Theme: Help
Hymn 8
Henry Francis Lyte
Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.
I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter's
power?
Who like Thyself my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, O abide with me.
I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness;
Where is death's sting? where, grave, thy
victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.
Readings from the Bible.
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 33:1‑15,20
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. The Lord bringeth the counsel of the heathen
to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever,
the thoughts of his heart to all generations.
Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord: and the people whom he hath
chosen for his own inheritance. The Lord
looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of his habitation he looketh
upon all the inhabitants of the earth.
He fashioneth their hearts alike; he considereth all their works.
Our soul waiteth for the
Lord: he is our help and our shield.
Psalms 38:21,22
Forsake me not, O Lord: O my
God, be not far from me. Make haste to
help me, O Lord my salvation.
Psalms 40:13,16,17 (to 2nd ;)
Be pleased, O Lord, to
deliver me: O Lord, make haste to help me.
Let all those that seek thee
rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually,
The Lord be magnified. But I am poor and
needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer;
Psalms 46:1‑3 (to 1st .),4‑7
(to 1st .),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.
The Lord of hosts is with us;
the God of Jacob is our refuge.
Psalms 70:1,4,5 make (to ;)
Make haste, O God, to deliver
me; make haste to help me, O Lord.
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.
make haste unto me, O God: thou art my help
and my deliverer;
Psalms 115:9‑11
O Israel, trust thou in the
Lord: he is their help and their shield.
O house of Aaron, trust in the Lord: he is their help and their
shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in
the Lord: he is their help and their shield.
Psalms 121:1‑8
I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he
that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade
upon thy right hand. The sun shall not
smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy
soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Isaiah 41:10
#Fear thou not; for I am with
thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will
help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
12:31
In divine Science, where
prayers are mental, all may avail
themselves of God as "a very present help in trouble." Love is
impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, "Ho,
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."
143:5
It is plain that God does not employ drugs or
hygiene, nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have recommended and
employed them in his healing. The sick
are more deplorably lost than the sinning, if the sick cannot rely on God for
help and the sinning can. The divine
Mind never called matter medicine,
and matter required a material and human belief before it could be considered
as medicine.
218:17‑5
Why pray for the recovery of the sick, if you
are without faith in God's willingness and ability to heal them? If you do believe in God, why do you
substitute drugs for the Almighty's power, and employ means which lead only
into material ways of obtaining help, instead of turning in time of need to
God, divine Love, who is an ever‑present help?
Treat a belief in sickness as you would sin,
with sudden dismissal. Resist the
temptation to believe in matter as intelligent, as having sensation or power.
The Scriptures say, "They that wait upon
the Lord . . . shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not
faint." The meaning of that passage
is not perverted by applying it literally to moments of fatigue, for the moral
and physical are as one in their results.
When we wake to the truth of being, all disease, pain, weakness,
weariness, sorrow, sin, death, will be unknown, and the mortal dream will
forever cease. My method of treating
fatigue applies to all bodily ailments, since Mind should be, and is, supreme,
absolute, and final.
350:31‑15
In Jewish worship the Word was materially
explained, and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The religion which sprang from half‑hidden
Israelitish history was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose faith in God's power to heal, we
distrust the divine Principle which demonstrates Christian Science, and then we
cannot heal the sick. Neither can we
heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves on a material
basis.
The author became a member of the orthodox
Congregational Church in early years.
Later she learned that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the
prayers of her devout parents and the church; but when the spiritual sense of
the creed was discerned in the Science of Christianity, this spiritual sense
was a ^present help^. It was the living,
palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which healed the sick.
392:11‑3
The physical affirmation of disease should
always be met with the mental negation.
Whatever benefit is produced on the body, must be expressed mentally,
and thought should be held fast to this ideal.
If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you are liable to an attack
from that source. You will call it
neuralgia, but we call it a belief. If
you think that consumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable to the
development of that thought in the form of what is termed pulmonary disease,
unless Science shows you otherwise. If
you decide that climate or atmosphere is unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will master you, whichever
direction they take.
Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish
realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say
induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident,
then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and
fears. Exclude from mortal mind the
offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or pleasure must come
through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding
belief, forgetting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.
444:7
If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive
aid from other Scientists,‑‑their brethren upon whom they may call,‑‑God will
still guide them into the right use of temporary and eternal means. Step by
step will those who trust Him find that "God is our refuge and strength, a
very present help in trouble."
494:5‑24
Is it not a species of infidelity to believe
that so great a work as the Messiah's was done for himself or for God, who
needed no help from Jesus' example to preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals did need this help, and Jesus
pointed the way for them. Divine Love
always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus
demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited
period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies
all good.
The miracle of grace is no miracle to
Love. Jesus demonstrated the inability
of corporeality, as well as the infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring
human sense to flee from its own convictions and seek safety in divine
Science. Reason, rightly directed,
serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but sin, sickness, and death
will seem real (even as the experiences of the sleeping dream seem real) until
the Science of man's eternal harmony breaks their illusion with the unbroken
reality of scientific being.
518:13
God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a
link to the greater, and in return, the higher always protects the lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand
brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man
who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's
good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and
goodness, which shine through all as the blossom
shines through the bud. All the varied
expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality‑‑infinite Life, Truth,
and Love.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 105
Charles
Wesley
Help us to help
each other, Lord,
Each other's
cross to bear;
Let each his
friendly aid afford,
And feel his
brother's care.
Help us to
build each other up,
Our little
stock improve;
Increase our
faith, confirm our hope,
And perfect
us in love.
Up unto Thee,
our living Head,
Let us in all
things grow;
Till Thou hast
made us free indeed,
And spotless
here below.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by
members of the congregation.
Hymn 213
Isaac Watts*
O God, our help
in ages past,
Our hope for
time to come,
Our shelter
from the stormy blast,
And our
eternal home.
Before the
hills in order stood,
Or earth
received her frame,
From
everlasting Thou art God,
To endless
years the same.
A thousand ages
in Thy sight
Are like an
evening gone,
Short as the
watch that ends the night
Before the
rising sun.
O God, our help
in ages past,
Our hope for
time to come,
Thou art our
guard while ages last,
And our
eternal home.
