Theme: Satisfied
Hymn 224
John Ryland – Adapted
O Lord, I would delight in Thee,
And on Thy care depend;
To Thee in every trouble flee,
My best, my ever Friend.
When all material streams are dried,
Thy fullness is the same;
May I with this be satisfied,
And glory in Thy name.
All good, where'er it may be found,
Its source doth find in Thee;
I must have all things and abound,
While God is God to me.
O that I had a stronger faith,
To look within the veil,
To credit what my Saviour saith,
Whose word can never fail.
He that has made my heaven secure,
Will here all good provide;
While Christ is rich, can I be poor?
What can I want beside?
O God, I cast my care on Thee;
I triumph and adore;
Henceforth my great concern shall be
To love and praise Thee more.
Readings from the Bible.
Psalms 17:1,2,5,7,8,15
Hear the right, O Lord,
attend unto my cry, give ear unto my prayer, that goeth not out of feigned
lips. Let my sentence come forth from
thy presence; let thine eyes behold the things that are equal.
Hold up my goings in thy
paths, that my footsteps slip not.
Shew thy marvellous
lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust
in thee from those that rise up against them.
Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
As for me, I will behold thy
face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
Psalms 36:5‑10
Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the
heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds. Thy righteousness is like the great
mountains; thy judgments are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and
beast. How excellent is thy
lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the
shadow of thy wings. They shall be
abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them
drink of the river of thy pleasures. For
with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light. O continue
thy lovingkindness unto them that know thee; and thy righteousness to the
upright in heart.
Psalms 63:5‑7
My soul shall be satisfied as
with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips: When
I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches. Because thou hast been my help, therefore in
the shadow of thy wings will I rejoice.
Psalms 65:4
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.
Psalms 90:14‑17
O satisfy us early with thy
mercy; that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad according to the days wherein
thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we have seen evil. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and
thy glory unto their children. And let
the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us: and establish thou the work of our
hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.
Psalms 91:1‑16
He that dwelleth in the
secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is
my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare
of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou
trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by
night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that
walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten
thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see
the reward of the wicked. Because thou
hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy
dwelling. For he shall give his angels
charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against
a stone. Thou shalt tread upon the lion
and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. Because he hath set his love upon me,
therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my
name. He shall call upon me, and I will
answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him. With long life will I satisfy him, and shew
him my salvation.
Joel 2:19 the,21‑27
the Lord will answer and say unto his people,
Behold, I will send you corn, and wine, and oil, and ye shall be satisfied
therewith: and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen:
#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.
Romans 13:10‑12
Love worketh no ill to his
neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. And that, knowing the time, that now it is
high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we
believed. The night is far spent, the
day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put
on the armour of light.
I Timothy 6:6‑8 godliness
godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and
it is certain we can carry nothing out.
And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.
Hebrews 13:5,6
Let your conversation be
without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath
said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my
helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
vii:13
The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time‑honored
systems, knocks at the portal of humanity.
Contentment with the past and the cold conventionality of materialism
are crumbling away. Ignorance of God is
no longer the stepping‑stone to faith.
The only guarantee of obedience is a right apprehension of Him whom to
know aright is Life eternal. Though
empires fall, "the Lord shall reign forever."
55:15
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.
60:29‑11
Soul has infinite resources with which to
bless mankind, and happiness would be more readily attained and would be more
secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul.
Higher enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the
limits of personal sense. The senses
confer no real enjoyment.
The good in human affections must have
ascendency over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happiness will
never be won. The attainment of this
celestial condition would improve our progeny, diminish crime, and give higher
aims to ambition. Every valley of sin
must be exalted, and every mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the
highway of our God may be prepared in Science.
190:14‑31
Human birth, growth, maturity, and decay are
as the grass springing from the soil with beautiful green blades, afterwards to
wither and return to its native nothingness.
This mortal seeming is temporal; it never merges into immortal being,
but finally disap‑pears, and immortal man, spiritual and eternal, is found to
be the real man.
The Hebrew bard, swayed by mortal thoughts,
thus swept his lyre with saddening strains on human existence:
As for man, his days are as grass:
As a flower of the field, so he
flourisheth.
For the wind passeth over it, and it is
gone;
And the place thereof shall know it no
more.
When hope rose higher in the
human heart, he sang:
As for me, I will behold Thy face in
righteousness:
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with
Thy likeness. . . .
For with Thee is the fountain of life;
In Thy light shall we see light.
240:18
Mortals move onward towards good or evil as
time glides on. If mortals are not
progressive, past failures will be repeated until all wrong work is effaced or
rectified. If at present satisfied with
wrong‑doing, we must learn to loathe it.
If at present content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with
it. Remember that mankind must sooner or
later, either by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that is to
be overcome.
260:31
If we look to the body for pleasure, we find
pain; for Life, we find death; for Truth, we find error; for Spirit, we find
its opposite, matter. Now reverse this
action. Look away from the body into
Truth and Love, the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the
good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience
proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts.
296:4‑18
Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of mortal man, through
which the mortal is dropped for the immortal.
Either here or hereafter, suffering or Science must destroy all
illusions regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense and self. The old man with his deeds must be put
off. Nothing sensual or sinful is
immortal. The death of a false material
sense and of sin, not the death of organic matter, is what reveals man and
Life, harmonious, real, and eternal.
The so‑called pleasures and pains of matter
perish, and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual sense, and the
actuality of being. Mortal belief must
lose all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with them.
322:26‑30
The sharp experiences of belief in the
supposititious life of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless woes,
turn us like tired children to the arms of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life in divine
Science.
337:7
For true happiness, man must
harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the Son must be in accord with the
Father, in conformity with Christ.
According to divine Science, man is in a degree as perfect as the Mind
that forms him. The truth of being makes
man harmonious and immortal, while error is mortal and discordant.
518:24‑6
Genesis
i. 31. And God saw everything that He
had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends
and expresses all, and all must therefore be as perfect as the divine Principle
is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit. Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the
author of all things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas. Deity was satisfied with His work. How could He be otherwise, since the
spiritual creation was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self‑containment
and immortal wisdom?
569:6‑14
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.
Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.
Hymn161
Satisfied – with words by Mary Baker Eddy
It matters not what be thy lot,
So Love doth guide;
For storm or shine, pure peace is thine,
Whate'er betide.
And of these stones, or tyrants' thrones,
God able is
To raise up seed‑‑in thought and deed‑‑
To faithful His.
Aye, darkling sense, arise, go hence!
Our God is good.
False fears are foes‑‑truth tatters those,
When understood.
Love looseth thee, and lifteth me,
Ayont hate's thrall:
There Life is light, and wisdom might,
And God is All.
The centuries break, the earth‑bound wake,
God's glorified!
Who doth His will‑‑His likeness still‑‑
Is satisfied.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
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.
