Service for Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Theme: Light

 Hymn 2 
 Author Unknown

 A glorious day is dawning,
   And o'er the waking earth
 The heralds of the morning
   Are springing into birth.
 In dark and hidden places
   There shines the blessed light;
 The beam of Truth displaces
   The darkness of the night.

 The advocates of error
   Foresee the glorious morn,
 And hear in shrinking terror,
   The watchword of reform:
 It rings from hill and valley,
   It breaks oppression's chain.
 A thousand freemen rally,
   And swell the mighty strain.

 The watchword has been spoken,
   The light has broken forth,
 Far shines the blessed token
   Upon the startled earth.
 To hearts and homes benighted
   The blessed Truth is given,
 And peace and love, united,
   Point upward unto heaven.

Readings from the Bible

Genesis 1:1‑5
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.  And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.  And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.  And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night.  And the evening and the morning were the first day.

Psalms 18:25‑32
With the merciful thou wilt shew thyself merciful; with an upright man thou wilt shew thyself upright; With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.  For thou wilt save the afflicted people; but wilt bring down high looks.  For thou wilt light my candle: the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.  For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.  As for God, his way is perfect: the word of the Lord is tried: he is a buckler to all those that trust in him.  For who is God save the Lord?  or who is a rock save our God?  It is God that girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect.

Psalms 27:1‑5
The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?  When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.  Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.  One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in his temple.  For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

Psalms 36:5‑10
Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.  Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.  How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.  They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.  For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. O continue thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the upright in heart.

Psalms 89:1,2,6‑17
I will sing of the mercies of the Lord for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.  For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens. 

For who in the heaven can be compared unto the Lord? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the Lord?  God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him.  O Lord God of hosts, who is a strong Lord like unto thee? or to thy faithfulness round about thee?  

Thou rulest the raging of the sea: when the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them.  Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.  The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: as for the world and the fulness thereof, thou hast founded them.  The north and the south thou hast created them: Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.  Thou hast a mighty arm: strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.  Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne: mercy and truth shall go before thy face. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance.  In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.  For thou art the glory of their strength: and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.

Psalms 139:1‑12
O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.  Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.  Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.  For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.  Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.  

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?  If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.  If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.  If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.  Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

Isaiah 2:2‑5 it
it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.  And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.  And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.  O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord. 

Isaiah 60:1‑3,19,20
Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.  For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.  And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising. 

The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.  Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.

Matthew 5:3‑16
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.  

#Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.  Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

John 1:1‑5
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  The same was in the beginning with God.  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

 xi:9‑21
  The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation.  Now, as then, these mighty works are not supernatural, but supremely natural.  They are the sign of Immanuel, or "God with us,"‑‑a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,

    To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense],
    And recovering of sight to the blind,
    To set at liberty them that are bruised. 

9:32
Consistent prayer is the desire to do right.  Prayer means that we desire to walk and will walk in the light so far as we receive it, even though with bleeding footsteps, and that waiting patiently on the Lord, we will leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him. 

34:29‑12
  What a contrast between our Lord's last supper and his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples in the bright morning hours at the joyful meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea!  His gloom had passed into glory, and his disciples' grief into repentance,‑‑hearts chastened and pride rebuked.  Convinced of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened by their Master's voice, they changed their methods, turned away from material things, and cast their net on the right side.  Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into newness of life as Spirit. 
  This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of a new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists commemorate.

72:9
  So‑called spirits are but corporeal communicators.  As light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God, is the only truth‑giver to man.  Truth destroys mortality, and brings to light immortality.  Mortal belief (the material sense of life) and immortal Truth (the spiritual sense) are the tares and the wheat, which are not united by progress, but separated. 

191:8
  As a material, theoretical life‑basis is found to be a misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine Principle of man dawns upon human thought, and leads it to "where the young child was," ‑‑even to the birth of a new‑old idea, to the spiritual sense of being and of what Life includes.  Thus the whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error. 

209:5
  Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas, the life and light of all its own vast creation; and man is tributary to divine Mind.  The material and mortal body or mind is not the man. 

210:11
  Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving a better understanding of Soul and salvation.  Jesus healed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical process. 

215:11‑21
  Spiritual vision is not subordinate to geometric altitudes.  Whatever is governed by God, is never for an instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence and Life. 
  We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of the absence of light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of reality.  So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before truth and love. 

255:1‑6
  Eternal Truth is changing the universe.  As mortals drop off their mental swaddling‑clothes, thought expands into expression.  "Let there be light," is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, changing chaos into order and discord into the music of the spheres.

266:24
  Mortals must follow Jesus' sayings and his demonstrations, which dominate the flesh.  Perfect and infinite Mind enthroned is heaven. The evil beliefs which originate in mortals are hell.  Man is the idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming the universe with light.  Man is deathless, spiritual.  He is above sin or frailty.  He does not cross the barriers of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with God and the universe. 

280:1
  In the infinitude of Mind, matter must be unknown.  Symbols and elements of discord and decay are not products of the infinite, perfect, and eternal All.  From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections of good can come.  All things beautiful and harmless are ideas of Mind.  Mind creates and multiplies them, and the product must be mental. 

336:25 God
God, the divine Principle of man, and man in God's likeness are inseparable, harmonious, and eternal.  The Science of being furnishes the rule of perfection, and brings immortality to light.  God and man are not the same, but in the order of divine Science, God and man coexist and are eternal.  God is the parent Mind, and man is God's spiritual offspring. 

510:9
  Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose "light shall we see light;" and this illumination is reflected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn away from a false material sense. 

577:32‑18
  In the following Psalm one word shows, though faintly, the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures by substituting for the corporeal sense, the incorporeal or spiritual sense of Deity:‑‑

                       PSALM XXIII
  [Divine Love] is my shepherd; I shall not want. 
  [Love] maketh me to lie down in green pastures: [Love] leadeth me beside the still waters. 
  [Love] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]:  [Love] 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 [Love] is with me; [Love's] rod and [Love's] staff they comfort me. 
  [Love] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:  [Love] anointeth 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 [the consciousness] of [Love] for ever. 

Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.


 Hymn 82 
 Arthur C. Ainger

 God is working His purpose out
   As year succeeds to year,
 God is working His purpose out
   And the time is drawing near;
 Nearer and nearer draws the time,
   The time that shall surely be,
 When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
   As the waters cover the sea.



 What can we do to work God's work,
   To prosper and increase
 The brotherhood of all mankind,
   The reign of the Prince of Peace?
 What can we do to hasten the time,
   The time that shall surely be,
 When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
   As the waters cover the sea?

 March we forth in the strength of God
   With the banner of Christ unfurled,
 That the light of the glorious Gospel of truth
   May shine throughout the world;
 Fight we the fight with sorrow and sin,
   To set their captives free,
 That the earth may be filled with the glory of God
   As the waters cover the sea.

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.

No comments: