Service for Sunday, June 30, 2013

Subject: Christian Science

 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

Psalms 86:1‑13,15 thou
Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy.  Preserve my soul; for I am holy: O thou my God, save thy servant that trusteth in thee.  Be merciful unto me, O Lord: for I cry unto thee daily.  Rejoice the soul of thy servant: for unto thee, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.  For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee.  Give ear, O Lord, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications.  In the day of my trouble I will call upon thee: for thou wilt answer me.  Among the gods there is none like unto thee, O Lord; neither are there any works like unto thy works.  All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name.  For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.  Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: unite my heart to fear thy name.  I will praise thee, O Lord my God, with all my heart: and I will glorify thy name for evermore.  For great is thy mercy toward me: and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest hell. 

thou, O Lord, art a God full of compassion, and gracious, longsuffering, and plenteous in mercy and truth.

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.

Silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s prayer, with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy


Our Father which art in heaven,
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Adorable One.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know – as in heaven, so on earth
God is omnipotent, supreme.
Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections;
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
   For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.


 Hymn 221 
 Margaret Glenn Matters

 O Jesus, our dear Master,
   Thy works, now understood,
 Reveal their full effulgence
   Through love and brotherhood.
 Today Christ's precious Science
   Thy healing power makes plain:
 With joy may all obey thee
   And cast out sin and pain.

 The Christ, eternal manhood,
   As God's own Son beloved,
 A tender ever‑presence
   Within each heart is proved.
 O God, our Father‑Mother,
   Thy name we see expressed
 By man, who in Thy Science
   Is perfect, holy, blessed.

 O Science, God‑sent message
   To tired humanity,
 Thou art Love's revelation
   Of Truth that makes us free.
 Thy kingdom, God, within us
   Shows forth Love's sweet control.
 God's idea, man, rejoices;
   He knows the reign of Soul.

Solo: “Comfort Ye My People”            


Friends:
The Bible and the Christian Science textbook are our only preachers. We shall now read Scriptural texts, and their correlative passages from our denominational textbook; these comprise our sermon.

The canonical writings, together with the word of our textbook, corroborating and explaining the Bible texts in their spiritual import and application to all ages, past, present, and future, constitute a sermon undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized.

The lesson-sermon from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, read by the First and Second Readers.

The content of the Lesson Sermon may be found in the Christian Science Quarterly. You may also read the Lesson-Sermon for this week online by clicking here.

 Hymn 297 
 Roberta B. Lynch

 Science, the angel with the flaming sword,
 God's gift, the glory of the risen Lord;
 Light of the world, in whose light we shall see
 Father and perfect Son, blest unity;

 Calm of Shekinah where hope anchors fast,
 Harbor of refuge till the storm be past;
 Sweet, secret place where God and men do meet,
 Horeb whereon we walk with unshod feet;

 Place of communion with the Lamb of God,
 Fold where the sheep must pass beneath His rod;
 Ark where the dove may close her faltering wings,
 Love's law divine that makes us priests and kings;

 Loosener of prison bands at midnight hour,
 Of self‑forged chains that fall through Love's
           all‑power;
 Christ's morning meal by joyous Galilee:
 Science, thou dost fulfill all prophecy.

"The Scientific Statement of Being" (S&H p. 468} and the correlative scripture according to I John 3:1-3.

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.468

1John.3

[1] Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
[2] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
[3] And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Benediction
II Timothy 4:18 the

the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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