Subject: God the Only Cause and Creator
Scriptural Selection
Psalms 95:1-7 (to .)
O come, let us sing unto the Lord: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also. The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land. O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
Psalms 147:1-5,7,8,12-15,20 Praise
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.
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.
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. He sendeth forth his commandment upon earth: his word runneth very swiftly.
Praise ye the Lord.
Solo: “O’er Waiting Harpstrings” (Words by Mary Baker Eddy)
Lesson Sermon
Golden Text: Isa 61:11 as
as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.
Responsive Readings: Isa 65:17 (to :), 18 be, 19, 23-25 (to :); 11:9
For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth:
be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for they are the seed of the blessed of the Lord, and their offspring with them. And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock:
They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.
Readings from the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. Read alternatively.
I
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.
Isa. 42:5, 8
Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:
I am the Lord: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.
Isa. 29:16-19
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? Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be esteemed as a forest? And in that day shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
Isa. 40:9, 26
O Zion, that bringest good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain; O Jerusalem, that bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength; lift it up, be not afraid; say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God!
Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth.
Ps. 104:24 (to :), 30, 31, 34
O Lord, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all:
Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth. The glory of the Lord shall endure for ever: the Lord shall rejoice in his works.
My meditation of him shall be sweet: I will be glad in the Lord.
170:22
Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, for more than all others spiritual causation relates to human progress. The age seems ready to approach this subject, to ponder somewhat the supremacy of Spirit, and at least to touch the hem of Truth's garment.
339:8-9
God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it good.
331:16-20, 22
Everything in God's universe expresses Him.
VI. God is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Principle, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and there is no other self-existence.
He fills all space, and it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and individuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all is Spirit and spiritual.
207:27
The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth. Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord, which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real. The only evidence of this inversion is obtained from suppositional error, which affords no proof of God, Spirit, or of the spiritual creation. Material sense defines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the infinite.
275:20
Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understanding, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, --that is, all power, all presence, all Science. Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind.
268:6-9
Belief in a material basis, from which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from matter to Mind as the cause of every effect.
II
Mal. 2:10
Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Ps. 67:1 (to 2nd ;), 4 (to 1st .)
God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us;
O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth.
Ps. 86:9, 10
All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.
Ps. 100:1, 3-5 (to 1st ;)
Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.
Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the Lord is good;
Ps. 82:6 all
all of you are children of the most High.
93:13
Good never causes evil, nor creates aught that can cause evil.
502:29
There is but one creator and one creation. This creation consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and forever reflected. These ideas range from the infinitesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons and daughters of God.
469:30
With one Father, even God, the whole family of man would be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which constitute divine Science. The supposed existence of more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry. This error assumed the loss of spiritual power, the loss of the spiritual presence of Life as infinite Truth without an unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and universal.
13:25-29
Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle, Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely physical, and are ignorant of man as God's image or reflection and of man's eternal incorporeal existence.
256:7, 13-16
Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and Mother of the universe, including man.
The everlasting I AM is not bounded nor compressed within the narrow limits of physical humanity, nor can He be understood aright through mortal concepts.
576:31-4
This human sense of Deity yields to the divine sense, even as the material sense of personality yields to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite Principle and infinite idea,--as one Father with His universal family, held in the gospel of Love.
III
Matt. 4:18-20, 23-25
And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea: for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets, and followed him.
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. And his fame went throughout all Syria: and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judaea, and from beyond Jordan.
Acts 10:34-38 Peter, 44
Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) That word, I say, ye know, which was published throughout all Judaea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him.
While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
II Cor. 2:14
Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.
271:26-29 (to 1st .)
Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity now, as aforetime, to learn and to practise Christian healing.
496:13
Your fruits will prove what the understanding of God brings to man. Hold perpetually this thought,--that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, overlying, and encompassing all true being.
332:19
X. Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ is the divine idea of God--the Holy Ghost, or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, Love, and leading into all truth.
31:10
He recognized Spirit, God, as the only creator, and therefore as the Father of all.
286:12-19, 31-1
Physical causation was put aside from first to last by this original man, Jesus. He knew that the divine Principle, Love, creates and governs all that is real.
In the Saxon and twenty other tongues good is the term for God. The Scriptures declare all that He made to be good, like Himself,--good in Principle and in idea.
Sin, sickness, and death are comprised in human material belief, and belong not to the divine Mind. They are without a real origin or existence.
231:12, 30
If God makes sin, if good produces evil, if truth results in error, then Science and Christianity are helpless; but there are no antagonistic powers nor laws, spiritual or material, creating and governing man through perpetual warfare. God is not the author of mortal discords. Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine Truth and Love destroy.
Man, governed by his Maker, having no other Mind,--planted on the Evangelist's statement that "all things were made by Him [the Word of God]; and without Him was not anything made that was made,"--can triumph over sin, sickness, and death.
IV
Ps. 29:11
The Lord will give strength unto his people; the Lord will bless his people with peace.
Ps. 10:17, 18
Lord, thou hast heard the desire of the humble: thou wilt prepare their heart, thou wilt cause thine ear to hear: To judge the fatherless and the oppressed, that the man of the earth may no more oppress.
Zech. 8:3 (to 2nd ;), 5, 7, 8
Thus saith the Lord; I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth;
And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Behold, I will save my people from the east country, and from the west country; And I will bring them, and they shall dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, in truth and in righteousness.
Isa. 60:18, 19
Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
Rev. 21:2, 24, 25, 27 (to :)
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 the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it. And the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day: for there shall be no night there.
And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie:
592:18
NEW JERUSALEM. Divine Science; the spiritual facts and harmony of the universe; the kingdom of heaven, or reign of harmony.
577:19
This city of our God has no need of sun or satellite, for Love is the light of it, and divine Mind is its own interpreter. All who are saved must walk in this light. Mighty potentates and dynasties will lay down their honors within the heavenly city. Its gates open towards light and glory both within and without, for all is good, and nothing can enter that city, which "defileth, . . . or maketh a lie."
93:15-17
Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of creation.
264:32-5
The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings, and its government is divine Science. Man is the offspring, not of the lowest, but of the highest qualities of Mind. Man understands spiritual existence in proportion as his treasures of Truth and Love are enlarged.
340:23
One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; constitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates pagan and Christian idolatry,--whatever is wrong in social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.
254:31
Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God.
V
Job 11:18
And thou shalt be secure, because there is hope; yea, thou shalt dig about thee, and thou shalt take thy rest in safety.
I Chron. 16:30 the world, 31
the world also shall be stable, that it be not moved. Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice: and let men say among the nations, The Lord reigneth.
Isa. 65:18 be, 19, 21
be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.
And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.
Isa. 13:11 2nd and I, 12 (to ;)
and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. I will make a man more precious than fine gold;
PS. 148:1, 11-13
Praise ye the Lord. Praise ye the Lord from the heavens: praise him in the heights.
Kings of the earth, and all people; princes, and all judges of the earth: Both young men, and maidens; old men, and children: Let them praise the name of the Lord: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.
Rev. 11:15 The kingdoms
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
69:13
Spiritually to understand that there is but one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scriptures, brings the sweet assurance of no parting, no pain, and of man deathless and perfect and eternal.
262:27-28 (to 2nd .), 30-31
The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of man's origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly.
Divine Mind is the only cause or Principle of existence.
565:13-18
The impersonation of the spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our Master; but "of his kingdom there shall be no end," for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations and peoples--imperatively, absolutely, finally--with divine Science.
371:26
Mankind will improve through Science and Christianity. The necessity for uplifting the race is father to the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weakness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an alterative in the entire system, and can make it "every whit whole."
264:15-20, 24-31
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.
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.
275:14-15
All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause, and effect belong to God.
Benediction
Genesis 1:31 (God) to first .
God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
Hymn 246
Isaiah 40
From Dutch Version
O Thou who spreadest the heaven like a tent,
He who depends on Thee, ne'er is forspent,
Still for his might on Thee he ever counteth,
On wings of eagles he, unwearied, mounteth.
Refrain
Have ye not heard, have ye not known
The everlasting God
Creator is of heaven and earth,
And He alone is Lord.
So shall the glory of God be revealed,
All flesh shall see it and all shall be healed;
In word and deed declare Him and adore Him.
God's will is done, and all is plain before Him.
[Refrain]
Hymn 327
Author Unknown
The God who made both heaven and earth
And all that they contain
Will never quit His steadfast truth
Nor make His promise vain.
The poor and all oppressed by wrong
Are saved by His decree;
He gives the hungry needful food
And sets the captive free.
By Him the blind receive their sight,
By Him the fallen rise;
With constant care, His tender love
All human need supplies.
Hymn 82
Arthur C. Ainger
God is working His purpose out
As year succeeds to year,
God is working His purpose out
And the time is drawing near;
Nearer and nearer draws the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea.
What can we do to work God's work,
To prosper and increase
The brotherhood of all mankind,
The reign of the Prince of Peace?
What can we do to hasten the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea?
March we forth in the strength of God
With the banner of Christ unfurled,
That the light of the glorious Gospel of truth
May shine throughout the world;
Fight we the fight with sorrow and sin,
To set their captives free,
That the earth may be filled with the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea.
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