Theme: Assurance
Hymn 390
William F. Sherwin – Adapted
Why is thy faith in God's great love so small?
Why doth thy heart shrink back at duty's call?
Art thou obeying this: Abide in me;
And doth the Master's word abide in thee?
O blest assurance from our risen Lord;
O precious comfort breathing from the Word.
How great the promise, could there greater be?
Ask what thou wilt, it shall be done for thee.
Ask what thou wilt, but O, remember this,
We ask and have not when we ask amiss.
If weak in faith, we only half believe
That what we ask we really shall receive.
Readings from the Bible.
Isaiah 32:1‑4,16‑18
Behold, a king shall reign in
righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as an hiding place from
the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as
the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them
that hear shall hearken. The heart also
of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall
be ready to speak plainly.
Then judgment shall dwell in
the wilderness, and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness shall be peace;
and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever. And my people shall dwell in a peaceable
habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places;
Jeremiah 32:37‑41
Behold, I will gather them
out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury,
and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will
cause them to dwell safely: And they shall be my people, and I will be their
God: And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for
ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: And I will make
an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do
them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart
from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them
to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole
heart and with my whole soul.
Acts 17:24‑31 (to 2nd ,)
God that made the world and
all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in
temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he
needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And
hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the
earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their
habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him,
and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live,
and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For
we are also his offspring. Forasmuch
then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is
like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man's device. And the times of this ignorance God winked
at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed
a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom
he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men,
Colossians 2:1‑7 I would
I would that ye knew what great conflict I
have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my
face in the flesh; That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in
love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the
acknowledgement of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ; In
whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest any man should beguile
you with enticing words. For though I be
absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, joying and beholding your
order, and the stedfastness of your faith in Christ. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus
the Lord, so walk ye in him: Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the
faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.
I Thessalonians 1:1‑6 Grace
Grace be unto you, and peace,
from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our
prayers; Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love,
and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our
Father; Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God. For our gospel came not unto you in word
only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye
know what manner of men we were among you for your sake. And ye became followers of us, and of the
Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:
II Timothy 3:14‑17 continue
continue thou in the things
which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast
learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which
are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. All scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be
perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
Hebrews 6:1‑5 leaving,9‑15
beloved
leaving the principles of the
doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the
foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, Of the
doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead,
and of eternal judgment. And this will
we do, if God permit. For it is
impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly
gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, And have tasted the good word
of God, and the powers of the world to come,
beloved, we are persuaded better things of
you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your
work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have
ministered to the saints, and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the
full assurance of hope unto the end: That ye be not slothful, but followers of
them who through faith and patience inherit the promises. For when God made promise to Abraham, because
he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself, Saying, Surely blessing I
will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained
the promise.
Hebrews 10:16‑25,35‑37
This is the covenant that I
will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into
their hearts, and in their minds will I write them; And their sins and
iniquities will I remember no more. Now
where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter
into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, By a new and living way, which he hath
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh; And having an
high priest over the house of God; Let us draw near with a true heart in full
assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and
our bodies washed with pure water. Let
us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that
promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good
works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of
some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day
approaching.
Cast not away therefore your
confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye
have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he that shall
come will come, and will not tarry.
I John 3:18‑24
My little children, let us
not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are of the truth,
and shall assure our hearts before him.
For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth
all things. Beloved, if our heart
condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him,
because we keep his commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in his
sight. And this is his commandment, That
we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as
he gave us commandment. And he that
keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know
that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
x:22
The divine Principle of healing is proved in
the personal experience of any sincere seeker of Truth. Its purpose is good, and its practice is
safer and more potent than that of any other sanitary method. The unbiased Christian thought is soonest
touched by Truth, and convinced of it.
Only those quarrel with her method who do not understand her meaning, or
discerning the truth, come not to the light lest their works be reproved. No intellectual proficiency is requisite in
the learner, but sound morals are most desirable.
15:25
Christians rejoice in secret beauty and
bounty, hidden from the world, but known to God. Self‑forgetfulness, purity, and affection are
constant prayers. Practice not
profession, understanding not belief, gain the ear and right hand of
omnipotence and they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthiness is the foundation of
enlightened faith. Without a fitness for
holiness, we cannot receive holiness.
34:29‑18
What a contrast between our Lord's last
supper and his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples in the bright
morning hours at the joyful meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom had passed into glory, and his
disciples' grief into repentance,‑‑hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced of the fruitlessness of their toil
in the dark and wakened by their Master's voice, they changed their methods,
turned away from material things, and cast their net on the right side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore
of time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal sensuousness, or the
burial of mind in matter, into newness of life as Spirit.
This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the
dawn of a new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists
commemorate. They bow before Christ,
Truth, to receive more of his reappearing and silently to commune with the
divine Principle, Love. They celebrate
their Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh after death, its
exemplification of human probation, and his spiritual and final ascension above
matter, or the flesh, when he rose out of material sight.
43:3‑20
The magnitude of Jesus' work, his material
disappearance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled the disciples
to understand what Jesus had said.
Heretofore they had only believed; now they understood. The advent of this understanding is what is
meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost,‑‑that influx of divine Science which so
illuminated the Pentecostal Day and is now repeating its ancient history.
Jesus' last proof was the highest, the most
convincing, the most profitable to his students. The malignity of brutal persecutors, the
treason and suicide of his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to the
glorification of the man and of the true idea of God, which Jesus' persecutors
had mocked and tried to slay. The final
demonstration of the truth which Jesus taught, and for which he was crucified,
opened a new era for the world. Those
who slew him to stay his influence perpetuated and extended it.
45:32
Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced
fully to understand their Master's triumph, did not perform many wonderful
works, until they saw him after his crucifixion and learned that he had not
died. This convinced them of the
truthfulness of all that he had taught.
68:27
Christian Science presents unfoldment, not
accretion; it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, but an
impartation of the divine Mind to man and the universe. Proportionately as human generation ceases,
the unbroken links of eternal, harmonious being will be spiritually discerned;
and man, not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will appear. The scientific fact that man and the universe
are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in divine Science as
is the proof that mortals gain the sense of health only as they lose the sense
of sin and disease. Mortals can never
understand God's creation while believing that man is a creator. God's children already created will be
cognized only as man finds the truth of being.
Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion as the false
and material disappears. No longer to
marry or to be "given in marriage" neither closes man's continuity
nor his sense of increasing number in God's infinite plan. Spiritually to understand that there is but
one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scriptures, brings the
sweet assurance of no parting, no pain, and of man deathless and perfect and
eternal.
176:21
Should all cases of organic disease be
treated by a regular practitioner, and the Christian Scientist try truth only
in cases of hysteria, hypochondria, and hallucination? One disease is no more real than
another. All disease is the result of
education, and disease can carry its ill‑effects no farther than mortal mind
maps out the way. The human mind, not
matter, is supposed to feel, suffer, enjoy.
Hence decided types of acute disease are quite as ready to yield to
Truth as the less distinct type and chronic form of disease. Truth handles the most malignant contagion
with perfect assurance.
223:7‑19
Matter does not express Spirit. God is infinite omnipresent Spirit. If Spirit is all and is everywhere, what and where is matter? Remember that truth is greater than error,
and we cannot put the greater into the less.
Soul is Spirit, and Spirit is greater than body. If Spirit were once within the body, Spirit
would be finite, and therefore could not be Spirit.
The question, "What is Truth,"
convulses the world. Many are ready to
meet this inquiry with the assurance which comes of understanding; but more are
blinded by their old illusions, and try to "give it pause." "If the blind lead the blind, both shall
fall into the ditch."
240:18
Mortals move onward towards good or evil as
time glides on. If mortals are not
progressive, past failures will be repeated until all wrong work is effaced or
rectified. If at present satisfied with
wrong‑doing, we must learn to loathe it.
If at present content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with
it. Remember that mankind must sooner or
later, either by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that is to
be overcome.
416:16‑2
The material body, which you call me, is mortal mind, and this mind is
material in sensation, even as the body, which has originated from this
material sense and been developed according to it, is material. This materialism of parent and child is only
in mortal mind, as the dead body proves; for when the mortal has resigned his
body to dust, the body is no longer the parent, even in appearance.
The sick know nothing of the mental process
by which they are depleted, and next to nothing of the metaphysical method by
which they can be healed. If they ask
about their disease, tell them only what is best for them to know. Assure them that they think too much about
their ailments, and have already heard too much on that subject. Turn their thoughts away from their bodies to
higher objects. Teach them that their
being is sustained by Spirit, not by matter, and that they find health, peace,
and harmony in God, divine Love.
455:17‑2
The student, who receives his knowledge of
Christian Science, or metaphysical healing, from a human teacher, may be
mistaken in judgment and demonstration, but God cannot mistake. God selects for the highest service one who
has grown into such a fitness for it as renders any abuse of the mission an
impossibility. The All‑wise does not
bestow His highest trusts upon the unworthy.
When He commissions a messenger, it is one who is spiritually near
Himself. No person can misuse this mental power, if he is taught of God to
discern it.
This strong point in Christian Science is not
to be overlooked,‑‑that the same fountain cannot send forth both sweet waters
and bitter. The higher your attainment
in the Science of mental healing and teaching, the more impossible it will
become for you intentionally to influence mankind adverse to its highest hope
and achievement.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 93
William P. McKenzie
Happy the man whose heart can rest,
Assured God's goodness ne'er will cease;
Each day, complete, with joy is blessed,
God keepeth him in perfect peace.
God keepeth him, and God is one,
One Life, forevermore the same,
One Truth unchanged while ages run;
Eternal Love His holiest name.
Dwelling in Love that cannot change,
From anxious fear man finds release;
No more his homeless longings range,
God keepeth him in perfect peace.
In perfect peace, with tumult stilled,
Enhavened where no storms arise,
There man can work what God hath willed;
The joy of perfect work his prize.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 381
William P. McKenzie
What brightness dawned in resurrection
And shone in Mary's wondering eyes!
Her heart was thrilled with new affection,
She saw her Lord in life arise.
She knew the Christ, undimmed by dying,
Alive forevermore to save;
Creative Mind, all good supplying,
Had triumphed over cross and grave.
With hope and faith, like exiles yearning
For homelands loved through patient years,
The hearts of men are homeward turning
To God Who giveth rest from fears.
Assured and safe in Love's protection,
Great peace have they, and unsought joy;
They rise from sin in resurrection,
And works of love their hands employ.
