Service for Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009

Subject: Matter

Hymn 287
Edith Gaddis Brewer

Prayer with our waking thought ascends,
Great God of light, to Thee;
Darkness is banished in the glow
Of Thy reality.

Lo, to our widening vision dawns
The realm of Soul supreme,
Faith-lighted peaks of Spirit stand
Revealed in morning's beam.

Thus in Thy radiance vanishes
Death's drear and gloomy night;
Thus all creation hears anew
Truth's call, Let there be light.

The scriptural selection is from II Corinthians.

II Corinthians 5:1 we,5-10 (to ;),16-20
we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;
Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.


Silent Prayer, followed by the Lord’s Prayer with its spiritual interpretation as given in the Christian Science Textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy.

Our Father which art in heaven,
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,
Hallowed be Thy name.
Adorable One.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know – as in heaven, so on earth
God is omnipotent, supreme.
Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for today; feed the famished affections;
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth us from sin, disease, and death.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever.
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over all, and All.

Hymn 320
Isaac Watts – Arr. by William Cameron – Adapted

Supreme in wisdom as in power,
The Rock of Ages stands;
Canst thou not search His word, and trace
The working of His hands?

He gives the conquest to the meek,
Supports the fainting heart;
And courage in the evil hour
His heavenly aids impart.

Mere human energy shall faint,
And youthful vigor cease;
But those who wait upon the Lord
In strength shall still increase.

They, with unwearied step, shall tread
The path of life divine;
With growing ardor onward move,
With growing brightness shine.

Solo: ”Satisfied” (The words of this hymn were written 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.


The Lesson-Sermon as outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly and read by the First and Second Readers.

The content of the Lesson Sermons may be found in the Christian Science Quarterly. You may also read the Lesson-Sermon for this week online by clicking here.

Hymn 392
Laura C. Nourse

With love and peace and joy supreme
We hail the new appearing;
From out the darkness and the dream,
The haven of rest is nearing.

With gifts of healing in his wings
To light the Christ now guides us,
The heart that knows him burns and sings,
For endless joy betides us.

His touch the door of Life unseals
And bids us freely enter,
His word the heaven of heavens reveals
With Love its bound and center.

For God is all, and Christ the way;
Our meek and bold defender
Has cleft the night and lo, the day
Bursts forth in mighty splendor.

"The Scientific Statement of Being" (S&H p. 468} and the correlative scripture according to I John 3:1-3.

There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p.468


1John.3
[1] Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
[2] Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
[3] And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.


Benediction
I Timothy 1:17
Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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