Theme: Future
Hymn 226
Washington Gladden*
O Lord of life, to Thee we lift
Our hearts in praise for those,
Thy prophets, who have shown Thy gift
Of grace that ever grows,
Of truth that spreads from shore to shore,
Of wisdom's widening ray,
Of light that shineth more and more
Unto Thy perfect day.
Shine forth, O Light, that we may see,
With hearts all unafraid,
The meaning and the majesty
Of things that Thou hast made:
Shine forth, and let the darkling past
Beneath Thy beam grow bright;
Shine forth, and touch the future vast
With Thine untroubled light.
Light up Thy word; the fettered page
From darkened bondage free:
Light up our way; lead forth this age
In love's large liberty.
O Light of light, within us dwell,
Through us Thy radiance pour,
That word and deed Thy truths may tell,
And praise Thee evermore.
Readings from the Bible.
Psalms 19:1‑11,14
The heavens declare the glory
of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto
night sheweth knowledge. There is no
speech nor language, where their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for
the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a
strong man to run a race. His going
forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and
there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.
The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul: the testimony of
the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart: the commandment
of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold: sweeter
also than honey and the honeycomb.
Moreover by them is thy servant warned: and in keeping of them there is
great reward.
Let the words of my mouth,
and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my
strength, and my redeemer.
Psalms 121:1‑8
I will lift up mine eyes unto
the hills, from whence cometh my help.
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he
that keepeth thee will not slumber.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is thy keeper: the Lord is thy shade
upon thy right hand. The sun shall not
smite thee by day, nor the moon by night.
The Lord shall preserve thee from all evil: he shall preserve thy
soul. The Lord shall preserve thy going
out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.
Isaiah 44:6‑8
Thus saith the Lord the King
of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the
last; and beside me there is no God. And
who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since
I appointed the ancient people? and the things that are coming, and shall come,
let them shew unto them. Fear ye not,
neither be afraid: have not I told thee from that time, and have declared it?
ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I
know not any.
Matthew 16:24‑28
#Then said Jesus unto his
disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow me. For whosoever will
save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall
find it. For what is a man profited, if
he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul? For the Son of
man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall
reward every man according to his works.
Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not
taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom.
Matthew 24:3‑6,11‑13,30,31,34‑36
#And as he sat upon the mount
of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall
these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of
the world? And Jesus answered and said
unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive
many. And ye shall hear of wars and
rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to
pass, but the end is not yet.
And many false prophets shall
rise, and shall deceive many. And
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the
same shall be saved.
And then shall appear the
sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth
mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with
power and great glory. And he shall send
his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his
elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
Verily I say unto you, This
generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away. #But of that
day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.
Luke 21:25‑28
#And there shall be signs in
the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of
nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men's hearts failing
them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the
earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming
in a cloud with power and great glory.
And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up
your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
John 5:24‑29 (to 2nd ;)
Verily, verily, I say unto
you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath
everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from
death unto life. Verily, verily, I say
unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.
For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to
have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also,
because he is the Son of man. Marvel not
at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall
hear his voice, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life;
I Thessalonians 5:21‑24
Prove all things; hold fast
that which is good. Abstain from all
appearance of evil. And the very God of
peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body
be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you, who also
will do it.
James 5:7,8
Be patient therefore,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.
Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and
hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for
the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
Revelation 21:1‑7
And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there
was no more sea. And I John saw the holy
city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband. And I heard a
great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself
shall be with them, and be their God.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no
more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain:
for the former things are passed away.
And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And
he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life
freely. He that overcometh shall inherit
all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
xi:9‑21
The physical healing of Christian Science
results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before
which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear
as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to
reformation. Now, as then, these mighty
works are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are the sign of Immanuel, or "God
with us,"‑‑a divine influence ever present in human consciousness and
repeating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,
To preach deliverance to the captives [of
sense],
And recovering of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty them that are
bruised.
39:18
"Now,"
cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation,"‑‑meaning, not that now men must
prepare for a future‑world salvation, or safety, but that now is the time in
which to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is the time for so‑called material pains
and material pleasures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible in
Science. To break this earthly spell,
mortals must get the true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists
and governs the universe harmoniously.
This thought is apprehended slowly, and the interval before its
attainment is attended with doubts and defeats as well as triumphs.
84:3‑18,28
The ancient prophets gained their foresight
from a spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing evil and
mistaking fact for fiction,‑‑predicting the future from a groundwork of corpo‑reality
and human belief. When sufficiently
advanced in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men become seers
and prophets involuntarily, controlled not by demons, spirits, or demigods, but
by the one Spirit. It is the prerogative
of the ever‑present, divine Mind, and of thought which is in rapport with this
Mind, to know the past, the present, and the future.
Acquaintance with the Science of being
enables us to commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee and
foretell events which concern the universal welfare, to be divinely inspired,‑‑yea,
to reach the range of fetterless Mind.
All we correctly know of Spirit comes from
God, divine Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian
Science. If this Science has been
thoroughly learned and properly digested, we can know the truth more accurately
than the astronomer can read the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind‑reading is the opposite of
clairvoyance. It is the illumination of
the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the capacity of Soul, not of
material sense. This Soul‑sense comes to
the human mind when the latter yields to the divine Mind.
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.
215:15
We are sometimes led to believe that darkness
is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of
the absence of light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of
reality. So sin and sorrow, disease and
death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of
error before truth and love.
230:1
If sickness is real, it belongs to
immortality; if true, it is a part of Truth.
Would you attempt with drugs, or without, to destroy a quality or
condition of Truth? But if sickness and
sin are illusions, the awakening from this mortal dream, or illusion, will
bring us into health, holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the forever coming of
Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth, which casts out error and heals the
sick. This is the salvation which comes
through God, the divine Principle, Love, as demonstrated by Jesus.
288:31
The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem
to have learned from error, and man's real existence as a child of God comes to
light. Truth demonstrated is eternal
life. Mortal man can never rise from the
temporal debris of error, belief in
sin, sickness, and death, until he learns that God is the only Life. The belief that life and sensation are in the
body should be overcome by the understanding of what constitutes man as the image
of God. Then Spirit will have overcome
the flesh.
306:13
If Life or Soul and its representative, man,
unite for a period and then are separated as by a law of divorce to be brought
together again at some uncertain future time and in a manner unknown,‑‑and this
is the general religious opinion of mankind,‑‑we are left without a rational
proof of immortality. But man cannot be
separated for an instant from God, if man reflects God. Thus Science proves man's existence to be
intact.
458:32
Christianity causes men to turn naturally
from matter to Spirit, as the flower turns from darkness to light. Man then appropriates those things which
"eye hath not seen nor ear heard."
Paul and John had a clear apprehension that, as mortal man achieves no
worldly honors except by sacrifice, so he must gain heavenly riches by forsaking
all worldliness. Then he will have
nothing in common with the worldling's affections, motives, and aims. Judge not the future advancement of Christian
Science by the steps already taken, lest you yourself be condemned for failing
to take the first step.
545:31
"As in Adam [error] all die, even so in
Christ [Truth] shall all be made alive."
The mortality of man is a myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is now submerged
in matter, at some future time to be emancipated from it,‑‑this belief alone is
mortal. Spirit, God, never germinates,
but is "the same yesterday, and to‑day, and forever." If Mind, God, creates error, that error must
exist in the divine Mind, and this assumption of error would dethrone the
perfection of Deity.
561:32
John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the
immaculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual idea as the Messiah,
who would baptize with the Holy Ghost,‑‑divine Science. As Elias presented the idea of the fatherhood
of God, which Jesus afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this
figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God's motherhood. The moon is under her feet. This idea reveals the universe as secondary
and tributary to Spirit, from which the universe borrows its reflected light,
substance, life, and intelligence.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 258
James Russell Lowell – Adapted
Oft to every man and nation
Comes the moment to decide,
In the strife of Truth with falsehood,
For the good or evil side.
A great cause, God's new Messiah,
Shows to each the bloom or blight,
So can choice be made by all men
Twixt the darkness and the light.
New occasions teach new duties,
Time makes ancient creeds uncouth;
They must upward still and onward
Who would keep abreast of Truth,
And serenely down the future
See the thought of men incline
To the side of perfect justice
And to God's supreme design.
Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet 'tis Truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above His own.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 391
Charles H. Barlow
Why search the future and the past?
Why do ye look with tearful eyes
And seek far off for paradise?
Before your feet Life's pearl is cast.
As deathless as His spirit free,
The Perfect lives and works today
As in the ancient prophets' lay,
Where there's an open eye to see.
Of all that was and is to come
The present holds the Mind and Cause;
For God lives in eternal laws,
And here today upholds His throne.
Then rise and greet the signs that prove
Unreal the ages' long lament;
The "one far‑off divine event"
Is now, and that event is Love.
