Theme: Clear
Hymn 6
William H. Burleigh – Adapted
Abide not in the realm of dreams,
O man, however fair it seems;
But with clear eye the present scan,
And hear the call of God and man.
Think not in sleep to fold thy hands,
Forgetful of thy Lord's commands:
From duty's claims no life is free,
Behold, today hath need of thee.
The present hour allots thy task,
For present strength and patience ask;
And trust His love whose sure supply
Meets all thy need abundantly.
Readings from the Bible.
II Samuel 23:1‑4
Now these be the last words
of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high,
the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel, said, The
Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the Rock of Israel
spake to me, He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of
God. And he shall be as the light of the
morning, when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds; as the tender
grass springing out of the earth by clear shining after rain.
Job 33:1‑4 I pray
I pray thee, hear my
speeches, and hearken to all my words.
Behold, now I have opened my mouth, my tongue hath spoken in my
mouth. My words shall be of the
uprightness of my heart: and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly. The Spirit of God hath made me, and the
breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
Psalms 51:1‑8 (to ;),10‑12
Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash
me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my
sin is ever before me. Against thee,
thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin
did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou
desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness;
Create in me a clean heart, O
God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from
me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Mark 8:22‑25 he
he cometh to Bethsaida; and
they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and
led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands
upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.
And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking. After that he put his hands again upon his
eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.
Romans 1:20 the (to ;)
the invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead;
Revelation 21:1‑7 I saw,9‑19
(to .),23
I saw a new heaven and a new
earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was
no more sea. And I John saw the holy
city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And I heard a
great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself
shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:
for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And
he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the
end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life
freely. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
And there came unto me one of
the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and
talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb's
wife. And he carried me away in the
spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, Having the glory of God: and her
light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as
crystal; And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates
twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve
tribes of the children of Israel: On the east three gates; on the north three
gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates. And the wall of the city had twelve
foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. And he that talked with me had a golden reed
to measure the city, and the gates thereof, and the wall thereof. And the city lieth foursquare, and the length
is as large as the breadth: and he measured the city with the reed, twelve
thousand furlongs. The length and the breadth and the height of it are
equal. And he measured the wall thereof,
an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure of a man, that
is, of the angel. And the building of
the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear
glass. And the foundations of the wall
of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones.
And the city had no need of
the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten
it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.
Revelation 22:1‑5 (to :)
And he shewed me a pure river
of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of
the Lamb. In the midst of the street of
it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare
twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of
the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb
shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: And they shall see his face;
and his name shall be in their foreheads.
And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither
light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light:
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
65:13‑23
The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous
to‑day show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of the age, struggling
against the advancing spiritual era.
Beholding the world's lack of Christianity and the powerlessness of vows
to make home happy, the human mind will at length demand a higher
affection.
There will ensue a fermentation over this as
over many other reforms, until we get at last the clear straining of truth, and
impurity and error are left among the lees.
204:30‑27
The belief that God lives in matter is
pantheistic. The error, which says that
Soul is in body, Mind is in matter, and good is in evil, must unsay it and
cease from such utterances; else God will continue to be hidden from humanity,
and mortals will sin without knowing that they are sinning, will lean on matter
instead of Spirit, stumble with lameness, drop with drunkenness, consume with
disease,‑‑all because of their blindness, their false sense concerning God and
man.
When will the error of believing that there
is life in matter, and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of God, be
unmasked? When will it be understood
that matter has neither intelligence, life, nor sensation, and that the
opposite belief is the prolific source of all suffering? God created all through Mind, and made all
perfect and eternal. Where then is the
necessity for recreation or procreation?
Befogged in error (the error of believing
that matter can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear glimpses
of God only as the mists disperse, or as they melt into such thinness that we
perceive the divine image in some word or deed which indicates the true idea,‑‑the
supremacy and reality of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil.
When we realize that there is one Mind, the
divine law of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded; whereas a belief in
many ruling minds hinders man's normal drift towards the one Mind, one God, and
leads human thought into opposite channels where selfishness reigns.
316:12
Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of
God. Hence the warfare between this
spiritual idea and perfunctory religion, between spiritual clear‑sightedness
and the blindness of popular belief, which led to the conclusion that the
spiritual idea could be killed by crucifying the flesh. The Christ‑idea, or the Christ‑man, rose
higher to human view because of the crucifixion, and thus proved that Truth was
the master of death. Christ presents the
indestructible man, whom Spirit creates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that blending with God,
his divine Principle, which gives man dominion over all the earth.
358:9
Christian Science, understood, coincides with
the Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively every point it
presents. Otherwise it would not be
Science, and could not present its proofs.
Christian Science is neither made up of contradictory aphorisms nor of
the inventions of those who scoff at God.
It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth against error, uttered
and illustrated by the prophets, by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded
throughout the Scriptures.
388:12‑30
Admit the common hypothesis that food is the
nutriment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the
opposite direction,‑‑that food has power to destroy Life, God, through a
deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of
all material health‑theories. They are
self‑contradictory and self‑destructive, constituting a "kingdom divided
against itself," which is "brought to desolation." If food was prepared by Jesus for his
disciples, it cannot destroy life.
The fact is, food does not affect the
absolute Life of man, and this becomes self‑evident, when we learn that God is
our Life. Because sin and sickness are
not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in immortality; but it would be
foolish to venture beyond our present understanding, foolish to stop eating
until we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we
shall neither eat to live nor live to eat.
418:5‑25
Stick to the truth of being in
contradistinction to the error that life, substance, or intelligence can be in
matter. Plead with an honest conviction
of truth and a clear perception of the unchanging, unerring, and certain effect
of divine Science. Then, if your
fidelity is half equal to the truth of your plea, you will heal the sick.
It must be clear to you that sickness is no
more the reality of being than is sin.
This mortal dream of sickness, sin, and death should cease through
Christian Science. Then one disease
would be as readily destroyed as another.
Whatever the belief is, if arguments are used to destroy it, the belief
must be repudiated, and the negation must extend to the supposed disease and to
whatever decides its type and symptoms.
Truth is affirmative, and confers harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this
simple rule of Truth, which governs all reality. By the truthful arguments you employ, and
especially by the spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will heal
the sick.
495:6‑24
If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you
cannot destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then classify sickness and error as our
Master did, when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hath bound," and
find a sovereign antidote for error in the life‑giving power of Truth acting on
human belief, a power which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and
sets the captive free physically and morally.
When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts
you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea.
Allow nothing but His likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither fear nor doubt overshadow your
clear sense and calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious‑‑as Life
eternally is‑‑can destroy any painful sense of, or belief in, that which Life
is not. Let Christian Science, instead
of corporeal sense, support your understanding of being, and this understanding
will supplant error with Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence
discord with harmony.
568:24‑14
For victory over a single sin, we give thanks
and magnify the Lord of Hosts. What
shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter than has ever before
reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ;
for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting
strain. Self‑abnegation, by which we lay
down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in
Christian Science. This rule clearly
interprets God as divine Principle,‑‑as Life, represented by the Father; as
Truth, represented by the Son; as Love, represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period, here or
hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed
to God.
The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many," is literally
fulfilled, when we are conscious of the supremacy of Truth, by which the
nothingness of error is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in
proportion to its wickedness. He that
touches the hem of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and
hate, rejoices in the proof of healing,‑‑in a sweet and certain sense that God
is Love.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 15
Based on the Danish of Bernhard S. Ingemann
As gold by fire is tested,
Its purity shown forth,
So cleansing fires of Truth may prove
To man his native worth.
And as a mirror shows us
A likeness clear and bright,
So God forever sees His child
Revealed in radiant light.
'Twas thus the loving Master
Saw man's perfection shine,
Beheld God's child forever pure
In radiance all divine.
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.
