Theme: Clear
Hymn 29
Florence L. Heywood
Breaking through the clouds of darkness,
Black with error, doubt, and fear;
Lighting up each somber shadow,
With a radiance soft and clear;
Filling every heart with gladness,
That its holy power feels,
Comes the Christian Science gospel,
Sin it kills and grief it heals.
Christlike in its benedictions,
Godlike in its strength sublime;
Conquering every subtle error,
With a meekness all divine,
It has gone across the ocean,
It is known in every land,
And our sisters and our brothers
Are united in one band.
Readings from the Bible.
II Samuel 23:2‑4
The Spirit of the Lord spake
by me, and his word was in my tongue.
The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel spake to me, He that ruleth
over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning,
when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender grass
springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.
Job 33:1‑4 I pray
I pray thee, hear my speeches, and hearken to
all my words. Behold, now I have opened
my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my mouth.
My words shall be of the uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall
utter knowledge clearly. The Spirit of
God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
Matthew 7:1‑5,7,8,13,14
Judge not, that ye be not
judged. For with what judgment ye judge,
ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again. And why beholdest thou the mote
that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own
eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy
brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in
thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first
cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast
out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
#Ask, and it shall be given
you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every
one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that
knocketh it shall be opened.
#Enter ye in at the strait
gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow
is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
Romans 1:20 the (to ;)
the invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead;
Revelation 21:3‑7 I heard,9‑18,23,24
I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell
with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them,
and be their God. And God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things
are passed away. And he that sat upon
the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for
these words are true and faithful. And
he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of
the fountain of the water of life freely.
He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and
he shall be my son.
And there came unto me one of
the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and
talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's
wife. And he carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her
light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as
crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates
twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three
gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve
foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden reed
to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length
is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve
thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the wall thereof, an hundred
and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that is, of the
angel. And the building of the wall of
it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass.
And the city had no need of
the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it:
and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
Revelation 22:1‑5
And he shewed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of
the Lamb. In the midst of the street of
it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare
twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of
the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb
shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face;
and his name shall be in their foreheads.
And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither
light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for
ever and ever.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
205:7‑21
When will the error of believing that there
is life in matter, and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of God, be
unmasked? When will it be understood
that matter has neither intelligence, life, nor sensation, and that the
opposite belief is the prolific source of all suffering? God created all through Mind, and made all
perfect and eternal. Where then is the
necessity for recreation or procreation?
Befogged in error (the error of believing
that matter can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear glimpses
of God only as the mists disperse, or as they melt into such thinness that we
perceive the divine image in some word or deed which indicates the true idea,‑‑the
supremacy and reality of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil.
275:10‑24
To grasp the reality and order of being in
its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle of all
that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth,
Love, combine as one,‑‑and are the Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being,
immortality, cause, and effect belong to God.
These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite
divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is
wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life but
the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.
Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual
understanding, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is God,
omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, ‑‑that is, all power, all presence, all
Science. Hence all is in reality the
manifestation of Mind.
315:29‑23
Wearing in part a human form (that is, as it
seemed to mortal view), being conceived by a human mother, Jesus was the
mediator between Spirit and the flesh, between Truth and error. Explaining and demonstrating the way of
divine Science, he became the way of salvation to all who accepted his
word. From him mortals may learn how to
escape from evil. The real man being
linked by Science to his Maker, mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight
of mortal selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to God, and to
recognize the divine sonship. Christ,
Truth, was demonstrated through Jesus to prove the power of Spirit over the
flesh,‑‑to show that Truth is made manifest by its effects upon the human mind
and body, healing sickness and destroying sin.
Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of
God. Hence the warfare between this
spiritual idea and perfunctory religion, between spiritual clear‑sightedness
and the blindness of popular belief, which led to the conclusion that the
spiritual idea could be killed by crucifying the flesh. The Christ‑idea, or the Christ‑man, rose
higher to human view because of the crucifixion, and thus proved that Truth was
the master of death. Christ presents the
indestructible man, whom Spirit creates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that blending with God,
his divine Principle, which gives man dominion over all the earth.
358:9
Christian Science, understood, coincides with
the Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively every point it
presents. Otherwise it would not be
Science, and could not present its proofs.
Christian Science is neither made up of contradictory aphorisms nor of
the inventions of those who scoff at God.
It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth against error, uttered
and illustrated by the prophets, by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded
throughout the Scriptures.
388:12‑30
Admit the common hypothesis that food is the
nutriment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the
opposite direction,‑‑that food has power to destroy Life, God, through a
deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of
all material health‑theories. They are self‑contradictory
and self‑destructive, constituting a "kingdom divided against
itself," which is "brought to desolation." If food was prepared by Jesus for his
disciples, it cannot destroy life.
The fact is, food does not affect the
absolute Life of man, and this becomes self‑evident, when we learn that God is
our Life. Because sin and sickness are
not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in immortality; but it would be
foolish to venture beyond our present understanding, foolish to stop eating until
we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we
shall neither eat to live nor live to eat.
418:5‑25
Stick to the truth of being in
contradistinction to the error that life, substance, or intelligence can be in
matter. Plead with an honest conviction
of truth and a clear perception of the unchanging, unerring, and certain effect
of divine Science. Then, if your
fidelity is half equal to the truth of your plea, you will heal the sick.
It must be clear to you that sickness is no
more the reality of being than is sin.
This mortal dream of sickness, sin, and death should cease through
Christian Science. Then one disease
would be as readily destroyed as another.
Whatever the belief is, if arguments are used to destroy it, the belief
must be repudiated, and the negation must extend to the supposed disease and to
whatever decides its type and symptoms.
Truth is affirmative, and confers harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this
simple rule of Truth, which governs all reality. By the truthful arguments you employ, and
especially by the spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will heal
the sick.
458:32
Christianity causes men to turn naturally
from matter to Spirit, as the flower turns from darkness to light. Man then appropriates those things which
"eye hath not seen nor ear heard."
Paul and John had a clear apprehension that, as mortal man achieves no
worldly honors except by sacrifice, so he must gain heavenly riches by
forsaking all worldliness. Then he will
have nothing in common with the worldling's affections, motives, and aims. Judge not the future advancement of Christian
Science by the steps already taken, lest you yourself be condemned for failing
to take the first step.
479:27
We admit that black is not a color, because
it reflects no light. So evil should be denied identity or power, because it
has none of the divine hues. Paul says:
"For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are
clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." (Romans i. 20.) When the substance of Spirit
appears in Christian Science, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where the spirit of God is, and there is no
place where God is not, evil becomes nothing,‑‑the opposite of the something of
Spirit. If there is no spiritual
reflection, then there remains only the darkness of vacuity and not a trace of
heavenly tints.
495:6‑24
If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you
cannot destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then classify sickness and error as our
Master did, when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hath bound," and
find a sovereign antidote for error in the life‑giving power of Truth acting on
human belief, a power which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and
sets the captive free physically and morally.
When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts
you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea.
Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your
clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious‑‑as Life
eternally is‑‑can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life
is not. Let Christian Science, instead
of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding
will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence
discord with harmony.
568:24
For victory over a single sin, we give thanks
and magnify the Lord of Hosts. What
shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter than has ever before
reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ;
for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting
strain. Self‑abnegation, by which we lay
down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in
Christian Science. This rule clearly
interprets God as divine Principle,‑‑as Life, represented by the Father; as
Truth, represented by the Son; as Love, represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period, here or
hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed
to God.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
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.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 176
Based on the Danish of Nikolaj F. S. Grundtvig
Long hast thou stood, O church of God,
Long mid the tempest's assailing,
Founded secure on timeless rock
Rises thy light, never failing;
Shining that all may understand
What has been wrought by God's command,
O'er night and chaos prevailing.
Let there be light, and light was there,
Clear as the Word that declared it;
Healing and peace to all it gave,
Who in humility shared it.
Ah, they were faithful, they who heard,
Steadfast their trust in God's great Word,
Steadfast the Love that prepared it.
Let there be light, the Word shines forth,
Lo, where the new morning whitens;
O church of God, with Book unsealed,
How its page beacons and brightens.
Living stones we, each in his place,
May we be worthy such a grace,
While Truth the wide earth enlightens.
