Service for Sunday, July 21, 2013

Subject: Life

 Hymn 383 
 Mary W. Hale*

 Whatever dims thy sense of truth
   Or stains thy purity,
 Though light as breath of summer air,
   O count it sin to thee.

 Preserve the tablet of thy thoughts
   From every blemish free,
 For our Redeemer's holy faith
   Its temple makes with thee.

 And pray of God, that grace be given
   To tread the narrow way:
 How dark soever it may seem,
   It leads to cloudless day.

The scriptural selections are from Psalms.

Psalms 40:1‑11
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 loving kindness and thy truth continually preserve me.

Psalms 23:1‑6
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.  He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.  He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.  Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

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 416
 Kate L. Colby – Adapted

 Be true and list the voice within,
   Be true unto thy high ideal,
 Thy perfect self, that knows no sin,
   That self that is the only real.

 God is the only perfect One:
   My perfect self is one with Him;
 So man is seen as God's own son,
   When Truth dispels the shadows dim.

 True to our God whose name is Love,
   We shall fulfill our Father's plan;
 For true means true to God above,
   To self, and to our fellow man.

Solo: “Twenty-Third Psalm”            


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 46
 Josiah Conder* 

 Day by day the manna fell:
 O, to learn this lesson well.
 Still by constant mercy fed,
 Give me, Lord, my daily bread.

 Day by day the promise reads,
 Daily strength for daily needs:
 Cast foreboding fears away;
 Take the manna of today.

 Lord, my times are in Thy hand:
 All my sanguine hopes have planned,
 To Thy wisdom I resign,
 And would mold my will to Thine.

 Thou my daily task shalt give;
 Day by day to Thee I live;
 So shall added years fulfill
 Not my own, my Father's will.


"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

                          
Psalms 66:8,9

O bless our God, ye people, and make the voice of his praise to be heard: Which holdeth our soul in life, and suffereth not our feet to be moved.

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