Theme: Everlasting
Hymn 53
Based on a hymn by John R. Macduff
Everlasting arms of Love
Are beneath, around, above;
God it is who bears us on,
His the arm we lean upon.
He our ever‑present guide
Faithful is, whate'er betide;
Gladly then we journey on,
With His arm to lean upon.
From earth's fears and vain alarms
Safe in His encircling arms,
He will keep us all the way,
God, our refuge, strength and stay.
Readings from the Bible.
Genesis 17:3‑8 Abram
Abram fell on his face: and
God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and
thou shalt be a father of many nations.
Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be
Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and
I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant between me
and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting
covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed
after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for
an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
Deuteronomy 33:26,27 (to :)
#There is none like unto the
God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency
on the sky. The eternal God is thy
refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:
Psalms 24:1‑6 (to 1st .),7‑10
(to 1st .)
The earth is the Lord's, and
the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. For he hath founded it upon the seas, and
established it upon the floods. Who
shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy
place? He that hath clean hands, and a
pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn
deceitfully. He shall receive the
blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. This is the generation of them that seek him,
that seek thy face, O Jacob.
Lift up your heads, O ye
gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall
come in. Who is this King of glory? The
Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift
them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts,
he is the King of glory.
Psalms 90:1,2
Lord, thou hast been our
dwelling place in all generations.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the
earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
Psalms 93:1,2
The Lord reigneth, he is
clothed with majesty; the Lord is clothed with strength, wherewith he hath
girded himself: the world also is stablished, that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established of old: thou art from
everlasting.
Psalms 100:1‑5
Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with
gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he
that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his
pasture. Enter into his gates with
thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless
his name. For the Lord is good; his
mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.
Psalms 103:15‑17
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;
Psalms 119:137‑142
Righteous art thou, O Lord,
and upright are thy judgments. Thy
testimonies that thou hast commanded are righteous and very faithful. My zeal hath consumed me, because mine enemies
have forgotten thy words. Thy word is
very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
I am small and despised: yet do not I forget thy precepts. Thy righteousness is an everlasting
righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
Psalms 145:8‑13
The Lord is gracious, and full
of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and his tender
mercies are over all his works. All thy
works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom,
and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and
the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all
generations.
Isaiah 26:2‑4
Open ye the gates, that the
righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose
mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever: for in the
Lord JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
John 3:16 God
God so loved the world, that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have
everlasting life.
Galatians 6:7,8
Be not deceived; God is not
mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the
flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit
reap life everlasting.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
23:1
Wisdom and Love may require
many sacrifices of self to save us from sin.
One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to pay the debt of
sin. The atonement requires constant self‑immolation
on the sinner's part. That God's wrath
should be vented upon His beloved Son, is divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man‑made. The atonement is a hard problem in theology,
but its scientific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense
which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suffering will fall at
the feet of everlasting Love.
99:23
The calm, strong currents of true
spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self‑immolation,
must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen
to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to
the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect
man.
216:11
The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and
that there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once to destroy the
errors of mortal sense and to supply the truth of immortal sense. This understanding makes the body harmonious;
it makes the nerves, bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters. If man is governed by the law of divine Mind,
his body is in submission to everlasting Life and Truth and Love. The great mistake of mortals is to suppose
that man, God's image and likeness, is both matter and Spirit, both good and
evil.
256:13‑23
The everlasting I AM is not bounded nor
compressed within the narrow limits of physical humanity, nor can He be
understood aright through mortal concepts.
The precise form of God must be of small importance in comparison with
the sublime question, What is infinite Mind or divine Love?
Who is it that demands our obedience? He who, in the language of Scripture,
"doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the
inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What
doest Thou?"
290:1‑15
Life is the everlasting I AM,
the Being who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase.
If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of
man's being are not in the least understood before what is termed death
overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher spiritually in the scale of
existence on account of that single experience, but will remain as material as
before the transition, still seeking happiness through a material, instead of
through a spiritual sense of life, and from selfish and inferior motives. That Life or Mind is finite and physical or
is manifested through brain and nerves, is false. Hence Truth comes to destroy this error and
its effects,‑‑sickness, sin, and death.
To the spiritual class, relates the Scripture: "On such the second
death hath no power."
390:4
We cannot deny that Life is self‑sustained,
and we should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, simply because, to
the mortal senses, there is seeming discord.
It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces
apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth will at length compel us all to
exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul.
410:4‑21
"This is life eternal," says Jesus,‑‑is, not shall be; and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge
of his Father and of himself,‑‑the knowledge of Love, Truth, and Life. "This is life eternal, that they might
know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." The Scriptures say, "Man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," showing that Truth is the actual
life of man; but mankind objects to making this teaching practical.
Every trial of our faith in God makes us
stronger. The more difficult seems the
material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith
and the purer our love. The Apostle John
says: "There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casteth out fear. . . .
He that feareth is not made perfect in Love." Here is a definite and inspired proclamation
of Christian Science.
428:15‑29
We should consecrate existence, not "to
the unknown God" whom we "ignorantly worship," but to the
eternal builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life which mortal sense cannot
impair nor mortal belief destroy. We
must realize the ability of mental might to offset human misconceptions and to
replace them with the life which is spiritual, not material.
The great spiritual fact must be brought out
that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal.
We must hold forever the consciousness of existence, and sooner or
later, through Christ and Christian Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence of man's immortality will become
more apparent, as material beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being
are admitted.
489:1
The less mind there is manifested in matter
the better. When the unthinking lobster
loses its claw, the claw grows again. If
the Science of Life were understood, it would be found that the senses of Mind
are never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the human limb would be replaced as
readily as the lobster's claw,‑‑not with an artificial limb, but with the
genuine one. Any hypothesis which
supposes life to be in matter is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal to
guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness develops, this belief goes
out,‑‑yields to the reality of everlasting Life.
568:24
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.
594:19
SPIRIT.
Divine substance; Mind; divine Principle; all that is good; God; that
only which is perfect, everlasting, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 247
Thomas H. Gill*
O walk with God along the road,
Your strength He will renew;
Wait on the everlasting God,
And He will walk with you.
Ye shall not to your daily task
Without your God repair,
But on your work His blessing ask
And prove His glory there.
Ye shall not faint, ye shall not fail;
In Spirit ye are strong;
Each task divine ye still shall hail,
And blend it with a song.
Sharings of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 280
Henry Francis Lyte*
Praise, my soul, the King of heaven;
To His feet thy tribute bring.
Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven,
Who like us His praise should sing?
Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise
Him,
Praise the everlasting King.
Fatherlike, He tends and spares us,
Well our daily needs He knows;
In His hand He gently bears us,
Rescues us from all our foes.
Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise
Him,
Widely as His mercy flows.
Praise Him for His grace and favor
To our fathers in distress;
Praise Him still the same forever,
Slow to chide, and swift to bless.
Praise Him, praise Him, praise Him, praise
Him,
Glorious in
His faithfulness.
