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.
