Service for Sunday, July 14, 2014

Subject: Sacrament

 Hymn 151
 Ellen J. Glover 

 In speechless prayer and reverence,
   Dear Lord, I come to Thee;
 My heart with love Thou fillest,
   Yea, with humility.
 My bread and wine Thou art,
 With Thee I hold communion;
   Thy presence healeth me.

 To do Thy will is greater
   Than sacrifice can be;
 O give me needed courage
   Sweet with sincerity.
 From earthly thought released,
 In speechless prayer and reverence,
   Dear Lord, I come to Thee.

Readings from the Bible.

Psalms 40:1‑11,16
I waited patiently for the Lord; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.  He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.  And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord.  Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.  

Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us‑ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.  Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.  

Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.  I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest.  I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.  Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve 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.

Romans 12:1,2
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

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 269
 Frederic W. Root 

 Our God is Love, unchanging Love,
   And can we ask for more?
 Our prayer for Love's increase is vain;
   'Twas infinite before.
 Ask not the Lord with breath of praise
   For more than we accept;
 The open fount is free to all,
   God's promises are kept.

 Our God is Mind, the perfect Mind,
   Intelligence divine;
 Shall mortal man ask Him to change
   His infinite design?
 The heart that yearns for righteousness,
   With longing unalloyed,
 In such desire sends up a prayer
   That ne'er returneth void.

 O loving Father, well we know
   That words alone are vain,
 That those who seek Thy will to do,
   The true communion gain.
 Then may our deeds our pure desire
   For growth in grace express,
 That we may know how Love divine
   Forever waits to bless.

Reading of the Tenets of The Mother Church
Tenets of The Mother Church
The First Church of Christ, Scientist*
1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and infinite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's image and likeness.
3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is punished so long as the belief lasts.
4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evidence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower;and we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming sin and death.
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eternal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the nothingness of matter
6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and to be merciful, just, and pure.
Mary Baker Eddy

Solo: “The Beatitudes”


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 1 
 Communion Doxology – Tate and Brady

 Be Thou, O God, exalted high;
 And as Thy glory fills the sky,
 So let it be on earth displayed,
 Till Thou art here and now obeyed.

The First Reader briefly invites the congregation to kneel in silent Communion. This is concluded by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer (spiritual interpretation omitted).


"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
:
Micah 6:8 what doth

what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

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