Sunday, February 3rd, 2019



SubjectLove

Golden Text: Psalm 23 : 1



The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.




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Responsive Reading: Psalm 23 : 2-6


2.     He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3.     He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4.     Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5.     Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6.     Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.



Lesson Sermon



The Bible


1. Psalm 67 : 1 (to 2nd ;), 2, 5-7

1     God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us;

2     That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations.

5     Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee.

6     Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.

7     God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

2. II Kings 4 : 1-7, 42-44

1     Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, Thy servant my husband is dead; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord: and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen.

2     And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house? And she said, Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil.

3     Then he said, Go, borrow thee vessels abroad of all thy neighbours, even empty vessels; borrow not a few.

4     And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut the door upon thee and upon thy sons, and shalt pour out into all those vessels, and thou shalt set aside that which is full.

5     So she went from him, and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her; and she poured out.

6     And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, that she said unto her son, Bring me yet a vessel. And he said unto her, There is not a vessel more. And the oil stayed.

7     Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy children of the rest.

42     And there came a man from Baal-shalisha, and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley, and full ears of corn in the husk thereof. And he said, Give unto the people, that they may eat.

43     And his servitor said, What, should I set this before an hundred men? He said again, Give the people, that they may eat: for thus saith the Lord, They shall eat, and shall leave thereof.

44     So he set it before them, and they did eat, and left thereof, according to the word of the Lord.

3. Psalm 85 : 1 (to :), 7-13

1     Lord, thou hast been favourable unto thy land:

7     Shew us thy mercy, O Lord, and grant us thy salvation.

8     I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

9     Surely his salvation is nigh them that fear him; that glory may dwell in our land.

10     Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

11     Truth shall spring out of the earth; and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

12     Yea, the Lord shall give that which is good; and our land shall yield her increase.

13     Righteousness shall go before him; and shall set us in the way of his steps.

4. Psalm 117 : 1, 2 (to 1st .)

1     O praise the Lord, all ye nations: praise him, all ye people.

2     For his merciful kindness is great toward us: and the truth of the Lord endureth for ever.

5. Hebrews 10 : 22, 24, 34, 35

22     Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

24     And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

34     For 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.

35     Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.

6. Isaiah 58 : 10-12, 14

10     And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:

11     And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

12     And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.

14     Then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

7. I John 4 : 10-12

10     Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

11     Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

12     No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.

8. I Peter 5 : 2-4

2     Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;

3     Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.

4     And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.



Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures


1. 275 : 6-9

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.

2. 3 : 7-11

Shall we ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own work? His work is done, and we have only to avail ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His blessing, which enables us to work out our own salvation.

3. 12 : 27-29, 31-4

Does Deity interpose in behalf of one worshipper, and not help another who offers the same measure of prayer? … In divine Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail themselves of God as "a very present help in trouble." Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."

4. 494 : 10-15

Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demonstrated the divine power to heal only for a select number or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.

The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love.

5. 530 : 5-12

In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine Principle of being. The earth, at God's command, brings forth food for man's use. Knowing this, Jesus once said, "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink," — presuming not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God, the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe man as He doth the lilies.

6. 6 : 17-18

"God is Love." More than this we cannot ask, higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go.

7. 257 : 24-29

Who hath found finite life or love sufficient to meet the demands of human want and woe, — to still the desires, to satisfy the aspirations? Infinite Mind cannot be limited to a finite form, or Mind would lose its infinite character as inexhaustible Love, eternal Life, omnipotent Truth.

8. 135 : 17-20

There is to-day danger of repeating the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel and asking: "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" What cannot God do?

9. 13 : 20-29

If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and fears which attend such a belief, and so we cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infinite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible. 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.

10. 304 : 3-21

It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and goodness. Understanding this, Paul said: "Neither death, nor life, … nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God." This is the doctrine of Christian Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind nor life result in death. The perfect man — governed by God, his perfect Principle — is sinless and eternal.

Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled by it and abides with it. Divine Principle is the Life of man. Man's happiness is not, therefore, at the disposal of physical sense. Truth is not contaminated by error. Harmony in man is as beautiful as in music, and discord is unnatural, unreal.

11. 469 : 30-10

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.

12. 518 : 13-23

God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the greater, and in return, the higher always protects the lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in one grand brotherhood, all having the same Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in another's good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality — infinite Life, Truth, and Love.

13. 577 : 32-18

In the following Psalm one word shows, though faintly, the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures by substituting for the corporeal sense, the incorporeal or spiritual sense of Deity: —

PSALM XXIII

[Divine Love] is my shepherd; I shall not want.

[Love] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

[love] leadeth me beside the still waters.

[Love] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [love] leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [love] is with me; [love’s] rod and [love’s] staff they comfort me.

[Love] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: [love] anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [love] for ever.


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