Service for Sunday, Sept. 8, 2013

Subject: Man

 Hymn 85 
 Edith Gaddis Brewer

 God of Truth, eternal good,
   Lift our hearts to revelation,
 That Thou mayst be understood,
   Thou, the Rock of our salvation;
 All Thy love we have for loving,
 All Thy truth is ours for proving.

 Open now our eyes to see,
   As the clouds of sense are riven,
 We behold reality,
   Know the glory of Thy heaven;
 So we seek Thy perfect healing
 Through the Truth of Thy revealing.

 All the way that we must go
   We will take at Thy direction,
 Where the floods of trouble flow
   Find Thy perfect, calm reflection;
 On the path that has no turning,
 Patience, courage, meekness learning.

Readings from the Bible.

Luke 4:14‑21 Jesus
Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about.  And he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. 

#And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up: and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the sabbath day, and stood up for to read.  And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias.  And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.  And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.  And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

James 1:16,17,22‑25 be
Do not err, my beloved brethren.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. 

be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.  For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.  But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

Silent prayer, followed by the audible repetition of 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 218
 Samuel Longfellow 

 O Life that maketh all things new,
   The blooming earth, the thoughts of men;
 Our pilgrim feet, wet with Thy dew,
   In gladness hither turn again.

 From hand to hand the greeting flows,
   From eye to eye the signals run,
 From heart to heart the bright hope glows,
   The seekers of the Light are one:

 One in the freedom of the truth,
   One in the joy of paths untrod,
 One in the heart's perennial youth,
   One in the larger thought of God;‑‑

 The freer step, the fuller breath,
   The wide horizon's grander view;
 The sense of Life that knows no death,‑‑
   The Life that maketh all things new.

Solo: “Mark the Perfect Man”             

Friends:
The Bible and the Christian Science textbook are our only preachers. We shall now read Scriptural texts, and their correlative passages from our denominational textbook; these comprise our sermon.

The canonical writings, together with the word of our textbook, corroborating and explaining the Bible texts in their spiritual import and application to all ages, past, present, and future, constitute a sermon undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized.

The lesson-sermon from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mary Baker Eddy, read by the First and Second Readers.

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

 Hymn 83 
 James Montgomery – Adapted

 God made all His creatures free;
 Life itself is liberty;
 God ordained no other bands
 Than united hearts and hands.

 One in fellowship of Mind,
 We our bliss and glory find
 In that endless happy whole,
 Where our God is Life and Soul.

 So shall all our slavery cease,
 All God's children dwell in peace,
 And the newborn earth record
 Love, and Love alone, is Lord.

"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

    
Jeremiah 34:17 behold (to 6th ,)
 behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord,



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