Service for Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Theme: Inspiration

 Hymn 104 
 Duncan Sinclair

 Help us, O Lord, to bear the cross,
   The cross our Master bore;
 To brave the senses' angry shock,
 Our faith secure upon the rock
   Of Christ, forevermore.

 Grant us, O Love, the strength to drink
   Thy cup on earth below,
 The inspiration that it brings,
 The hope serene that from it springs
   To lighten every woe.

 Give us, O Truth, Thou light of men,
   Thy benediction rare,
 That courage may sustain our way
 Out of the darkness into day,
   Thy day, celestial, fair.

 Thus shall our Spirit, Mind divine,
   Lead us to heaven's bowers:
 The cross laid down; the victory won
 O'er sense and self; revealed the Son;
   The crown forever ours.

Readings from the Bible.

Psalms 10:17
Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear:

Psalms 35:23,24,27,28
Stir up thyself, and awake to my judgment, even unto my cause, my God and my Lord.  Judge me, O Lord my God, according to thy righteousness; and let them not rejoice over me. 

Let them shout for joy, and be glad, that favour my righteous cause: yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.  And my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness and of thy praise all the day long.

Psalms 67:1‑7
God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us;  That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.  O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.  Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.  God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

Psalms 71:1‑8,12‑19,21‑24 (to :)
In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.  Deliver me in thy righteousness, and cause me to escape: incline thine ear unto me, and save me.  Be thou my strong habitation, whereunto I may continually resort: thou hast given commandment to save me; for thou art my rock and my fortress.  Deliver me, O my God, out of the hand of the wicked, out of the hand of the unrighteous and cruel man.  For thou art my hope, O Lord God: thou art my trust from my youth.  By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.  I am as a wonder unto many; but thou art my strong refuge.  Let my mouth be filled with thy praise and with thy honour all the day. 

O God, be not far from me: O my God, make haste for my help.  Let them be confounded and consumed that are adversaries to my soul; let them be covered with reproach and dishonour that seek my hurt.  But I will hope continually, and will yet praise thee more and more.  My mouth shall shew forth thy righteousness and thy salvation all the day; for I know not the numbers thereof.  I will go in the strength of the Lord God: I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine only.  O God, thou hast taught me from my youth: and hitherto have I declared thy wondrous works.  Now also when I am old and greyheaded, O God, forsake me not; until I have shewed thy strength unto this generation, and thy power to every one that is to come.  Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee! 

Thou shalt increase my greatness, and comfort me on every side.  I will also praise thee with the psaltery, even thy truth, O my God: unto thee will I sing with the harp, O thou Holy One of Israel.  My lips shall greatly rejoice when I sing unto thee; and my soul, which thou hast redeemed.  My tongue also shall talk of thy righteousness all the day long:

Psalms 80:3,7,17,19
Turn us again, O God, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. 

Turn us again, O God of hosts, and cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved. 

Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou madest strong for thyself. 

Turn us again, O Lord God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved.

Psalms 143:1,6 (to 1st .),8‑11
Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications: in thy faithfulness answer me, and in thy righteousness. 

I stretch forth my hands unto thee: my soul thirsteth after thee, as a thirsty land.

Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk; for I lift up my soul unto thee.  Deliver me, O Lord, from mine enemies: I flee unto thee to hide me.  Teach me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the land of uprightness.  Quicken me, O Lord, for thy name's sake: for thy righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble.

Proverbs 8:10‑18,20,21
Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.  For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.  I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.  The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.  Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.  By me kings reign, and princes decree justice.  By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.  I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.  Riches and honour are with me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. 

I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.

Isaiah 30:30 (to 1st ,)
And the Lord shall cause his glorious voice to be heard,

Isaiah 58:13,14
If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Isa  61:1‑11
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 your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them.  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.

Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

33:18‑9
  When the human element in him struggled with the divine, our great Teacher said: "Not my will, but Thine, be done!"‑‑that is, Let not the flesh, but the Spirit, be represented in me.  This is the new understanding of spiritual Love.  It gives all for Christ, or Truth.  It blesses its enemies, heals the sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespasses and sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meek in heart. 
  Christians, are you drinking his cup?  Have you shared the blood of the New Covenant, the persecutions which attend a new and higher understanding of God?  If not, can you then say that you have commemorated Jesus in his cup?  Are all who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all for the Christ‑principle?  Then why ascribe this inspiration to a dead rite, instead of showing, by casting out error and making the body "holy, acceptable unto God," that Truth has come to the understanding?  If Christ, Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other commemoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel, or God with us; and if a friend be with us, why need we memorials of that friend? 
53:25‑17
  Jesus bore our sins in his body.  He knew the mortal errors which constitute the material body, and could destroy those errors; but at the time when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of material life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration of spiritual power. 
  Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would have been less sensitive to those beliefs.  Through the magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine Life.  Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he defined Love.  With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished error.  The world acknowledged not his righteousness, seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified example introduced. 
  Who is ready to follow his teaching and example?  All must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the true idea of God.  That he might liberally pour his dear‑bought treasures into empty or sin‑filled human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus' intense human sacrifice.  In witness of his divine commission, he presented the proof that Life, Truth, and Love heal the sick and the sinning, and triumph over death through Mind, not matter.  This was the highest proof he could have offered of divine Love.
65:1
  Experience should be the school of virtue, and human happiness should proceed from man's highest nature.  May Christ, Truth, be present at every bridal altar to turn the water into wine and to give to human life an inspiration by which man's spiritual and eternal existence may be discerned. 

161:5
Holy inspiration has created states of mind which have been able to nullify the action of the flames, as in the Bible case of the three young Hebrew captives, cast into the Babylonian furnace; while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneous combustion. 

242:21
  The vesture of Life is Truth.  According to the Bible, the facts of being are commonly misconstrued, for it is written: "They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots." The divine Science of man is woven into one web of consistency without seam or rent.  Mere speculation or superstition appropriates no part of the divine vesture, while inspiration restores every part of the Christly garment of righteousness. 
           
281:27
  Divine Science does not put new wine into old bottles, Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite.  Our false views of matter perish as we grasp the facts of Spirit.  The old belief must be cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the inspiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be lost.  Now, as of old, Truth casts out evils and heals the sick. 

319:15‑3
  The varied doctrines and theories which presuppose life and intelligence to exist in matter are so many ancient and modern mythologies.  Mystery, miracle, sin, and death will disappear when it becomes fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and man has no Mind but God. 
  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."

581:4
  ANGELS.  God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, and mortality. 

589:4
  JACOB.  A corporeal mortal embracing duplicity, repentance, sensualism.  Inspiration; the revelation of Science, in which the so‑called material senses yield to the spiritual sense of Life


and Love. 

592:25
  OIL.  Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heavenly inspiration. 

596:11‑19
  URIM.  Light. 
  The rabbins believed that the stones in the breast‑plate of the high‑priest had supernatural illumination, but Christian Science reveals Spirit, not matter, as the illuminator of all.  The illuminations of Science give us a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit preparation for admission to the presence and power of the Most High. 

599:6‑7
  ZION.  Spiritual foundation and superstructure; inspiration; spiritual strength.

Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.


 Hymn 421
 Violet Hay

 From these Thy children gathered in Thy name,
 From hearts made whole, from lips redeemed from woe,
 Thy praise, O Father, shall forever flow.
     Alleluia!  Alleluia!

 O perfect Life, in Thy completeness held,
 None can beyond Thy omnipresence stray;
 Safe in Thy Love, we live and sing alway
     Alleluia!  Alleluia!

 O perfect Mind, reveal Thy likeness true,
 That higher selfhood which we all must prove,
 Joy and dominion, love reflecting Love.
     Alleluia!  Alleluia!

 Thou, Soul, inspiring‑‑give us vision clear,
 Break earth‑bound fetters, sweep away the veil,
 Show the new heaven and earth that shall prevail.
     Alleluia!  Alleluia!

Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.


 Hymn 266 
 Attributed to Thomas Cotterill – Adapted

 Our God is Love, and all His sons
   His image bear, we know;
 The heart with love to God inspired,
   With love to man will glow.

 Teach us to love each other, Lord,
   As we are loved by Thee;   
 None who are truly born of God
   Can live in enmity.

 Heirs of the same immortal bliss,
   Our hopes and aims the same,
 In bonds of love our hearts unite,
   To praise His holy name.

 So may we all with one accord
   Learn how true Christians love;
 And glorify our Father's grace,

   And seek that grace to prove.

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