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.
