Theme: Substance
Hymn 267
Emily F. Seal
Our God is All-in-all,
His children cannot fear;
See baseless evil fall,
And know that God is here.
Our God is All; in space
No subtle error creeps;
We see Truth's glowing face,
And Love that never sleeps.
We see creative Mind,
The Principle, the Life;
And Soul and substance find,
But never discord, strife.
O, Perfect and Divine,
We hear Thy loving call,
And seek no earthly shrine
But crown Thee Lord of all.
Readings from the Bible
Psalms 139:1-4,7-12,14-18
O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the
morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy
right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be
light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the
darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that
my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret,
and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet
being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were
fashioned, when as yet there was none of them. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O
God! how great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they are more in number than the
sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
Proverbs 3:1-26
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. Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of
all thine increase: So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with
new wine. #My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord; neither be weary of his correction:
For whom the Lord loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth. #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. She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her. The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens. By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew. #My son, let not them depart from thine eyes: keep sound wisdom and discretion: So shall they be life unto thy soul, and grace to thy neck. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. When thou liest down, thou shalt not be afraid: yea, thou shalt lie down, and thy sleep shall be sweet. Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.
Proverbs 8:1,4-6,10-12,14-21
Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?
Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man. O ye simple, understand wisdom:
and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart. Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the
opening of my lips shall be right things.
Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold. For wisdom is
better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it. I wisdom
dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.
Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength. By me kings reign,
and princes decree justice. By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. I
love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me. Riches and honour are with
me; yea, durable riches and righteousness. My fruit is better than gold, yea, than fine gold; and
my revenue than choice silver. I lead in the way of righteousness, in the midst of the paths of
judgment: That I may cause those that love me to inherit substance; and I will fill their treasures.
Hebrews 10:34-37 ye
ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in
yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore
your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that,
after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and he
that shall come will come, and will not tarry.
Hebrews 11:1-10
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the
elders obtained a good report. Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the
word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith
Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he
was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch
was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him:
for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. But without faith it is
impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a
rewarder of them that diligently seek him. By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not
seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he
condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy
43:21
Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cup of bitterness he drank. Human law had
condemned him, but he was demonstrating divine Science. Out of reach of the barbarity of his
enemies, he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of matter and mortality, and that spiritual
law sustained him. The divine must overcome the human at every point. The Science Jesus
taught and lived must triumph over all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelligence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such beliefs.
90:6
The earth's orbit and the imaginary line called the equator are not substance. The earth's motion and position are sustained by Mind alone. Divest yourself of the thought that there can be substance in matter, and the movements and transitions now possible for mortal mind will be
found to be equally possible for the body. Then being will be recognized as spiritual, and death
will be obsolete, though now some insist that death is the necessary prelude to immortality.
91:16
Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect but faintly the substance of Life or Mind.
The denial of material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spiritual and eternal individuality,
and destroys the erroneous knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed the
material senses.
124:14-31
The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science from its divine Principle, God, and then
it can be understood; but when explained on the basis of physical sense and represented as
subject to growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, and must continue to be, an
enigma.
Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support the equipoise of that thought-force, which launched the earth in its orbit and said to the proud wave, "Thus far and no farther."
Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them,
and creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them forces of matter; but divine Science
declares that they belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this Mind, and so restores them
to their rightful home and classification.
173:11
What is termed matter manifests nothing but a material mentality. Neither the substance nor the manifestation of Spirit is obtainable through matter. Spirit is positive. Matter is Spirit's contrary, the absence of Spirit. For positive Spirit to pass through a negative condition would be Spirit's destruction.
241:19
The substance of all devotion is the reflection and demonstration of divine Love, healing
sickness and destroying sin. Our Master said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments."
252:31 (to 1st ,),31-8 saith
Spirit saith: I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my likeness. He reflects the infinite
understanding, for I am Infinity. The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being, imperishable
glory,--all are Mine, for I am God. I give immortality to man, for I am Truth. I include and
impart all bliss, for I am Love. I give life, without beginning and without end, for I am Life. I
am supreme and give all, for I am Mind. I am the substance of all, because I AM THAT I AM.
257:12
Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the substance of an idea is very far from being the
supposed substance of non-intelligent matter. Hence the Father Mind is not the father of matter.
The material senses and human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into material beliefs,
and would say that an anthropomorphic God, instead of infinite Principle,--in other words, divine Love,--is the father of the rain, "who hath begotten the drops of dew," who bringeth "forth
Mazzaroth in his season," and guideth "Arcturus with his sons."
258:31
Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in
Science the generic term ^man^. Man is not absorbed in Deity, and man cannot lose his
individuality, for he reflects eternal Life; nor is he an isolated, solitary idea, for he represents
infinite Mind, the sum of all substance.
267:1
Every object in material thought will be destroyed, but the spiritual idea, whose substance is in
Mind, is eternal. The offspring of God start not from matter or ephemeral dust. They are in and
of Spirit, divine Mind, and so forever continue. God is one. The allness of Deity is His oneness.
Generically man is one, and specifically man means all men.
274:12-19 np
The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demonstrate Truth and Life. Hence Christianity
and the Science which expounds it are based on spiritual understanding, and they supersede the
so-called laws of matter. Jesus demonstrated this great verity. When what we erroneously term
the five physical senses are misdirected, they are simply the manifested beliefs of mortal mind,
which affirm that life, substance, and intelligence are material, instead of spiritual. These false
beliefs and their products constitute the flesh, and the flesh wars against Spirit.
Divine Science is absolute, and permits no half-way position in learning its Principle and
rule--establishing it by demonstration. The conventional firm, called matter and mind, God
never formed. Science and understanding, governed by the unerring and eternal Mind, destroy
the imaginary copartnership, matter and mind, formed only to be destroyed in a manner and at a period as yet unknown. This suppositional partnership is already obsolete, for matter, examined in the light of divine metaphysics, disappears.
Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies. A partnership of mind with matter would
ignore omnipresent and omnipotent Mind. This shows that matter did not originate in God,
Spirit, and is not eternal. Therefore matter is neither substantial, living, nor intelligent. The
starting-point of divine Science is that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other might
nor Mind,--that God is Love, and therefore He is divine Principle.
To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, you must begin by reckoning God as the
divine Principle of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, combine as one,--and are the
Scriptural names for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, immortality, cause, and
effect belong to God. These are His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite divine
Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is
Life but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows.
286:21-26
God's thoughts are perfect and eternal, are substance and Life. Material and temporal thoughts
are human, involving error, and since God, Spirit, is the only cause, they lack a divine cause.
The temporal and material are not then creations of Spirit. They are but counterfeits of the
spiritual and eternal.
300:23
Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter. If Spirit were in matter, God would have no
representative, and matter would be identical with God. The theory that soul, spirit, intelligence, inhabits matter is taught by the schools. This theory is unscientific. The universe reflects and expresses the divine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in the ray of light which goes out from it. God is revealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love,--yea, which manifests God's attributes and power, even as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats the color, form, and action of the person in front of the mirror.
301:17-23
As God is substance and man is the divine image and likeness, man should wish for, and in
reality has, only the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, not matter. The belief that man
has any other substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one Mind.
312:1
How true it is that whatever is learned through material sense must be lost because such
so-called knowledge is reversed by the spiritual facts of being in Science. That which material
sense calls intangible, is found to be substance. What to material sense seems substance,
becomes nothingness, as the sense-dream vanishes and reality appears.
335:7 Spirit
Spirit, God, has created all in and of Himself. Spirit never created matter. There is nothing in
Spirit out of which matter could be made, for, as the Bible declares, without the Logos, the Aeon
or Word of God, "was not anything made that was made." Spirit is the only substance, the
invisible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and eternal are substantial. Things
material and temporal are insubstantial.
468:16-24
Question.--What is substance?
Answer.--Substance is that which is eternal and incapable of discord and decay. Truth, Life,
and Love are substance, as the Scriptures use this word in Hebrews: "The substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." Spirit, the synonym of Mind, Soul, or God, is the
only real substance. The spiritual universe, including individual man, is a compound idea,
reflecting the divine substance of Spirit.
Silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of The Lord’s Prayer
Hymn 123
"K" in Rippon's Selection, 1787 – Adapted
How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord,
Is laid for your faith in His excellent Word.
What more can He say than to you He hath said,
To you who to God for your refuge have fled:
Fear not, I am with thee, O be not dismayed,
For I am thy God, I will still give thee aid;
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to
stand,
Upheld by My gracious, omnipotent hand;
When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie,
My grace, all sufficient, shall be thy supply;
The flame shall not hurt thee; I only design
Thy dross to consume and thy gold to refine.
Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.
Hymn 293
Frederic W. Root – Based on hymn by A. M. Toplady
Rock of Ages, Truth divine,
Be Thy strength forever mine;
Let me rest secure on Thee,
Safe above life's raging sea.
Rock of Ages, Truth divine,
Be Thy strength forever mine.
Rock of Truth, our fortress strong,
Thou our refuge from all wrong,
When from mortal sense I flee,
Let me hide myself in Thee.
Rock of Ages, Truth divine,
Be Thy strength forever mine.
Christ, the Truth, foundation sure,
On this rock we are secure;
Peace is there our life to fill,
Cure is there for every ill.
Rock of Ages, Truth divine,
Be Thy strength forever mine.
