Service for Wednesday, May 9, 2012



Theme: Hear

 Hymn 58 
 Elizabeth C. Adams

 Father, we Thy loving children
   Lift our hearts in joy today,
 Knowing well that Thou wilt keep us
   Ever in Thy blessed way.
 Thou art Love and Thou art wisdom,
   Thou art Life and Thou art All;
 In Thy Spirit living, moving,
   We shall neither faint nor fall.

 Come we daily then, dear Father,
   Open hearts and willing hands,
 Eager ears, expectant, joyful,
   Ready for Thy right commands.
 We would hear no other voices,
   We would heed no other call;
 Thou alone art good and gracious,
   Thou our Mind and Thou our All.

 In Thy house securely dwelling,
   Where Thy children live to bless,
 Seeing only Thy creation,
   We can share Thy happiness,
 Share Thy joy and spend it freely.
   Loyal hearts can feel no fear;
 We Thy children know Thee, Father,
   Love and Life forever near.

Readings from the Bible.

Deuteronomy 6:4‑7
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.  And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

Psalms 51:1,2,6‑8,10‑12
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.  Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. 

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. 

Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.  Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.  Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Psalms 85:1,2 (to 1st .),3‑8 (to 2nd :)
Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land: thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.  Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin.

Thou hast taken away all thy wrath: thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger.  Turn us, O God of our salvation, and cause thine anger toward us to cease.  Wilt thou be angry with us for ever? wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?  Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee? Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation.  I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints:

Proverbs 1:5‑9
A wise man will hear, and will increase learning; and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels: To understand a proverb, and the interpretation; the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.  #The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.  My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.

Proverbs 4:1,2,5‑12
Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.  For I give you good doctrine, forsake ye not my law.

Get wisdom, get understanding: forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth.  Forsake her not, and she shall preserve thee: love her, and she shall keep thee.  Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.  Exalt her, and she shall promote thee: she shall bring thee to honour, when thou dost embrace her.  She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.  Hear, O my son, and receive my sayings; and the years of thy life shall be many.  I have taught thee in the way of wisdom; I have led thee in right paths.  When thou goest, thy steps shall not be straitened; and when thou runnest, thou shalt not stumble.

Proverbs 8:4‑11
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.  For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.  All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.  They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.  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.

Ecclesiastes 12:13
#Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

Isaiah 32:1‑3
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.  And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.  And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.

Matthew 11:1‑6,15
And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities.  Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?  Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.  And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. 

He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.

Revelation 2:7
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

Readings from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.

26:28
  Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief.  It was the divine Principle of all real being which he taught and practised.  His proof of Christianity was no form or system of religion and worship, but Christian Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love.  Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was intended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had come: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached."  In other words: Tell John what the demonstration of divine power is, and he will at once perceive that God is the power in the Messianic work. 

37:16
  When will Jesus' professed followers learn to emulate him in ^all^ his ways and to imitate his mighty works?  Those who procured the martyrdom of that righteous man would gladly have turned his sacred career into a mutilated doctrinal platform.  May the Christians of to‑day take up the more practical import of that career!  It is possible,‑‑yea, it is the duty and privilege of every child, man, and woman,‑‑to follow in some degree the example of the Master by the demonstration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness.  Chris‑tians claim to be his followers, but do they follow him in the way that he commanded?  Hear these imperative commands: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect!"  "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature!"  "^Heal the^ ^sick^!"

84:19‑23
  To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind‑science by which we discern man's nature and existence. 

211:24
  If it is true that nerves have sensation, that matter has intelligence, that the material organism causes the eyes to see and the ears to hear, then, when the body is dematerialized, these faculties must be lost, for their immortality is not in Spirit; whereas the fact is that only through dematerialization and spiritualization of thought can these faculties be conceived of as immortal. 

213:6‑19,30
  Mortal mind conceives of something as either liquid or solid, and then classifies it materially.  Immortal and spiritual facts exist apart from this mortal and material conception.  God, good, is self‑existent and self‑expressed, though indefinable as a whole.  Every step towards goodness is a departure from materiality, and is a tendency towards God, Spirit.  Material theories partially paralyze this attraction towards infinite and eternal good by an opposite attraction towards the finite, temporary, and discordant. 
  Sound is a mental impression made on mortal belief.  The ear does not really hear.  Divine Science reveals sound as communicated through the senses of Soul‑‑through spiritual understanding. 

  Before human knowledge dipped to its depths into a false sense of things,‑‑into belief in material origins which discard the one Mind and true source of being,‑‑it is possible that the impressions from Truth were as distinct as sound, and that they came as sound to the primitive prophets.  If the medium of hearing is wholly spiritual, it is normal and indestructible. 

342:16‑28
  If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes an accident.  Shall it be denied that a system which works according to the Scriptures has Scriptural authority? 
  Christian Science awakens the sinner, reclaims the infidel, and raises from the couch of pain the helpless invalid.  It speaks to the dumb the words of Truth, and they answer with rejoicing.  It causes the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the blind to see.  Who would be the first to disown the Christliness of good works, when our Master says, "By their fruits ye shall know them"? 

467:17
  Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and God as not in man but as reflected by man.  The greater cannot be in the lesser.  The belief that the greater can be in the lesser is an error that works ill.  This is a leading point in the Science of Soul, that Principle is not in its idea.  Spirit, Soul, is not confined in man, and is never in matter.  We reason imperfectly from effect to cause, when we conclude that matter is the effect of Spirit; but ^a priori^ reasoning shows material existence to be enigmatical.  Spirit gives the true mental idea.  We cannot interpret Spirit, Mind, through matter.  Matter neither sees, hears, nor feels. 

479:8‑15
  Matter is neither self‑existent nor a product of Spirit.  An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is all that the eye beholds.  Matter cannot see, feel, hear, taste, nor smell.  It is not self‑cognizant,‑‑cannot feel itself, see itself, nor understand itself.  Take away so‑called mortal mind, which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter can take no cognizance of matter.

485:4‑7
Science declares that Mind, not matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts this statement is the false sense, which ever betrays mortals into sickness, sin, and death.

486:23‑12
  Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are eternal.  They cannot be lost.  Their reality and immortality are in Spirit and understanding, not in matter,‑‑hence their permanence.  If this were not so, man would be speedily annihilated.  If the five corporeal senses were the medium through which to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness would place man in a terrible situation, where he would be like those "having no hope, and without God in the world;" but as a matter of fact, these calamities often drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happiness and existence. 
  Life is deathless.  Life is the origin and ultimate of man, never attainable through death, but gained by walking in the pathway of Truth both before and after that which is called death.  There is more Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually than materially.  There is more Science in the perpetual exercise of the Mind‑faculties than in their loss.  Lost they cannot be, while Mind remains.  The apprehension of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf centuries ago, and it will repeat the wonder. 

585:1‑4 (to ))
  EARS.  Not organs of the so‑called corporeal senses, but spiritual understanding. 
  Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, "Having ears, hear ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)

591:8
  MATTER.  Mythology; mortality; another name for mortal mind; illusion; intelligence, substance, and life in non‑intelligence and mortality; life resulting in death, and death in life; sensation in the sensationless; mind originating in matter; the opposite of Truth; the opposite of Spirit; the opposite of God; that of which immortal Mind takes no cognizance; that which mortal mind sees, feels, hears, tastes, and smells only in belief. 

Silent prayer followed by the audible repetition of the Lord’s Prayer.

 Hymn 136 
 Violet Hay

 I love Thy way of freedom, Lord,
   To serve Thee is my choice,
 In Thy clear light of Truth I rise
   And, listening for Thy voice,
 I hear Thy promise old and new,
   That bids all fear to cease:
 My presence still shall go with thee
   And I will give thee peace.

 Though storm or discord cross my path
   Thy power is still my stay,
 Though human will and woe would check
   My upward‑soaring way;
 All unafraid I wait, the while
   Thy angels bring release,
 For still Thy presence is with me,
   And Thou dost give me peace.

 I climb, with joy, the heights of Mind,
   To soar o'er time and space;
 I yet shall know as I am known
   And see Thee face to face.
 Till time and space and fear are naught
   My quest shall never cease,
 Thy presence ever goes with me
   And Thou dost give me peace.

Sharing of experiences, testimonies and remarks by members of the congregation.


 Hymn 374
 John Randall Dunn 

 We thank Thee and we bless Thee,
   O Father of us all,
 That e'en before we ask Thee
   Thou hear'st Thy children's call.
 We praise Thee for Thy goodness
   And tender, constant care,
 We thank Thee, Father‑Mother,
   That Thou hast heard our prayer.

 We thank Thee and we bless Thee,
   O Lord of all above,
 That now Thy children know Thee
   As everlasting Love.
 And Love is not the author
   Of discord, pain and fear;
 O Love divine, we thank Thee
   That good alone is here.

 We thank Thee, Father‑Mother,
   For blessings, light and grace
 Which bid mankind to waken
   And see Thee face to face.
 We thank Thee, when in anguish
   We turn from sense to Soul,
 That we may hear Thee calling:
   Rejoice, for thou art whole.

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