Service for Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Theme: Peace

 Hymn 7 
 Bertha H. Woods – Based on hymn by H. F. Lyte

 Abide with me; fast breaks the morning light;
 Our daystar rises, banishing all night;
 Thou art our strength, O Truth that maketh free,
 We would unfailingly abide in Thee.

 I know no fear, with Thee at hand to bless,
 Sin hath no power and life no wretchedness;
 Health, hope and love in all around I see
 For those who trustingly abide in Thee.

 I know Thy presence every passing hour,
 I know Thy peace, for Thou alone art power;
 O Love divine, abiding constantly,
 I need not plead, Thou dost abide with me.

Readings from the Bible.

Psalms 4:1, 2 (to 1st ., 3, 4 (to 1st .),5‑8
Hear me when I call, O God of my righteousness: thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress; have mercy upon me, and hear my prayer.  O ye sons of men, how long will ye turn my glory into shame? how long will ye love vanity, and seek after leasing?

But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself: the Lord will hear when I call unto him.  Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.

Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, and put your trust in the Lord.  There be many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.  Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased.  I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, Lord, only makest me dwell in safety.

Psalms 29:1‑4,11
Give unto the Lord, O ye mighty, give unto the Lord glory and strength.  Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.  The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the Lord is upon many waters.  The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. 

The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.

Psalms 37:37
Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.
Psalms 119:165
Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

Psalms 122:1‑8
I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord.  Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem.  Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: Whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord.  For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.  Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces.  For my brethren and companions' sakes, I will now say, Peace be within thee.

Psalms 147:1‑14
Praise ye the Lord: for it is good to sing praises unto our God; for it is pleasant; and praise is comely.  The Lord doth build up Jerusalem: he gathereth together the outcasts of Israel.  He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.  He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.  Great is our Lord, and of great power: his understanding is infinite.  The Lord lifteth up the meek: he casteth the wicked down to the ground.  Sing unto the Lord with thanksgiving; sing praise upon the harp unto our God: Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth, who maketh grass to grow upon the mountains.  He giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.  He delighteth not in the strength of the horse: he taketh not pleasure in the legs of a man.  The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in his mercy.  Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem; praise thy God, O Zion.  For he hath strengthened the bars of thy gates; he hath blessed thy children within thee.  He maketh peace in thy borders, and filleth thee with the finest of the wheat.

Proverbs 3:1‑8,13‑17
My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments: For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.  Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.  #Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.  #Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.  It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones. 

#Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.  For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.  She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.  Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.  Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

Isaiah 26:3,12
Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. 

#Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us: for thou also hast wrought all our works in us.
Isaiah 32:17 the
the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever.

Isaiah 52:7
#How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

Isaiah 55:6‑12
#Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.  #For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.  For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.

John 14:27
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

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

40:31
  The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed, but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and this advance beyond matter must come through the joys and triumphs of the righteous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions.  Like our Master, we must depart from material sense into the spiritual sense of being. 

45:16
  Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts!  Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at‑one‑ment with the spiritual idea of man and his divine Principle, Love. 

96:12
  This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces.  On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace.  The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears.  These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth. 
150:4
  To‑day the healing power of Truth is widely demonstrated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a phenomenal exhibition.  Its appearing is the coming anew of the gospel of "on earth peace, good‑will toward men."  This coming, as was promised by the Master, is for its establishment as a permanent dispensation among men; but the mission of Christian Science now, as in the time of its earlier demonstration, is not primarily one of physical healing.  Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical healing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demonstrate its divine origin,‑‑to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ‑power to take away the sins of the world. 

224:4
  As the crude footprints of the past disappear from the dissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand the Science which governs these changes, and shall plant our feet on firmer ground.  Every sensuous pleasure or pain is self‑destroyed through suffering.  There should be painless progress, attended by life and peace instead of discord and death. 

226:14
  God has built a higher platform of human rights, and He has built it on diviner claims.  These claims are not made through code or creed, but in demonstration of "on earth peace, good‑will toward men." Human codes, scholastic theology, material medicine and hygiene, fetter faith and spiritual understanding.  Divine Science rends asunder these fetters, and man's birthright of sole allegiance to his Maker asserts itself. 

264:13‑31
  As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, multitudinous objects of creation, which before were invisible, will become visible.  When we realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of matter, this understanding will expand into self‑completeness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other consciousness. 
  Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being.  Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit.  Sin is unsustained by Truth, and sickness and death were overcome by Jesus, who proved them to be forms of error.  Spiritual living and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all‑absorbing spiritual love. 
  When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God's creation,‑‑all the glories of earth and heaven and man. 

265:10
  This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man enlarged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent peace. 

323:6
  Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, peace, and purity, which are the landmarks of Science.  Beholding the infinite tasks of truth, we pause,‑‑wait on God.  Then we push onward, until boundless thought walks enraptured, and conception unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory. 

329:26
The pardon of divine mercy is the destruction of error.  If men understood their real spiritual source to be all blessedness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual and be at peace; but the deeper the error into which mortal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to spirituality, till error yields to Truth.

506:10
  Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites understanding to eternal harmony.  The calm and exalted thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.  Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each successive stage of progress. 

516:9
  God fashions all things, after His own likeness.  Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence.  Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light.  The grass beneath our feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the earth."  The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to heaven.  The great rock gives shadow and shelter.  The sunlight glints from the church‑dome, glances into the prison‑cell, glides into the sick‑chamber, brightens the flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth.  Man, made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's dominion over all the earth.  Man and woman as coexistent and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, the infinite Father‑Mother God. 

575:22
  As the Psalmist saith, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King."  It is indeed a city of the Spirit, fair, royal, and square.  Northward, its gates open to the North Star, the Word, the polar magnet of Revelation; eastward, to the star seen by the Wisemen of the Orient, who followed it to the manger of Jesus; southward, to the genial tropics, with the Southern Cross in the skies, ‑‑the Cross of Calvary, which binds human society into solemn union; westward, to the grand realization of the Golden Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of Harmony. 

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


 Hymn 72 
 Charles Wesley and John Taylor – Adapted

 Glory be to God on high,
 God whose glory fills the sky;
 Peace on earth to man is given,
 Man, the well‑beloved of heaven.
 Gracious Father, in Thy love,
 Send Thy blessings from above;
 Let Thy light, Thy truth, Thy peace
 Bid all strife and tumult cease.

 Mark the wonders of His hand:
 Power no empire can withstand;
 Wisdom, angels' glorious theme;
 Goodness one eternal stream.
 All ye people, raise the song,
 Endless thanks to God belong;
 Hearts o'erflowing with His praise
 Join the hymns your voices raise.

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


 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.

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