Theme: Hope
Hymn 75
James Montgomery – Adapted
God comes, with succor speedy,
To those who suffer wrong;
To help the poor and needy,
And bid the weak be strong;
He comes to break oppression,
To set the captive free,
To take away transgression,
And rule in equity.
His blessings come as showers
Upon the thirsty earth;
And joy and hope, like flowers,
Spring in His path to birth.
Before Him on the mountains
Shall Peace, the herald, go;
From hill to vale the fountains
Of righteousness shall flow.
To Him shall prayer unceasing,
And daily vows, ascend;
His kingdom still increasing,
A kingdom without end.
The tide of time shall never
His covenant remove;
His name shall stand forever:
His changeless name of Love.
Readings from the Bible.
Job 11:7‑18
Canst thou by searching find
out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven; what canst thou do?
deeper than hell; what canst thou know?
The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. If he cut off, and shut up, or gather
together, then who can hinder him? For
he knoweth vain men: he seeth wickedness also; will he not then consider it? For vain man would be wise, though man be
born like a wild ass's colt. If thou
prepare thine heart, and stretch out thine hands toward him; If iniquity be in
thine hand, put it far away, and let not wickedness dwell in thy
tabernacles. For then shalt thou lift up
thy face without spot; yea, thou shalt be stedfast, and shalt not fear: Because
thou shalt forget thy misery, and remember it as waters that pass away: And
thine age shall be clearer than the noonday; thou shalt shine forth, thou shalt
be as the morning. And thou shalt be
secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt
take thy rest in safety.
Psalms 16:1‑11
Preserve me, O God: for in
thee do I put my trust. O my soul, thou
hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;
But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all
my delight. Their sorrows shall be
multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I
not offer, nor take up their names into my lips. The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance
and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.
The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly
heritage. I will bless the Lord, who
hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons. I have set the Lord always before me: because
he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall
rest in hope. For thou wilt not leave my
soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy
presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.
Psalms 42:5
Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet
praise him for the help of his countenance.
Psalms 71:1‑5
In thee, O Lord, do I put my
trust: let me never be put to confusion.
Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine
ear unto me, and save me. Be thou my
strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given
commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress. Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the
wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man. For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my
trust from my youth.
Jeremiah 17:7,8
Blessed is the man that
trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the
waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when
heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year
of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Lamentations 3:22‑26
It is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy
faithfulness. The Lord is my portion,
saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh
him. It is good that a man should both
hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
Acts 2:22‑28
Ye men of Israel, hear these
words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and
wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves
also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath
raised up, having loosed
the pains of death: because
it was not possible that he should be holden of it. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw
the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not
be moved: Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also
my flesh shall rest in hope: Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell,
neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life;
thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
Romans 5:1‑5
Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: By whom also we
have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of
the glory of God. And not only so, but
we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And
patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed;
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us.
Romans 8:16‑20,24,25
The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then
heirs; heirs of God, and joint‑heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with
him, that we may be also glorified together.
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to
be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature
waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity,
not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
For we are saved by hope: but
hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope
for? But if we hope for that we see not,
then do we with patience wait for it.
Romans 12:9‑18
Let love be without
dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with
brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; Not slothful in business;
fervent in spirit; serving the Lord; Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation;
continuing instant in prayer; Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to
hospitality. Bless them which persecute
you: bless, and curse not. Rejoice with
them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind
not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own
conceits. Recompense to no man evil for
evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as lieth in you,
live peaceably with all men.
Romans 15:4 whatsoever,13
whatsoever things were
written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and
comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
Now the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the
power of the Holy Ghost.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
14:12
Become conscious for a single moment that
Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,‑‑neither in nor of matter,‑‑and the
body will then utter no complaints. If
suffering from a belief in sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow is turned into joy when the body is
controlled by spiritual Life, Truth, and Love.
Hence the hope of the promise Jesus bestows: "He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also; . . . because I go unto my
Father,"‑‑[because the Ego is absent from the body, and present with Truth
and Love.] The Lord's Prayer is the
prayer of Soul, not of material sense.
40:31
The nature of Christianity is peaceful and
blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be
cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed
before us; and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and
triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and
afflictions. Like our Master, we must
depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being.
66:6
Trials teach mortals not to lean on a
material staff,‑‑a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not half remember this in the sunshine
of joy and prosperity. Sorrow is
salutary. Through great tribulation we
enter the kingdom. Trials are proofs of
God's care. Spiritual development germinates not from seed sown in the soil of
material hopes, but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of
Spirit, which have no taint of earth.
Each successive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine goodness
and love.
109:11
For three years after my discovery, I sought
the solution of this problem of Mind‑healing, searched the Scriptures and read
little else, kept aloof from society, and devoted time and energies to dis‑covering
a positive rule. The search was sweet,
calm, and buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind‑action
to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy,
uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way
to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and
demonstration. The revelation of Truth
in the understanding came to me gradually and apparently through divine
power. When a new spiritual idea is
borne to earth, the prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled:
"Unto us a child is born, . . . and his name shall be called
Wonderful."
125:12
As human thought changes from one stage to
another of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and joy,‑‑from fear to hope
and from faith to understanding,‑‑the visible manifestation will at last be man
governed by Soul, not by material sense.
Reflecting God's government, man is self‑governed. When subordinate to the divine Spirit, man
cannot be controlled by sin or death, thus proving our material theories about
laws of health to be valueless.
297:32‑24
A mortal belief fulfils its own
conditions. Sickness, sin, and death are
the vague realities of human conclusions.
Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine Science. They dawn in faith and glow full‑orbed in
spiritual understanding. As a cloud
hides the sun it cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the
voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot destroy Science armed with
faith, hope, and fruition.
What is termed material sense can report only
a mortal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can bear witness only
to Truth. To material sense, the unreal
is the real until this sense is corrected by Christian Science.
Spiritual sense, contradicting the material
senses, involves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, reality. Material sense expresses the belief that mind
is in matter. This human belief,
alternating between a sense of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and
death, never reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal. When the real is attained, which is announced
by Science, joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. Spiritual ideas, like numbers and notes,
start from Principle, and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead up to their divine
origin, God, and to the spiritual sense of being.
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.
393:29
Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and
matter cannot be. A false belief is both
the tempter and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the disease and its cause. It is well to be calm in sickness; to be
hopeful is still better; but to understand that sickness is not real and that
Truth can destroy its seeming reality, is best of all, for this understanding
is the universal and perfect remedy.
446:20
To understand God strengthens
hope, enthrones faith in Truth, and verifies Jesus' word: "Lo, I am with
you alway, even unto the end of the world."
451:8
Students of Christian Science, who start with
its letter and think to succeed without the spirit, will either make shipwreck
of their faith or be turned sadly awry.
They must not only seek, but strive, to enter the narrow path of Life,
for "wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction,
and many there be which go in thereat."
Man walks in the direction towards which he looks, and where his
treasure is, there will his heart be also.
If our hopes and affections are spiritual, they come from above, not
from beneath, and they bear as of old the fruits of the Spirit.
558:1‑31 np
St. John writes, in the tenth chapter of his
book of Revelation:‑‑
And I saw another mighty angel come down from
heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a
rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as
pillars of fire: and he had in his hand
a little book open: and he set his right
foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth.
This angel or message which comes from God,
clothed with a cloud, prefigures divine Science. To mortal sense Science seems at first
obscure, abstract, and dark; but a bright promise crowns its brow. When understood, it is Truth's prism and
praise. When you look it fairly in the
face, you can heal by its means, and it has for you a light above the sun, for
God "is the light thereof." Its
feet are pillars of fire, foundations of Truth and Love. It brings the baptism of the Holy Ghost,
whose flames of Truth were prophetically described by John the Baptist as
consuming error.
This angel had in his hand "a little
book," open for all to read and understand. Did this same book contain the revelation of
divine Science, the "right foot" or dominant power of which was upon
the sea,‑‑upon elementary, latent error, the source of all error's visible
forms? The angel's left foot was upon
the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon visible error and
audible sin. The "still, small
voice" of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the
globe's remotest bound. The inaudible
voice of Truth is, to the human mind, "as when a lion roareth." It is
heard in the desert and in dark places of fear.
It arouses the "seven thunders" of evil, and stirs their
latent forces to utter the full diapason of secret tones. Then is the power of Truth demonstrated,‑‑made
manifest in the destruction of error.
Then will a voice from harmony cry: "Go and take the little book. .
. . Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be
in thy mouth sweet as honey."
Mortals, obey the heavenly evangel.
Take divine Science. Read this
book from beginning to end. Study it,
ponder it. It will be indeed sweet at
its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its
digestion bitter. When you approach
nearer and nearer to this divine Principle, when you eat the divine body of
this Principle,‑‑thus partaking of the nature, or primal elements, of Truth and
Love, ‑‑do not be surprised nor discontented because you must share the hemlock
cup and eat the bitter herbs; for the Israelites of old at the Paschal meal
thus prefigured this perilous passage out of bondage into the El Dorado of
faith and hope.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 148
Anna L. Waring*
In heavenly Love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?
Wherever He may guide me,
No want shall turn me back;
My Shepherd is beside me,
And nothing can I lack.
His wisdom ever waketh,
His sight is never dim;
He knows the way He taketh,
And I will walk with Him.
Green pastures are before me,
Which yet I have not seen;
Bright skies will soon be o'er me,
Where darkest clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure,
My path in life is free;
My Father has my treasure,
And He will walk with me.
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.
