Theme: Satisfy
Hymn 224
John Ryland – Adapted
O Lord, I would delight in Thee,
And on Thy care depend;
To Thee in every trouble flee,
My best, my ever Friend.
When all material streams are dried,
Thy fullness is the same;
May I with this be satisfied,
And glory in Thy name.
All good, where'er it may be found,
Its source doth find in Thee;
I must have all things and abound,
While God is God to me.
O that I had a stronger faith,
To look within the veil,
To credit what my Saviour saith,
Whose word can never fail.
He that has made my heaven secure,
Will here all good provide;
While Christ is rich, can I be poor?
What can I want beside?
O God, I cast my care on Thee;
I triumph and adore;
Henceforth my great concern shall be
To love and praise Thee more.
Readings from the Bible.
Joel 2:16 (to 4th ,),18,19
(to 1st :),21‑24,26,32
Gather the people, sanctify
the congregation, assemble the elders, gather the children,
#Then will the Lord be
jealous for his land, and pity his people.
Yea, the Lord will answer and say unto his people, Behold, I will send
you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied therewith:
#Fear not, O land; be glad
and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.
Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the
wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine
do yield their strength. Be glad then,
ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you
the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain,
the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and
the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.
And ye shall eat in plenty,
and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt
wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed.
And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered: for in
mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath said, and in
the remnant whom the Lord shall call.
Psalms 17:1,5‑8,15
Hear the right, O Lord,
attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned
lips.
Hold up my goings in thy
paths, that my footsteps slip not. I
have called upon thee, for thou wilt hear me, O God: incline thine ear unto me,
and hear my speech. Shew thy marvellous
lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust
in thee from those that rise up against them.
Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
As for me, I will behold thy
face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
Psalms 36:5‑9
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.
Psalms 65:1,4,9‑13
Praise waiteth for thee, O
God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed.
Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts:
we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy
temple.
Thou visitest the earth, and
waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of
water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly:
thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou
blessest the springing thereof. Thou
crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the
wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the
valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
Psalms 91:1‑16
He that dwelleth in the
secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, He is
my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare
of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou
trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by
night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
Nor for the pestilence that
walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten
thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and
see the reward of the wicked.
Because
thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy
habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh
thy dwelling.
For he shall give his
angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest
thou dash thy foot against a stone.
Thou
shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou
trample under feet.
Because he hath set
his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because
he hath known my name.
He shall call
upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver
him, and honour him.
With long life will
I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.
Isaiah 58:6‑11
Is not this the fast that I
have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and
to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry,
and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest
the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own
flesh?
#Then shall thy light break forth
as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy
righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy
rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the
Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take
away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and
speaking vanity; And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the
afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as
the noonday: And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in
drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and
like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
60:29
Soul has infinite resources with which to
bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more
secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul.
Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the
limits of personal sense. The senses
confer no real enjoyment.
109:4
Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly
that Mind is All‑in‑all, that the only realities are the divine Mind and
idea. This great fact is not, however,
seen to be supported by sensible evidence, until its divine Principle is
demonstrated by healing the sick and thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen, no other conclusion can
be reached.
139:4‑8
From beginning to end, the Scriptures are
full of accounts of the triumph of Spirit, Mind, over matter. Moses proved the power of Mind by what men
called miracles; so did Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha.
167:11
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.
226:14‑16 np (to 2nd .)
God has built a higher platform of human
rights, and He has built it on diviner claims.
These claims are not made through code or creed, but in demonstration of
"on earth peace, good‑will toward men." Human codes, scholastic
theology, material medicine and hygiene, fetter faith and spiritual
understanding. Divine Science rends
asunder these fetters, and man's birthright of sole allegiance to his Maker
asserts itself.
I saw before me the sick, wearing out years
of servitude to an unreal master in the belief that the body governed them,
rather than Mind.
The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the
sick, the sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of their own
beliefs and from the educational systems of the Pharaohs, who to‑day, as of
yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage.
I saw before me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilderness; but
I pressed on through faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to
guide me into the land of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights
of man are fully known and acknowledged.
I saw that the law of mortal belief included
all error, and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mortals are
taught their right to freedom, so the claims of the enslaving senses must be
denied and superseded. The law of the
divine Mind must end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware of man's
inalienable rights and in subjection to hopeless slavery, because some public
teachers permit an ignorance of divine power,‑‑an ignorance that is the
foundation of continued bondage and of human suffering.
Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail
to foresee the doom of all oppression.
Slavery is not the legitimate state of man. God made man free.
257:24
Who hath found finite life or
love sufficient to meet the demands of human want and woe,‑‑to still the
desires, to satisfy the aspirations?
Infinite Mind cannot be limited to a finite form, or Mind would lose its
infinite character as inexhaustible Love, eternal Life, omnipotent Truth.
262:27
The foundation of mortal discord is a false
sense of man's origin. To begin rightly
is to end rightly. Every concept which
seems to begin with the brain begins falsely.
Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, in mortal
mind, or in physical forms.
277:24‑11 (to 2nd .)
The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit is matter, and the
opposite of the real is not divine,‑‑it is a human concept. Matter is an error of statement. This error in the premise leads to errors in
the conclusion in every statement into which it enters. Nothing we can say or believe regarding
matter is immortal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal
phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous.
Is Spirit the source or creator of
matter? Science reveals nothing in
Spirit out of which to create matter.
Divine metaphysics explains away matter.
Spirit is the only substance and consciousness recognized by divine
Science. The material senses oppose
this, but there are no material senses, for matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even as in
Truth there is no error, and in good no evil.
It is a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance‑matter,
the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is
infinite, all. Spirit can have no
opposite.
279:22
Every system of human philosophy, doctrine,
and medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic belief that there is
mind in matter; but this belief contradicts alike revelation and right
reasoning. A logical and scientific
conclusion is reached only through the knowledge that there are not two bases
of being, matter and mind, but one alone,‑‑Mind.
340:4
This text in the book of Ecclesiastes conveys
the Christian Science thought, especially when the word duty, which is not in the original, is omitted: "Let us hear
the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear
God, and keep His commandments: for this
is the whole duty of man." In other
words: Let us hear the conclusion of the
whole matter: love God and keep His
commandments: for this is the whole of
man in His image and likeness. Divine
Love is infinite. Therefore all that
really exists is in and of God, and manifests His love.
518:27
The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends
and expresses all, and all must therefore be as perfect as the divine Principle
is perfect. Nothing is new to
Spirit. Nothing can be novel to eternal
Mind, the author of all things, who from all eternity knoweth His own
ideas. Deity was satisfied with His
work. How could He be otherwise, since
the spiritual creation was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self‑containment
and immortal wisdom?
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 161
Satisfied – Mary Baker Eddy
It matters not what be thy lot,
So Love doth guide;
For storm or shine, pure peace is thine,
Whate'er betide.
And of these stones, or tyrants' thrones,
God able is
To raise up seed‑‑in thought and deed‑‑
To faithful His.
Aye, darkling sense, arise, go hence!
Our God is good.
False fears are foes‑‑truth tatters those,
When understood.
Love looseth thee, and lifteth me,
Ayont hate's thrall:
There Life is light, and wisdom might,
And God is All.
The centuries break, the earth‑bound wake,
God's glorified!
Who doth His will‑‑His likeness still‑‑
Is satisfied.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 263
From the Swedish of J. O. Wallin
Only God can bring us gladness,
Only God can give us peace;
Joys are vain that end in sadness,
Joy divine shall never cease.
Mid the shade of want and sorrow
Undisturbed, our hearts rejoice;
Patient, wait the brighter morrow;
Faithful, heed the Father's voice.
As the stars in order going,
All harmonious, He doth move;
Heavenly calm and comfort showing,
Comes the healing word of Love.
Who the word of wisdom heareth
Feels the Father Love within,
Where as dawn the shadow cleareth,
Love outshines the night of sin.
So we find the true atonement,
Know in God the perfect Friend;
For in Love is our at‑one‑ment,
Where all hearts in Him may blend.
Here from prisoning pain and sorrow
Have we all a sure release,
Only God can bring us gladness,
Only God can give us peace.
