Wednesday's Service will be at 5:15 PM
Theme: Spring
Hymn 2
Author Unknown
A glorious day is dawning,
And o'er the waking earth
The heralds of the morning
Are springing into birth.
In dark and hidden places
There shines the blessed light;
The beam of Truth displaces
The darkness of the night.
The advocates of error
Foresee the glorious morn,
And hear in shrinking terror,
The watchword of reform:
It rings from hill and valley,
It breaks oppression's chain.
A thousand freemen rally,
And swell the mighty strain.
The watchword has been spoken,
The light has broken forth,
Far shines the blessed token
Upon the startled earth.
To hearts and homes benighted
The blessed Truth is given,
And peace and love, united,
Point upward unto heaven.
Readings from the Bible
Deuteronomy 8:1,2,6‑10
All the commandments which I
command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply,
and go in and possess the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers. And thou shalt remember all the way which the
Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and
to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his
commandments, or no.
Therefore thou shalt keep the
commandments of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to fear him. For the Lord thy God bringeth thee into a
good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out
of valleys and hills; A land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig trees,
and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; A land wherein thou shalt eat
bread without scarceness, thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose
stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass. When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou
shalt bless the Lord thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.
Psalms 65:4,9‑13
Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest, and causest to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts:
we shall be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy
temple.
Thou visitest the earth, and
waterest it: thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God, which is full of
water: thou preparest them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges thereof abundantly:
thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with showers: thou
blessest the springing thereof. Thou
crownest the year with thy goodness; and thy paths drop fatness. They drop upon the pastures of the
wilderness: and the little hills rejoice on every side. The pastures are clothed with flocks; the
valleys also are covered over with corn; they shout for joy, they also sing.
Psalms 85:1,2 (to 1st .),6‑10
Lord, thou hast been
favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob. Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy
people, thou hast covered all their sin.
Wilt thou not revive us
again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and
grant us thy salvation. I will hear what
God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his
saints: but let them not turn again to folly.
Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in
our land. Mercy and truth are met
together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Isaiah 42:1‑12
Behold my servant, whom I
uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth; I have put my spirit upon him:
he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the
street. A bruised reed shall he not
break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail nor be
discouraged, till he have set judgment in the earth: and the isles shall wait
for his law. #Thus saith God the Lord,
he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the
earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people
upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for
a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; To open the blind eyes,
to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out
of the prison house. I am the Lord: that
is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to
graven images. Behold, the former things
are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell
you of them. #Sing unto the Lord a new
song, and his praise from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and
all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof. Let the wilderness and the cities thereof
lift up their voice, the villages that Kedar doth inhabit: let the inhabitants
of the rock sing, let them shout from the top of the mountains. Let them give glory unto the Lord, and
declare his praise in the islands.
Isaiah 44:2‑4
Thus saith the Lord that made
thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee; Fear not, O Jacob,
my servant; and thou, Jesurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is
thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed,
and my blessing upon thine offspring: And they shall spring up as among the
grass, as willows by the water courses.
Isaiah 61:1‑5,8‑11
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.
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.
Joel 2:21‑29,32 (to :)
#Fear not, O land; be glad
and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things.
Be not afraid, ye beasts of the field: for the pastures of the
wilderness do spring, for the tree beareth her fruit, the fig tree and the vine
do yield their strength. Be glad then,
ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for he hath given you
the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain,
the former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and
the fats shall overflow with wine and oil.
And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the
cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent
among you. And ye shall eat in plenty,
and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt
wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of
Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall
never be ashamed. #And it shall come to
pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons
and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young
men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in
those days will I pour out my spirit.
And it shall come to pass,
that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered:
Mark 4:25‑32 he
he that hath, to him shall be given: and he
that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath. #And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if
a man should cast seed into the ground; And should sleep, and rise night and
day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth fruit of
herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the
ear. But when the fruit is brought
forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. #And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the
kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which,
when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:
But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and
shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the
shadow of it.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
57:11
The attraction between native
qualities will be perpetual only as it is pure and true, bringing sweet seasons
of renewal like the returning spring.
66:11
Spiritual development
germinates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, but when these
decay, Love propagates anew the higher joys of Spirit, which have no taint of
earth. Each successive stage of experience
unfolds new views of divine goodness and love.
95:28‑11 (to 2nd .)
Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is
asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours. Material sense does not unfold the facts of
existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal
Truth. Humanity advances slowly out of
sinning sense into spiritual understanding; unwillingness to learn all things
rightly, binds Christendom with chains.
Love will finally mark the hour of harmony,
and spiritualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error is wholly destroyed, there will
be interruptions of the general material routine. Earth will become dreary and desolate, but
summer and winter, seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will
continue unto the end,‑‑until the final spiritualization of all things. "The darkest hour precedes the
dawn."
125:21‑7
The seasons will come and go with changes of
time and tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude. The agriculturist will find that these
changes cannot affect his crops.
"As a vesture shalt Thou change them and they shall be
changed." The mariner will have
dominion over the atmosphere and the great deep, over the fish of the sea and the
fowls of the air. The astronomer will no
longer look up to the stars,‑‑he will look out from them upon the universe; and
the florist will find his flower before its seed.
Thus matter will finally be proved nothing
more than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man through its
supposed organic action or supposed existence.
Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The problem of nothingness, or "dust to
dust," will be solved, and mortal mind will be without form and void, for
mortality will cease when man beholds himself God's reflection, even as man
sees his reflection in a glass.
220:8
Instinct is better than misguided reason, as
even nature declares. The violet lifts
her blue eye to greet the early spring. The leaves clap their hands as nature's
untired worshippers. The snowbird sings
and soars amid the blasts; he has no catarrh from wet feet, and procures a
summer residence with more ease than a nabob.
The atmosphere of the earth, kinder than the atmosphere of mortal mind,
leaves catarrh to the latter. Colds,
coughs, and contagion are engendered solely by human theories.
270:31‑5
The life of Christ Jesus was not miraculous,
but it was indigenous to his spirituality,‑‑the good soil wherein the seed of
Truth springs up and bears much fruit.
Christ's Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing in
all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with the Scriptures and
uniting all periods in the design of God.
272:3‑32
The spiritual sense of truth must be gained
before Truth can be understood. This
sense is assimilated only as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek. In the soil of an "honest and good
heart" the seed must be sown; else it beareth not much fruit, for the
swinish element in human nature uproots it.
Jesus said: "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." The spiritual sense of the Scriptures brings
out the scientific sense, and is the new tongue referred to in the last chapter
of Mark's Gospel.
Jesus' parable of "the sower" shows
the care our Master took not to impart to dull ears and gross hearts the
spiritual teachings which dulness and grossness could not accept. Reading the thoughts of the people, he said:
"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls
before swine."
It is the spiritualization of thought and
Christianization of daily life, in contrast with the results of the ghastly
farce of material existence; it is chastity and purity, in contrast with the
downward tendencies and earthward gravitation of sensualism and impurity, which
really attest the divine origin and operation of Christian Science. The triumphs of Christian Science are
recorded in the destruction of error and evil, from which are propagated the
dismal beliefs of sin, sickness, and death.
The divine Principle of the universe must
interpret the universe. God is the divine Principle of all that represents Him
and of all that really exists. Christian
Science, as demonstrated by Jesus, alone reveals the natural, divine Principle
of Science.
509:9‑4
Genesis
i. 14. And God said, Let there be lights
in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them
be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.
Spirit creates no other than heavenly or
celestial bodies, but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our
earth. This text gives the idea of the
rarefaction of thought as it ascends higher.
God forms and peoples the universe.
The light of spiritual understanding gives gleams of the infinite only,
even as nebulae indicate the immensity of space.
So‑called mineral, vegetable, and animal
substances are no more contingent now on time or material structure than they
were when "the morning stars sang together." Mind made the "plant of the field before
it was in the earth." The periods
of spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's creation, in which
beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness ‑‑yea, the divine nature‑‑appear in man
and the universe never to disappear.
Knowing the Science of creation, in which all
is Mind and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his fellow‑countrymen:
"Ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of
the times?" How much more should we seek to apprehend the spiritual ideas
of God, than to dwell on the objects of sense!
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 75
James Montgomery – Adapted
God comes, with succor speedy,
To those who suffer wrong;
To help the poor and needy,
And bid the weak be strong;
He comes to break oppression,
To set the captive free,
To take away transgression,
And rule in equity.
His blessings come as showers
Upon the thirsty earth;
And joy and hope, like flowers,
Spring in His path to birth.
Before Him on the mountains
Shall Peace, the herald, go;
From hill to vale the fountains
Of righteousness shall flow.
To Him shall prayer unceasing,
And daily vows, ascend;
His kingdom still increasing,
A kingdom without end.
The tide of time shall never
His covenant remove;
His name shall stand forever:
His changeless name of Love.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 384
Hosea Ballou – Adapted
When God is seen with men to dwell,
And all creation makes anew,
What tongue can half the wonders tell,
What eye the dazzling glories view?
Celestial streams shall gently flow,
The wilderness shall joyful be;
On parched ground shall lilies grow
And gladness spring on every tree;
The weak be strong, the fearful bold,
The deaf shall hear, the dumb shall sing,
The lame shall walk, the blind behold,
And joy through all the earth shall ring.
