Service for Sunday, Sept. 23, 2007

Subject: Matter

Scriptural Selections

II Timothy 2:1 be,15,16,19 the (to 1st .)
be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.

the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his.

Galatians 6:1-10,16,18 (to 2nd .)
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another. For every man shall bear his own burden. Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.

Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Solo: “Satisfied” – words by Mary Baker Eddy

Golden Text: Prov 23:5 (to ?)
Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not?

Responsive Readings: Ps 119:37, 57 (to :), 68
Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.

Thou art my portion, O Lord:

Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.

Ps 135:5,13,15-18
For I know that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.

Thy name, O Lord, endureth for ever; and thy memorial, O Lord, throughout all generations.

The idols of the heathen are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not; eyes have they, but they see not; They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths. They that make them are like unto them: so is every one that trusteth in them.

Ps 71:1,19
In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust: let me never be put to confusion.

Thy righteousness also, O God, is very high, who hast done great things: O God, who is like unto thee!

Lesson Sermon
with readings from
the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

I
John 4:24 (to :)
God is a Spirit:

I Cor. 2:14 the
the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

Isa. 29:13, 14, 16
Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men: Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvellous work among this people, even a marvellous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid.

Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?

Isa. 45:5, 6, 22
I am the Lord, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the Lord, and there is none else.

Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

277:24-22
The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine,--it is a human concept. Matter is an error of statement. This error in the premise leads to errors in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters. Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immortal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phenomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always erroneous.
Is Spirit the source or creator of matter? Science reveals nothing in Spirit out of which to create matter. Divine metaphysics explains away matter. Spirit is the only substance and consciousness recognized by divine Science. The material senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance-matter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite, all. Spirit can have no opposite.
That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is one of the false beliefs of mortals, and exists only in a supposititious mortal consciousness. Hence, as we approach Spirit and Truth, we lose the consciousness of matter. The admission that there can be material substance requires another admission,--namely, that Spirit is not infinite and that matter is self-creative, self-existent, and eternal. From this it would follow that there are two eternal causes, warring forever with each other; and yet we say that Spirit is supreme and all-presence.

109:32-3
The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience,--Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science,--contradict forever the belief that matter can be actual.


II
Isa. 44:6, 8 ye are, 9, 13-15, 21 (to 2nd ;)
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.

ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any. They that make a graven image are all of them vanity; and their delectable things shall not profit; and they are their own witnesses; they see not, nor know; that they may be ashamed.

The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest: he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn: for he will take thereof, and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto.

Remember these, O Jacob and Israel; for thou art my servant: I have formed thee;

I Cor. 3:9 ye
ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building.

172:23-24, 32
What is man? Brain, heart, blood, bones, etc., the material structure?

When we admit that matter (heart, blood, brain, acting through the five physical senses) constitutes man, we fail to see how anatomy can distinguish between humanity and the brute, or determine when man is really man and has progressed farther than his animal progenitors.

475:7-11
The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. Matter is not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so unlike Spirit.


282:14-17
A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly, matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has no place in matter.

177:10
Matter, or body, is but a false concept of mortal mind. This so-called mind builds its own superstructure, of which the material body is the grosser portion; but from first to last, the body is a sensuous, human concept.

428:8
To divest thought of false trusts and material evidences in order that the spiritual facts of being may appear,--this is the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may establish in truth the temple, or body, "whose builder and maker is God."

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.


III
Isa. 30:18 for, 19, 26
for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him. For the people shall dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: thou shalt weep no more: he will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry; when he shall hear it, he will answer thee.

Moreover the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the Lord bindeth up the breach of his people, and healeth the stroke of their wound.

II Kings 4:8, 12, 16 (to 1st .), 17-21, 25, 26, 32, 33, 35, 36
And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where was a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And so it was, that as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.

And he said to Gehazi his servant, Call this Shunammite. And when he had called her, she stood before him.

And he said, About this season, according to the time of life, thou shalt embrace a son.

And the woman conceived, and bare a son at that season that Elisha had said unto her, according to the time of life. And when the child was grown, it fell on a day, that he went out to his father to the reapers. And he said unto his father, My head, my head. And he said to a lad, Carry him to his mother. And when he had taken him, and brought him to his mother, he sat on her knees till noon, and then died. And she went up, and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door upon him, and went out.

So she went and came unto the man of God to mount Carmel. And it came to pass, when the man of God saw her afar off, that he said to Gehazi his servant, Behold, yonder is that Shunammite: Run now, I pray thee, to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee? is it well with thy husband? is it well with the child? And she answered, It is well.

And when Elisha was come into the house, behold, the child was dead, and laid upon his bed. He went in therefore, and shut the door upon them twain, and prayed unto the Lord.

Then he returned, and walked in the house to and fro; and went up, and stretched himself upon him: and the child sneezed seven times, and the child opened his eyes. And he called Gehazi, and said, Call this Shunammite, So he called her. And when she was come in unto him, he said, Take up thy son.

200:9-13
Life is, always has been, and ever will be independent of matter; for Life is God, and man is the idea of God, not formed materially but spiritually, and not subject to decay and dust.

210:25-28
What is termed matter, being unintelligent, cannot say, "I suffer, I die, I am sick, or I am well." It is the so-called mortal mind which voices this and appears to itself to make good its claim.

450:29-2
Knowing the claim of animal magnetism, that all evil combines in the belief of life, substance, and intelligence in matter, electricity, animal nature, and organic life, who will deny that these are the errors which Truth must and will annihilate?

293:3-6, 17
Electricity is not a vital fluid, but the least material form of illusive consciousness,--the material mindlessness, which forms no link between matter and Mind, and which destroys itself.

Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality which counterfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth,--the great difference being that electricity is not intelligent, while spiritual truth is Mind.

270:5-7 (to 1St .)
Matter and Mind are opposites. One is contrary to the other in its very nature and essence; hence both cannot be real.

218:25
Resist the temptation to believe in matter as intelligent, as having sensation or power.

216:11-18
The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once to destroy the errors of mortal sense and to supply the truth of immortal sense. This understanding makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves, bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters. If man is governed by the law of divine Mind, his body is in submission to everlasting Life and Truth and Love.


IV
Matt. 21:10, 11, 17-20
And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee.

And he left them, and went out of the city into Bethany; and he lodged there. Now in the morning as he returned into the city, he hungered. And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever. And presently the fig tree withered away. And when the disciples saw it, they marvelled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!

Mark 11:20
And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots.

Matt. 15:13 Every, 30, 31
Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them: Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

Rev. 4:11
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

583:20
CREATOR. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal; the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Principle; God, who made all that was made and could not create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.
188:22-23 (to 1st .), 26
Sickness is a growth of error, springing from mortal ignorance or fear.

Sin and the fear of disease must be uprooted and cast out.

418:29
Tumors, ulcers, tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed joints, are waking dream-shadows, dark images of mortal thought, which flee before the light of Truth.

280:4
From Love and from the light and harmony which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are ideas of Mind. Mind creates and multiplies them, and the product must be mental.

390:20-23, 27
Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin.

"Agree to disagree" with approaching symptoms of chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consumption, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages of disease with as powerful mental opposition as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage of an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit. Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in sickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to the judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, "Thou art whole!"

463:12-13
A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive.


V
Ps. 73:1, 25, 26, 28 it
Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart.
Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.

it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all thy works.

Matt. 4:23
And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people.

Matt. 5:1, 2, 8
And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

Acts 17:24, 25, 28 (to ;)
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things;

For in him we live, and move, and have our being;

480:13
Harmonious action proceeds from Spirit, God. Inharmony has no Principle; its action is erroneous and presupposes man to be in matter. Inharmony would make matter the cause as well as the effect of intelligence, or Soul, thus attempting to separate Mind from God.

159:23
The medical schools would learn the state of man from matter instead of from Mind. They examine the lungs, tongue, and pulse to ascertain how much harmony, or health, matter is permitting to matter,--how much pain or pleasure, action or stagnation, one form of matter is allowing another form of matter.

191:16-19 (to .)
The human thought must free itself from self-imposed materiality and bondage. It should no longer ask of the head, heart, or lungs: What are man's prospects for life? Mind is not helpless.

125:6-17, 31-2 (to 1St .)
Neither organic inaction nor overaction is beyond God's control; and man will be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought, and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than he was in the prior states which human belief created and sanctioned.
As human thought changes from one stage to another of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and joy,--from fear to hope and from faith to understanding,--the visible manifestation will at last be man governed by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God's government, man is self-governed.

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.


VI
Ps. 93:3, 4
The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice; the floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea.

Mark 3:7 Jesus (to :)
Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea:

Mark 4:35-39
And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship. And there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.

Ps. 62:11
God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.

310:5-6
Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force; but all might is divine Mind.

134:26
Jesus said: "I knew that Thou hearest me always;" and he raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There is divine authority for believing in the superiority of spiritual power over material resistance.

293:21-28
There is no vapid fury of mortal mind--expressed in earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity --and this so-called mind is self-destroyed. The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, "The anger of the Lord." In reality, they show the self-destruction of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the strength and permanency of Spirit.

124:25-26 (to 1St .)
Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things.

249:6-10
Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor material power as able to destroy. Let us rejoice that we are subject to the divine "powers that be." Such is the true Science of being.

Benediction

Psalms 127:1
Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Hymn 53
Based on a hymn by John R. Macduff

Everlasting arms of Love
Are beneath, around, above;
God it is who bears us on,
His the arm we lean upon.

He our ever-present guide
Faithful is, whate'er betide;
Gladly then we journey on,
With His arm to lean upon.

From earth's fears and vain alarms
Safe in His encircling arms,
He will keep us all the way,
God, our refuge, strength and stay.

Hymn 141
Maria Louise Baum

If the Lord build not the house
They that labor build in vain;
Father, may our corner stone
Stand foursquare, without a stain.

Make our planting timely, true,
Governed by a power benign;
Nourish by a heavenly dew
All the branches and the vine.

Fruitful shall our tillage be,
Known the work of perfect Mind,
Leaves be gathered from the tree
For the healing of mankind.

Cleansing men of fear and hate,
Lifting hope above the sod,
Truth will summon, soon or late,
All the earth to worship God.

Hymn 382
Emily F. Seal

What is thy birthright, man,
Child of the perfect One;
What is thy Father's plan
For His beloved son?

Thou art Truth's honest child,
Of pure and sinless heart;
Thou treadest undefiled
In Christly paths apart.

Vain dreams shall disappear
As Truth dawns on the sight;
The phantoms of thy fear
Shall flee before the light.

Take then the sacred rod;
Thou art not error's thrall;
Thou hast the gift of God--
Dominion over all.