Service for Sunday, March 2, 2014

Subject: Christ Jesus

 Hymn 342 
 Laura Lee Randall

 This is the day the Lord hath made;
   Be glad, give thanks, rejoice;
 Stand in His presence, unafraid,
   In praise lift up your voice.
 All perfect gifts are from above,
   And all our blessings show
 The amplitude of God's dear love
   Which every heart may know.

 The Lord will hear before we call,
   And every need supply;
 Good things are freely given to all
   Who on His word rely.
 We come today to bring Him praise
   Not for such gifts alone,
 But for the higher, deeper ways
   In which His love is shown.

 For sin destroyed, for sorrow healed,
   For health and peace restored;
 For Life and Love by Truth revealed,
   We thank and bless the Lord.
 This is the day the Lord hath made,
   In praise lift up your voice.
 In shining robes of joy arrayed,
   Be glad, give thanks, rejoice.

The scriptural selection is from Matthew.

Matthew 5:1‑16 seeing
seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.  Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.  Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.  Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.  Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.  Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.  Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.  Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.  #Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.  Ye are the light of the world.  A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.  Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

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 253
 Christ My Refuge – Mary Baker Eddy

 O'er waiting harpstrings of the mind
       There sweeps a strain,
 Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind
       The power of pain,

 And wake a white‑winged angel throng
       Of thoughts, illumed
 By faith, and breathed in raptured song,
       With love perfumed.

 Then His unveiled, sweet mercies show
       Life's burdens light.
 I kiss the cross, and wake to know
       A world more bright.

 And o'er earth's troubled, angry sea
       I see Christ walk,
 And come to me, and tenderly,
       Divinely talk.

 Thus Truth engrounds me on the rock,
       Upon Life's shore,
 'Gainst which the winds and waves can shock,
       Oh, nevermore!

 From tired joy and grief afar,
       And nearer Thee,‑‑
 Father, where Thine own children are,
       I love to be.

 My prayer, some daily good to do
       To Thine, for Thee;
 An offering pure of Love, whereto
       God leadeth me.

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: "Awake Thou That Sleepest"

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 287
 Edith Gaddis Brewer 

 Prayer with our waking thought ascends,
   Great God of light, to Thee;
 Darkness is banished in the glow
   Of Thy reality.

 Lo, to our widening vision dawns
   The realm of Soul supreme,
 Faith‑lighted peaks of Spirit stand
   Revealed in morning's beam.

 Thus in Thy radiance vanishes
   Death's drear and gloomy night;
 Thus all creation hears anew
   Truth's call, Let there be light.



"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

John 8:12 I am
 I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.


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