Theme: Physiology
Hymn 216
From the German of Georg Neumark
O he who trusts in God's protection
And hopes in Him when fears alarm,
Is sheltered by His lovingkindness,
Delivered by His mighty arm;
If ye God's law can understand,
Ye have not builded on the sand.
O wait on Him with veneration,
Be silent in humility;
He leads you after His own counsel,
His will is done and still shall be;
All good for you His wisdom planned;
O trust in God and understand.
Readings from the Bible.
Psalms 103:15‑22
As for man, his days are as
grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;
and the place thereof shall know it no more.
But the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them
that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children; To such as keep
his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them. The Lord hath prepared his throne in the
heavens; and his kingdom ruleth over all.
Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his
commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts; ye
ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
Bless the Lord, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the
Lord, O my soul.
Psalms 107:1‑9,15,20,21,43
O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he
hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy; And gathered them out of the lands,
from the east, and from the west, from the north, and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary
way; they found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their
trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that
they might go to a city of habitation.
Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his
wonderful works to the children of men!
For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.
Oh that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
He sent his word, and healed
them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh that men would praise the Lord for his
goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Whoso is wise, and will
observe these things, even they shall understand the lovingkindness of the
Lord.
Proverbs 4:20‑23
#My son, attend to my words;
incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let
them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them,
and health to all their flesh. #Keep thy
heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Matthew 6:19‑23
#Lay not up for yourselves
treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break
through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither
moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye: if
therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body
shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness,
how great is that darkness!
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
165:1‑7 np
Physiology is one of the apples from
"the tree of knowledge." Evil
declared that eating this fruit would open man's eyes and make him as a
god. Instead of so doing, it closed the
eyes of mortals to man's God‑given dominion over the earth.
To measure intellectual capacity by the size
of the brain and strength by the exercise of muscle, is to subjugate
intelligence, to make mind mortal, and to place this so‑called mind at the
mercy of material organization and non‑intelligent matter.
Obedience to the so‑called physical laws of
health has not checked sickness.
Diseases have multiplied, since man‑made material theories took the
place of spiritual truth.
You say that indigestion, fatigue,
sleeplessness, cause distressed stomachs and aching heads. Then you consult your brain in order to
remember what has hurt you, when your remedy lies in forgetting the whole
thing; for matter has no sensation of its own, and the human mind is all that
can produce pain.
As a man thinketh, so is he. Mind is all that feels, acts, or impedes
action. Ignorant of this, or shrinking
from its implied responsibility, the healing effort is made on the wrong side,
and thus the conscious control over the body is lost.
167:1‑19
Should we implore a corporeal God to heal the
sick out of His personal volition, or should we understand the infinite divine
Principle which heals? If we rise no
higher than blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, and Soul‑existence,
in the place of sense‑existence, is not comprehended. We apprehend Life in divine Science only as
we live above corporeal sense and correct it.
Our proportionate admission of the claims of good or of evil determines
the harmony of our existence,‑‑our health, our longevity, and our
Christianity.
We cannot serve two masters nor perceive
divine Science with the material senses.
Drugs and hygiene cannot successfully usurp the place and power of the
divine source of all health and perfection.
If God made man both good and evil, man must remain thus. What can improve God's work? Again, an error in the premise must appear in
the conclusion. To have one God and avail
yourself of the power of Spirit, you must love God supremely.
168:15 Because man‑made
systems insist that man becomes sick and useless, suffers and dies, all in
consonance with the laws of God, are we to believe it? Are we to believe an authority which denies
God's spiritual command relating to perfection,‑‑an authority which Jesus
proved to be false? He did the will of
the Father. He healed sickness in
defiance of what is called material law, but in accordance with God's law, the
law of Mind.
170:22‑11
Spiritual causation is the one question to be
considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human
progress. The age seems ready to approach this subject, to ponder somewhat the
supremacy of Spirit, and at least to touch the hem of Truth's garment.
The description of man as purely physical, or
as both material and spiritual,‑‑but in either case dependent upon his physical
organization,‑‑is the Pandora box, from which all ills have gone forth,
especially despair. Matter, which takes
divine power into its own hands and claims to be a creator, is a fiction, in
which paganism and lust are so sanctioned by society that mankind has caught
their moral contagion.
Through discernment of the spiritual opposite
of materiality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will reopen with the
key of divine Science the gates of Paradise which human beliefs have closed,
and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free, not needing to consult
almanacs for the probabilities either of his life or of the weather, not
needing to study brainology to learn how much of a man he is.
174:22
Mortal belief is all that enables a drug to
cure mortal ailments. Anatomy admits that mind is somewhere in man, though out
of sight. Then, if an individual is
sick, why treat the body alone and administer a dose of despair to the
mind? Why declare that the body is
diseased, and picture this disease to the mind, rolling it under the tongue as
a sweet morsel and holding it before the thought of both physician and
patient? We should understand that the
cause of disease obtains in the mortal human mind, and its cure comes from the
immortal divine Mind. We should prevent
the images of disease from taking form in thought, and we should efface the
outlines of disease already formulated in the minds of mortals.
179:5
Science can heal the sick, who are absent
from their healers, as well as those present, since space is no obstacle to
Mind. Immortal Mind heals what eye hath
not seen; but the spiritual capacity to apprehend thought and to heal by the
Truth‑power, is won only as man is found, not in self‑righteousness, but
reflecting the divine nature.
180:25
When man is governed by God, the ever‑present
Mind who understands all things, man knows that with God all things are
possible. The only way to this living
Truth, which heals the sick, is found in the Science of divine Mind as taught
and demonstrated by Christ Jesus.
182:18‑7
Mind's government of the body must supersede the
so‑called laws of matter. Obedience to
material law prevents full obedience to spiritual law,‑‑the law which overcomes
material conditions and puts matter under the feet of Mind. Mortals entreat the divine Mind to heal the
sick, and forthwith shut out the aid of Mind by using material means, thus
working against themselves and their prayers and denying man's God‑given
ability to demonstrate Mind's sacred power.
Pleas for drugs and laws of health come from some sad incident, or else
from ignorance of Christian Science and its transcendent power.
To admit that sickness is a condition over
which God has no control, is to presuppose that omnipotent power is powerless
on some occasions. The law of Christ, or
Truth, makes all things possible to Spirit; but the so‑called laws of matter
would render Spirit of no avail, and demand obedience to materialistic codes,
thus departing from the basis of one God, one lawmaker. To suppose that God constitutes laws of
inharmony is a mistake; discords have no support from nature or divine law,
however much is said to the contrary.
192:4,27
We are Christian Scientists, only as we quit
our reliance upon that which is false and grasp the true. We are not Christian Scientists until we
leave all for Christ. Human opinions are
not spiritual. They come from the
hearing of the ear, from corporeality instead of from Principle, and from the
mortal instead of from the immortal.
Spirit is not separate from God.
Spirit is God.
We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by
following the example of our Master in the understanding of divine
metaphysics. Christianity is the basis
of true healing. Whatever holds human
thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power.
199:21
The devotion of thought to an
honest achievement makes the achievement possible. Exceptions only confirm this rule, proving
that failure is occasioned by a too feeble faith.
200:16
The great truth in the Science of being, that
the real man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible; for if
man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither inverted nor subverted, but
upright and Godlike.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 265
Samuel Johnson – Adapted
Onward, Christian, though the region
Where thou art seem drear and lone;
God hath set a guardian legion
Very near thee, press thou on.
By the Christ road, and none other,
Is the mount of vision won;
Tread it with rejoicing, brother:
Jesus trod it, press thou on.
By thy trustful, calm endeavor,
Guiding, cheering, like the sun,
Earth‑bound hearts thou shalt deliver;
O, for their sake, press thou on.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 154
Frances A. Fox
In Thee, O Spirit true and tender,
I find my life as God's own child;
Within Thy light of glorious splendor
I lose the earth‑clouds drear and wild.
Within Thy love is safe abiding
From every thought that giveth fear;
Within Thy truth a perfect chiding,
Should I forget that Thou art near.
In Thee I have no pain or sorrow,
No anxious thought, no load of care.
Thou art the same today, tomorrow;
Thy love and truth are everywhere.
