Service for Wednesday, Sept. 12, 2012


Theme: Vision

 Hymn 64 
 Violet Hay

 From sense to Soul my pathway lies before me,
   From mist and shadow into Truth's clear day;
 The dawn of all things real is breaking o'er me,
   My heart is singing:  I have found the way.

 I reach Mind's open door, and at its portal
   I know that where I stand is holy ground;
 I feel the calm and joy of things immortal,
   The loveliness of Love is all around.

 The way leads upward and its goal draws nearer,
   Thought soars enraptured, fetterless and free;
 The vision infinite to me grows clearer,
   I touch the fringes of eternity.

Readings from the Bible.

I Samuel 3:1‑10
And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no open vision.  And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see; And ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; That the Lord called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.  And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me.  And he said, I called not; lie down again. And he went and lay down.  And the Lord called yet again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And he answered, I called not, my son; lie down again.  Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.  And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou didst call me. And Eli perceived that the Lord had called the child.  Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.  And the Lord came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.

Psalms 89:8‑21
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.  In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.  For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.  For the Lord is our defence; and the Holy One of Israel is our king.  Then thou spakest in vision to thy holy one, and saidst, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.  I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him: With whom my hand shall be established: mine arm also shall strengthen him.

Proverbs 29:18
Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Isaiah 29:11‑19 the
the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed: And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I am not learned.  #Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.  Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the Lord, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?  Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?  Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest?  #And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness.  The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.

Habakkuk 2:1‑4,14,20
I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and will watch to see what he will say unto me, and what I shall answer when I am reproved.  And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.  For the vision is yet for an appointed time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it; because it will surely come, it will not tarry.  Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith. 

For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea. 

But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

Matthew 17:1‑9 after
after six days Jesus taketh Peter, James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into an high mountain apart, And was transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light.  And, behold, there appeared unto them Moses and Elias talking with him.  Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias.  While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.  And when the disciples heard it, they fell on their face, and were sore afraid.  And Jesus came and touched them, and said, Arise, and be not afraid.  And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.  And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.

Acts 9:8‑18 Saul
Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.  And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink. #And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord.  And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.  Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.  But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel: For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.  And Ananias went his way, and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul, the Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.  And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight forthwith, and arose, and was baptized.

Acts 18:9‑11
Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.  And he continued there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them.

Acts 26:13‑20
At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.  And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.  And I said, Who art thou, Lord?  And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.  But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee; Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee, To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.  Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision: But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

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

86:13‑18 np
  Mortals evolve images of thought.  These may appear to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are mysterious only because it is unusual to see thoughts, though we can always feel their influence.  Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual noises, and apparitions brought out in dark seances either involve feats by tricksters, or they are images and sounds evolved involuntarily by mortal mind.  Seeing is no less a quality of physical sense than feeling.  Then why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one?  Education alone determines the difference.  In reality there is none. 
  Portraits, landscape‑paintings, fac‑similes of penmanship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences, can all be taken from pictorial thought and memory as readily as from objects cognizable by the senses.  Mortal mind sees what it believes as certainly as it believes what it sees.  It feels, hears, and sees its own thoughts.  Pictures are mentally formed before the artist can convey them to canvas.  So is it with all material conceptions. Mind‑readers perceive these pictures of thought.  They copy or reproduce them, even when they are lost to the memory of the mind in which they are discoverable. 
  It is needless for the thought or for the person holding the transferred picture to be individually and consciously present.  Though individuals have passed away, their mental environment remains to be discerned, described, and transmitted.  Though bodies are leagues apart and their associations forgotten, their associations float in the general atmosphere of human mind. 
  The Scotch call such vision "second sight," when really it is first sight instead of second, for it presents primal facts to mortal mind.  Science enables one to read the human mind, but not as a clairvoyant.  It enables one to heal through Mind, but not as a mesmerist. 

214:26‑26 np
  How transient a sense is mortal sight, when a wound on the retina may end the power of light and lens!  But the real sight or sense is not lost.  Neither age nor accident can interfere with the senses of Soul, and there are no other real senses.  It is evident that the body as matter has no sensation of its own, and there is no oblivion for Soul and its faculties.  Spirit's senses are without pain, and they are forever at peace.  Nothing can hide from them the harmony of all things and the might and permanence of Truth. 
  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. 
  Spiritual vision is not subordinate to geometric altitudes.  Whatever is governed by God, is never for an instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence and Life. 
  We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of the absence of light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of reality.  So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before truth and love. 
  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. 

301:5‑24
  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, which mortals hope for.  He reflects the divine, which constitutes the only real and eternal entity.  This reflection seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual man's substantiality transcends mortal vision and is revealed only through divine Science. 
  As God is substance and man is the divine image and likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter.  The belief that man has any other substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one Mind.  Mortal man seems to himself to be material substance, while man is "image" (idea).

561:5‑21
  Agassiz, through his microscope, saw the sun in an egg at a point of so‑called embryonic life.  Because of his more spiritual vision, St. John saw an "angel standing in the sun."  The Revelator beheld the spiritual idea from the mount of vision.  Purity was the symbol of Life and Love.  The Revelator saw also the spiritual ideal as a woman clothed in light, a bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb of Love.  To John, "the bride" and "the Lamb" represented the correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea, God and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth. 
  John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life and its demonstration,‑‑reducing to human perception and understanding the Life which is God.  In divine revelation, material and corporeal selfhood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood. 

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. 

586:3‑6 (to ))
  EYES.  Spiritual discernment,‑‑not material but mental. 
  Jesus said, thinking of the outward vision, "Having eyes, see ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)

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


 Hymn 265 
 Samuel Johnson – Adapted

 Onward, Christian, though the region
   Where thou art seem drear and lone;
 God hath set a guardian legion
   Very near thee, press thou on.

 By the Christ road, and none other,
   Is the mount of vision won;
 Tread it with rejoicing, brother:
   Jesus trod it, press thou on.

 By thy trustful, calm endeavor,
   Guiding, cheering, like the sun,
 Earth‑bound hearts thou shalt deliver;
   O, for their sake, press thou on.

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


 Hymn 287
 Edith Gaddis Brewer 

 Prayer with our waking thought ascends,
   Great God of light, to Thee;
 Darkness is banished in the glow
   Of Thy reality.

 Lo, to our widening vision dawns
   The realm of Soul supreme,
 Faith‑lighted peaks of Spirit stand
   Revealed in morning's beam.

 Thus in Thy radiance vanishes
   Death's drear and gloomy night;
 Thus all creation hears anew
   Truth's call, Let there be light.

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