem of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing,‑‑in a sweet and certain sense that God is Love.
571:15
  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.  Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.  The cement of a higher humanity will unite all interests in the one divinity. 

Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.


 Hymn 85 
 Edith Gaddis Brewer

 God of Truth, eternal good,
   Lift our hearts to revelation,
 That Thou mayst be understood,
   Thou, the Rock of our salvation;
 All Thy love we have for loving,
 All Thy truth is ours for proving.

 Open now our eyes to see,
   As the clouds of sense are riven,
 We behold reality,
   Know the glory of Thy heaven;
 So we seek Thy perfect healing
 Through the Truth of Thy revealing.

 All the way that we must go
   We will take at Thy direction,
 Where the floods of trouble flow
   Find Thy perfect, calm reflection;
 On the path that has no turning,
 Patience, courage, meekness learning.

Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.


 Hymn 175 
 Violet Hay

 Lo, He sent His Word and healed them,
   Still that Word of God is here.
 Still its tender healing message
   Speaks to every listening ear.
 Truth divine, that overcometh
   All the ills that seem to be,
 In our hearts Thy Word abiding,
   We may know Thee and be free.

 Love divine, that faileth never,
   Still Thy presence and Thy power
 Mighty are to save and heal us,
   Guard and guide us every hour.
 Life divine, Thy Word proclaimeth
   All true being one with Thee.
 Sinless, fearless, whole, rejoicing,
   Now and through eternity.

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