Service for Sunday, Jan. 5, 2014

Subject: God

 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.

I Chronicles 29:11‑13
Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.  Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.  Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

Isaiah 40:9‑15,18,21,22,25,26,28‑31
#O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!  Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him: behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him.  He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.  #Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance?  Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counseller hath taught him?  With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding?  Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing. 

#To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto him? 
Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?  It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.  Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. 

#Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.  He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.  Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.

Silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s prayer, with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy


Our Father which art in heaven,
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Adorable One.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know – as in heaven, so on earth
God is omnipotent, supreme.
Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections;
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
  For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.


 Hymn 134 
 Samuel Longfellow*

 I look to Thee in every need,
   And never look in vain;
 I feel Thy touch, eternal Love,
   And all is well again:
 The thought of Thee is mightier far
 Than sin and pain and sorrow are.

 Thy calmness bends serene above,
   My restlessness to still;
 Around me flows Thy quickening life
   To nerve my faltering will:
 Thy presence fills my solitude;
 Thy providence turns all to good.

 Embosomed deep in Thy dear love,
   Held in Thy law, I stand:
 Thy hand in all things I behold,
   And all things in Thy hand.
 Thou leadest me by unsought ways,
 Thou turn'st my mourning into praise.

This being the first Sunday of the month, Article VIII , Section 1, is read from the Manual of The Mother Church:
A Rule for Motives and Acts.
Neither animosity nor mere personal attachment should impel the motives or acts of the members of The Mother Church.  In Science, divine Love alone governs man; and a Christian Scientist reflects the sweet amenities of Love, in rebuking sin, in true brotherliness, charitableness, and forgiveness.  The members of this Church should daily watch and pray to be delivered from all evil, from prophesying, judging, condemning, counseling, influencing or being influenced erroneously.

Solo: “Whither Shall I Go From Thy Spirit?”


Explanatory Note
Friends:
The Bible and the Christian Science textbook are our only preachers. We shall now read Scriptural texts, and their correlative passages from our denominational textbook; these comprise our sermon.

The canonical writings, together with the word of our textbook, corroborating and explaining the Bible texts in their spiritual import and application to all ages, past, present, and future, constitute a sermon undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized.

The lesson-sermon from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, read by the First and Second Readers.

The content of the Lesson Sermon may be found in the Christian Science Quarterly. You may also read the Lesson-Sermon for this week online by clicking here.

 Hymn 213 
 Isaac Watts*

 O God, our help in ages past,
   Our hope for time to come,
 Our shelter from the stormy blast,
   And our eternal home.

 Before the hills in order stood,
   Or earth received her frame,
 From everlasting Thou art God,
   To endless years the same.

 A thousand ages in Thy sight
   Are like an evening gone,
 Short as the watch that ends the night
   Before the rising sun.

 O God, our help in ages past,
   Our hope for time to come,
 Thou art our guard while ages last,
   And our eternal home.


"The Scientific Statement of Being" (S&H p. 468} and the correlative scripture according to I John 3:1-3.

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.468

1John.3

[1] Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
[2] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
[3] And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

Benediction

Deuteronomy 33:27 (to :)

The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms:

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