Theme: Proclaim
Hymn 120
Benjamin Gough*
How beauteous on the mountains
The feet of him that brings,
Like streams from living fountains,
Good tidings of good things;
That publishes salvation;
From error gives release
To every tribe and nation:
God's reign of joy and peace.
Break forth in hymns of gladness,
O waste Jerusalem;
Let songs instead of sadness,
Thy jubilee proclaim;
The Lord, in strength victorious,
Upon thy foes has trod;
Behold, O earth, the glorious
Salvation of our God.
Readings from the Bible.
Job 38:1‑7 the
the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind,
and said, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man: for I will
demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if
thou hast understanding. Who hath laid
the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon
it? Whereupon are the foundations
thereof fastened? or who laid the corner stone thereof; When the morning stars
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Psalms 32:11
Be glad in the Lord, and
rejoice, ye righteous: and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart.
Isaiah 12:2‑6
Behold, God is my salvation;
I will trust, and not be afraid: for the Lord JEHOVAH is my strength and my
song; he also is become my salvation.
Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. And in that day shall ye say, Praise the
Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention
that his name is exalted. Sing unto the
Lord; for he hath done excellent things: this is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, thou inhabitant of Zion:
for great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee.
Isaiah 61:1‑6,8‑11
The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me; because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the
meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the
acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort
all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them
beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the
spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the
planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified.
#And they shall build the old wastes, they
shall raise up the former desolations, and they shall repair the waste cities,
the desolations of many generations. And
strangers shall stand and feed your flocks, and the sons of the alien shall be
your plowmen and your vinedressers. But
ye shall be named the Priests of the Lord: men shall call you the Ministers of
our God: ye shall eat the riches of the Gentiles, and in their glory shall ye
boast yourselves.
For I the Lord love judgment,
I hate robbery for burnt offering; and I will direct their work in truth, and I
will make an everlasting covenant with them.
And their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring
among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the
seed which the Lord hath blessed. I will
greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath
clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of
righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride
adorneth herself with her jewels. For as
the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are
sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise
to spring forth before all the nations.
Isaiah 62:1‑3,10‑12
For Zion's sake will I not
hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the
righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a
lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles
shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called
by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the
hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God.
#Go through, go through the
gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather
out the stones; lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end
of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh;
behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, The holy people,
The redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not
forsaken.
Jeremiah 11:1‑6
The word that came to
Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Hear ye the words of this covenant, and speak
unto the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; And say thou unto
them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Cursed be the man that obeyeth not the
words of this covenant, Which I commanded your fathers in the day that I
brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying,
Obey my voice, and do them, according to all which I command you: so shall ye
be my people, and I will be your God: That I may perform the oath which I have
sworn unto your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it
is this day. Then answered I, and said, So be it, O Lord. Then the Lord said unto me, Proclaim all
these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying,
Hear ye the words of this covenant, and do them.
Jeremiah 34:8,12‑15,17
#This is the word that came
unto Jeremiah from the Lord, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant
with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them;
#Therefore the word of the
Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Thus saith the Lord, the God of
Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them
forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying, At the end
of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold
unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free
from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their
ear. And ye were now turned, and had
done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and
ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:
Therefore thus saith the
Lord; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his
brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you,
saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will
make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
Matthew 10:16‑20,27
#Behold, I send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as
doves. But beware of men: for they will
deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony
against them and the Gentiles. But when
they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall
be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit
of your Father which speaketh in you.
What I tell you in darkness,
that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the
housetops.
John 12:49 I have,50
I have not spoken of myself;
but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and
what I should speak. And I know that his
commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the
Father said unto me, so I speak.
I Corinthians 2:12,13
Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God.
Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth,
but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
I Peter 4:11
If any man speak, let him
speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the
ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus
Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
xi:9‑24
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.
When God called the author to proclaim His
Gospel to this age, there came also the charge to plant and water His
vineyard.
19:12‑28
The Master forbore not to speak the whole
truth, declaring precisely what would destroy sickness, sin, and death,
although his teaching set households at variance, and brought to material
beliefs not peace, but a sword.
Every pang of repentance and suffering, every
effort for reform, every good thought and deed, will help us to understand
Jesus' atonement for sin and aid its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to
pray and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atonement,‑‑in the
at‑one‑ment with God,‑‑for he lacks
the practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables man to do the
will of wisdom. Those who cannot
demonstrate, at least in part, the divine Principle of the teachings and
practice of our Master have no part in God.
If living in disobedience to Him, we ought to feel no security, although
God is good.
174:9‑21
The footsteps of thought, rising above
material standpoints, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller; but
the angels of His presence‑‑the spiritual intuitions that tell us when
"the night is far spent, the day is at hand"‑‑are our guardians in
the gloom. Whoever opens the way in
Christian Science is a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for
generations yet unborn.
The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the
Mount are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking in their course all
error and proclaiming the kingdom of heaven on earth. Truth is revealed. It needs only to be practised.
319:21
The divine Science taught in the original
language of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspiration to be
understood. Hence the misapprehension of
the spiritual meaning of the Bible, and the misinterpretation of the Word in
some instances by uninspired writers, who only wrote down what an inspired
teacher had said. A misplaced word
changes the sense and misstates the Science of the Scriptures, as, for
instance, to name Love as merely an attribute of God; but we can by special and
proper capitalization speak of the love of Love, meaning by that what the
beloved disciple meant in one of his epistles, when he said, "God is
love." Likewise we can speak of the
truth of Truth and of the life of Life, for Christ plainly declared, "I am
the way, the truth, and the life."
325:30‑11
When first spoken in any age, Truth, like the
light, "shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it
not." A false sense of life,
substance, and mind hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific
demonstration.
If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must
be in the way of God's appointing. Jesus
said, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
also." He, who would reach the source and find the divine remedy for every
ill, must not try to climb the hill of Science by some other road. All nature teaches God's love to man, but man
cannot love God supremely and set his whole affections on spiritual things,
while loving the material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.
327:22
Fear of punishment never made man truly
honest. Moral courage is requisite to
meet the wrong and to proclaim the right.
But how shall we reform the man who has more animal than moral courage,
and who has not the true idea of good?
Through human consciousness, convince the mortal of his mistake in
seeking material means for gaining happiness.
Reason is the most active human faculty.
Let that inform the sentiments and awaken the man's dormant sense of
moral obligation, and by degrees he will learn the nothingness of the pleasures
of human sense and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which silences
the material or corporeal. Then he not
only will be saved, but is saved.
395:6
Like the great Exemplar, the healer should
speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the
false evidences of the corporeal senses and to assert its claims over mortality
and disease. The same Principle cures
both sin and sickness. When divine
Science overcomes faith in a carnal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith
in sin and in material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death will
disappear.
418:26
Include moral as well as physical belief in
your efforts to destroy error. Cast out
all manner of evil. "Preach the
gospel to every creature." Speak
the truth to every form of error.
Tumors, ulcers, tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed joints, are
waking dream‑shadows, dark images of mortal thought, which flee before the
light of Truth.
525:17
In the Gospel of John, it is declared that
all things were made through the Word of God, "and without Him [the logos, or word] was not anything made that was made." Everything good or worthy, God made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not
make,‑‑hence its unreality. In the
Science of Genesis we read that He saw everything which He had made, "and,
behold, it was very good." The
corporeal senses declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the history
of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural record of sin and death
favors the false conclusion of the material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed as
devoid of reality as they are of good, God.
570:26‑12 (to .)
When God heals the sick or the sinning, they
should know the great benefit which Mind has wrought. They should also know the great delusion of
mortal mind, when it makes them sick or sinful.
Many are willing to open the eyes of the people to the power of good
resident in divine Mind, but they are not so willing to point out the evil in
human thought, and expose evil's hidden mental ways of accomplishing
iniquity.
Why this backwardness, since exposure is
necessary to ensure the avoidance of the evil?
Because people like you better when you tell them their virtues than
when you tell them their vices. It
requires the spirit of our blessed Master to tell a man his faults, and so risk
human displeasure for the sake of doing right and benefiting our race. Who is telling mankind of the foe in
ambush? Is the informer one who sees the
foe? If so, listen and be wise.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 168
10th Century – Richard Mant, Tr.– Adapted
Let all the earth with songs rejoice;
Let heaven return the joyful voice;
All mindful of our God's great name,
Let every man His praise proclaim.
Ye servants who once bore the light
Of Gospel truth o'er darkest night,
Still may our work that light impart,
To glad the eyes and cheer the heart.
O God, by whom to them was given
The key that shuts and opens heaven,
Our chains unbind, our loss repair,
Reveal Thy power through answered prayer.
For at Thy will they preached the Word
Which cured disease, which health conferred:
And now, that healing power once more
Our peace and health to us restore.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 282
Author Unknown
Praise the Lord, ye heavens, adore Him;
Praise Him, angels, in the height;
Sun and moon, rejoice before Him,
Praise Him, all ye stars of light;
Praise the Lord, for He hath spoken,
Worlds His mighty voice obeyed;
Laws that never shall be broken
For their guidance hath He made.
Praise the Lord, for He is glorious;
Never shall His promise fail;
God hath made His saints victorious,
Sin and death shall not prevail.
Praise the God of our salvation;
Hosts on high, His power proclaim;
Heaven and earth, and all creation,
Laud and magnify His name.
