Theme: Fulfillment
Hymn 180
Based on the Danish of Jens N. L. Schjorring
Love the Lord thy God:
Love is staff and rod
For heart and soul and mind.
In this command forever strong,
To silence thoughts of wrong
All laws fulfillment find.
Here we rest content:
Good from God is sent
Where seeds of Love are sown.
Who as himself his neighbor loves,
By constant purpose proves
His neighbor's good his own.
They whose every thought
Still from Love is sought
In Soul, not flesh, abide.
Love's presence gives a joy untold:
Now may we all behold
The Spirit and the bride.
Readings from the Bible.
Matthew 5:13‑18
#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. #Think not
that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy,
but to fulfil. For verily I say unto
you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law, till all be fulfilled.
Luke 4:14‑21 Jesus
Jesus returned in the power
of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the
region round about. And he taught in
their synagogues, being glorified of all.
#And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his
custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to
read. And there was delivered unto him
the book of the prophet Esaias. And when
he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of
the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are
bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again
to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the
synagogue were fastened on him. And he
began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
Luke 21:25‑32 there
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. And he spake to them a parable;
Behold the fig tree, and all the trees; When they now shoot forth, ye see and
know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand. So likewise ye, when ye see these things come
to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand. Verily I say unto you, This generation shall
not pass away, till all be fulfilled.
Romans 8:1‑4
THERE is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit. For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. For what the law could not do, in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of
sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the Spirit.
Psalms 145:8‑20 (to :)
The Lord is gracious, and
full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord is good to all: and his tender
mercies are over all his works. All thy
works shall praise thee, O Lord; and thy saints shall bless thee. They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom,
and talk of thy power; To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, and
the glorious majesty of his kingdom. Thy
kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all generations. The Lord upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth
up all those that be bowed down. The
eyes of all wait upon thee; and thou givest them their meat in due season. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the
desire of every living thing. The Lord
is righteous in all his ways, and holy in all his works. The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon
him, to all that call upon him in truth.
He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him: he also will hear their
cry, and will save them. The Lord
preserveth all them that love him:
Philippians 2:1,2
If there be therefore any
consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the
same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
41:14‑30
The proofs of Truth, Life, and Love, which
Jesus gave by casting out error and healing the sick, completed his earthly
mission; but in the Christian Church this demonstration of healing was early
lost, about three centuries after the crucifixion. No ancient school of philosophy, materia medica, or scholastic theology
ever taught or demonstrated the divine healing of absolute Science.
Jesus foresaw the reception Christian Science
would have before it was understood, but this foreknowledge hindered him
not. He fulfilled his God‑mission, and
then sat down at the right hand of the Father.
Persecuted from city to city, his apostles still went about doing good
deeds, for which they were maligned and stoned.
The truth taught by Jesus, the elders scoffed at. Why?
Because it demanded more than they were willing to practise.
55:15‑29
Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the
centuries, gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. My weary hope tries to realize that happy
day, when man shall recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as
himself,‑‑when he shall realize God's omnipotence and the healing power of the
divine Love in what it has done and is doing for mankind. The promises will be fulfilled. The time for the reappearing of the divine
healing is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly all on the
altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's cup now, and is endued with the
spirit and power of Christian healing.
In the words of St. John: "He shall give
you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." This
Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.
108:19‑27 np
When apparently near the confines of mortal
existence, standing already within the shadow of the death‑valley, I learned
these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind,
and that Life, Truth, and Love are all‑powerful and ever‑present; that the
opposite of Truth,‑‑called error, sin, sickness, disease, death,‑‑is the false
testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense
evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so‑called
mind names matter, thereby shutting
out the true sense of Spirit.
My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed mind produces all the organism and
action of the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels, and led up
to my demonstration of the proposition that Mind is All and matter is naught as
the leading factor in Mind‑science.
Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly
that Mind is All‑in‑all, that the only realities are the divine Mind and
idea. This great fact is not, however,
seen to be supported by sensible evidence, until its divine Principle is
demonstrated by healing the sick and thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen, no other conclusion can
be reached.
For three years after my discovery, I sought
the solution of this problem of Mind‑healing, searched the Scriptures and read
little else, kept aloof from society, and devoted time and energies to
discovering a positive rule. The search
was sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind‑action
to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy,
uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way
to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration. The revelation of Truth in the understanding
came to me gradually and apparently through divine power. When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth,
the prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled: "Unto us a child
is born, . . . and his name shall be called Wonderful."
463:12
A spiritual idea has not a
single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is
offensive. The new idea, conceived and
born of Truth and Love, is clad in white garments. Its beginning will be meek, its growth
sturdy, and its maturity undecaying.
When this new birth takes place, the Christian Science infant is born of
the Spirit, born of God, and can cause the mother no more suffering. By this we know that Truth is here and has
fulfilled its perfect work.
568:24‑14
For victory over a single sin, we give thanks
and magnify the Lord of Hosts. What
shall we say of the mighty conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter than has ever before
reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ;
for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting
strain. Self‑abnegation, by which we lay
down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against error, is a rule in
Christian Science. This rule clearly
interprets God as divine Principle,‑‑as Life, represented by the Father; as
Truth, represented by the Son; as Love, represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period, here or
hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed
to God.
The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful
over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many," is literally
fulfilled, when we are conscious of the supremacy of Truth, by which the
nothingness of error is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in
proportion to its wickedness. He that
touches the hem of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, and
hate, rejoices in the proof of healing,‑‑in a sweet and certain sense that God
is Love.
473:26‑23
Jesus established what he said by
demonstration, thus making his acts of higher importance than his words. He proved what he taught. This is the Science of Christianity. Jesus proved
the Principle, which heals the sick and casts out error, to be divine. Few, however, except his students understood
in the least his teachings and their glorious proofs,‑‑namely, that Life,
Truth, and Love (the Principle of this unacknowledged Science) destroy all
error, evil, disease, and death.
The reception accorded to Truth in the early
Christian era is repeated to‑day.
Whoever introduces the Science of Christianity will be scoffed at and
scourged with worse cords than those which cut the flesh. To the ignorant age in which it first appears,
Science seems to be a mistake,‑‑hence the misinterpretation and consequent
maltreatment which it receives.
Christian marvels (and marvel
is the simple meaning of the Greek word rendered miracle in the New Testament) will be misunderstood and misused by
many, until the glorious Principle of these marvels is gained.
If sin, sickness, and death are as real as
Life, Truth, and Love, then they must all be from the same source; God must be
their author. Now Jesus came to destroy
sin, sickness, and death; yet the Scriptures aver, "I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfil." Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils
which Jesus lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine will?
572:12
Love fulfils the law of Christian Science,
and nothing short of this divine Principle, understood and demonstrated, can
ever furnish the vision of the Apocalypse, open the seven seals of error with
Truth, or uncover the myriad illusions of sin, sickness, and death. Under the supremacy of Spirit, it will be
seen and acknowledged that matter must disappear.
232:16‑7
In our age Christianity is again
demonstrating the power of divine Principle, as it did over nineteen hundred
years ago, by healing the sick and triumphing over death. Jesus never taught that drugs, food, air, and
exercise could make a man healthy, or that they could destroy human life; nor
did he illustrate these errors by his practice.
He referred man's harmony to Mind, not to matter, and never tried to
make of none effect the sentence of God, which sealed God's condemnation of
sin, sickness, and death.
In the sacred sanctuary of Truth are voices
of solemn import, but we heed them not.
It is only when the so‑called pleasures and pains of sense pass away in
our lives, that we find unquestionable signs of the burial of error and the resurrection
to spiritual life.
There is neither place nor opportunity in
Science for error of any sort. Every day
makes its demands upon us for higher proofs rather than professions of
Christian power. These proofs consist
solely in the destruction of sin, sickness, and death by the power of Spirit,
as Jesus destroyed them. This is an
element of progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us
only what we can certainly fulfil.
483:22
Because the Science of Mind seems to bring
into dishonor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with material
observations alone, this Science has met with opposition; but if any system
honors God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all thinking persons. And Christian Science does honor God as no
other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way of His appointing, by
doing many wonderful works through the divine name and nature. One must fulfil one's mission without
timidity or dissimulation, for to be well done, the work must be done
unselfishly. Christianity will never be
based on a divine Principle and so found to be unerring, until its absolute
Science is reached. When this is
accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry, nor envy can wash away its
foundation, for it is built upon the rock, Christ.
435:19
Watching beside the couch of pain in the
exercise of a love that "is the fulfilling of the law,"‑‑doing
"unto others as ye would that they should do unto you,"‑‑this is no
infringement of law, for no demand, human or divine, renders it just to punish
a man for acting justly. If mortals sin,
our Supreme Judge in equity decides what penalty is due for the sin, and Mortal
Man can suffer only for his sin. For
naught else can he be punished, according to the law of Spirit, God.
485:14
Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not to thwart the spiritual ultimate of
all things, but come naturally into Spirit through better health and morals and
as the result of spiritual growth. Not
death, but the understanding of Life, makes man immortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul
in body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg, is the result of the
mortal error which Christ, or Truth, destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law
of being, in which man is perfect, even as the "Father which is in heaven
is perfect." If thought yields its
dominion to other powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful
images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents, called disease and
sin.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn 416
Kate L. Colby – Adapted
Be true and list the voice within,
Be true unto thy high ideal,
Thy perfect self, that knows no sin,
That self that is the only real.
God is the only perfect One:
My perfect self is one with Him;
So man is seen as God's own son,
When Truth dispels the shadows dim.
True to our God whose name is Love,
We shall fulfill our Father's plan;
For true means true to God above,
To self, and to our fellow man.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 297
Roberta B. Lynch
Science, the angel with the flaming sword,
God's gift, the glory of the risen Lord;
Light of the world, in whose light we shall
see
Father and perfect Son, blest unity;
Calm of Shekinah where hope anchors fast,
Harbor of refuge till the storm be past;
Sweet, secret place where God and men do meet,
Horeb whereon we walk with unshod feet;
Place of communion with the Lamb of God,
Fold where the sheep must pass beneath His
rod;
Ark where the dove may close her faltering
wings,
Love's law divine that makes us priests and
kings;
Loosener of prison bands at midnight hour,
Of self‑forged chains that fall through Love's
all‑power;
Christ's morning meal by joyous Galilee:
Science, thou dost fulfill all prophecy.
