The Demands of Soul

The service began with singing Hymn 475:
Mildred Spring Case, Alt., Christian Science Hymnal: Hymns 430-603, No.475 © 2017 The Christian Science Board of Directors
 
Forget not who you are, O child of God,
For God demands of you reflection pure;
Your heritage is goodly, and your home,
In Spirit's warm embrace, is safe, secure.

You are the child of Spirit, sinless, pure-
Yours is a perfect beauty, born of Soul-
Complete with health, vitality, and grace.
For is not God, your Father, perfect, whole?

Your understanding, too, comes straight from God.
For in that Mind, magnificent and clear,
You are conceived by Love, a perfect child,
Unhampered by the flesh, or doubt, or fear.

So now look up to God's pure holy light
And greet with fearless joy each coming day.
Of royal birth, you are a King's own child-
And God is yours, and you are God's alway.


 
 
Readings from The Holy Bible

Ex. 20:3
Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
 
Lev. 19:18, 19 to 1st .)
... thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord. Ye shall keep my statutes.


Ex. 25:1; 28:1 take (to 4th ,), 29–32, 35 (to :), 36
And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, ... take thou unto thee Aaron thy brother, and his sons with him, from among the children of Israel, that he may minister unto me in the priest's office, ...

And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the breastplate of judgment upon his heart, when he goeth in unto the holy place, for a memorial before the LORD continually.  And thou shalt put in the breastplate of judgment the Urim and the Thummim; and they shall be upon Aaron's heart, when he goeth in before the LORD: and Aaron shall bear the judgment of the children of Israel upon his heart before the LORD continually.  And thou shalt make the robe of the ephod all of blue. And there shall be an hole in the top of it, in the midst thereof: it shall have a binding of woven work round about the hole of it, as it were the hole of an habergeon, that it be not rent. ... And it shall be upon Aaron to minister: ... And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, HOLINESS TO THE LORD.


Matt. 22:2–14 Jesus, 34–40
The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen. ... But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.


Mark 9:17–19, 25–29
And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son, which hath a dumb spirit; And wheresoever he taketh him, he teareth him: and he foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away: and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out; and they could not. He answereth him, and saith, O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. ... When Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the foul spirit, saying unto him, Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he was as one dead; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them, This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.


Luke 13:24 (to :)
Strive to enter in at the strait gate: ...

Isa. 55:8 my, 9
my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.


Prov. 16:3
Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established.


Correlative passages from the Christian Science textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
 
SH 467:1–8
Question. — What are the demands of the Science of Soul? 

Answer. — The first demand of this Science is, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” This me is Spirit. Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second is like unto it, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”


SH 340:15–22
“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” (Exodus xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text. It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri-unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal.


SH 451:8–14
Students of Christian Science, who start with its letter and think to succeed without the spirit, will either make shipwreck of their faith or be turned sadly awry. They must not only seek, but strive, to enter the narrow path of Life, for “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.”
 
SH 240:18–21, 22
Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures will be repeated until all wrong work is effaced or rectified. ... If at present content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with it. Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that is to be overcome.


SH 22:6–7, 11-12
Waking to Christ's demand, mortals experience suffering. … “Work out your own salvation,” is the demand of Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you.


SH 37:32–1
Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration to stir mankind to Christian effort?


SH 182:32–4
The law of Christ, or Truth, makes all things possible to Spirit; but the so-called laws of matter would render Spirit of no avail, and demand obedience to materialistic codes, thus departing from the basis of one God, one lawmaker.


SH 130:4
When all men are bidden to the feast, the excuses come. One has a farm, another has merchandise, and therefore they cannot accept.


SH 239:5–22
Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations, which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we get clearer views of Principle. Break up cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views of humanity. 
The wicked man is not the ruler of his upright neighbor. Let it be understood that success in error is defeat in Truth. The watchword of Christian Science is Scriptural: “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” 
To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and obey as God. If divine Love is becoming nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show what we are winning.
 
SH 385:7–11
The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and endurance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds.


SH 253:32–2
The divine demand, “Be ye therefore perfect,” is scientific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are indispensable.


SH 324:4–5
The purification of sense and self is a proof of progress.


SH 35:19–25
Our baptism is a purification from all error. Our church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can unite with this church only as we are new-born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth the fruits of Love, — casting out error and healing the sick.


SH 595:11–16
THUMMIM. Perfection; the eternal demand of divine Science. 
The Urim and Thummim, which were to be on Aaron's breast when he went before Jehovah, were holiness and purification of thought and deed, which alone can fit us for the office of spiritual teaching.


SH 596:11–19
URIM. Light. 
The rabbins believed that the stones in the breast-plate of the high-priest had supernatural illumination, but Christian Science reveals Spirit, not matter, as the illuminator of all. The illuminations of Science give us a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit preparation for admission to the presence and power of the Most High.


SH 9:5–24
The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of this asking? Do we pursue the old selfishness, satisfied with having prayed for something better, though we give no evidence of the sincerity of our requests by living consistently with our prayer? If selfishness has given place to kindness, we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless them that curse us; but we shall never meet this great duty simply by asking that it may be done. There is a cross to be taken up before we can enjoy the fruition of our hope and faith. 
Dost thou “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”? This command includes much, even the surrender of all merely material sensation, affection, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity. It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master, and material sense and human will have no place.


The readings concluded with silent prayer followed by the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew Chapter 6.
 
The congregation then sang Hymn 190:
Frederick Mann, Adapted, Christian Science Hymnal, No. 190 Words by permission of A.W. Ridley & Co.
 
My God, my Father, make me strong,
When tasks of life seem hard and long,
To greet them with this triumph song,
Thy will be done.

With confident and humble mind,
My joy in service I would find,
My prayer through every task assigned,
Thy will be done.

Things deemed impossible I dare,
Thine is the call and Thine the care,
Thy wisdom shall the way prepare;
Thy will be done.

Heaven's music chimes the glad days in,
Hope soars beyond death, pain and sin,
Faith sings in triumph, Love doth win;
Thy will is done.


The First Reader read announcements from the desk and then opened the meeting to the floor giving those in attendance the opportunity to share healings and inspiration gained from the study and practice of Christian Science.
 
The meeting closed with Hymn 543:
Margaret Glenn Matters, Alt., Christian Science Hymnal: Hymns 430-603, No. 543 Words © 1932, renewed 1960 The Christian Science Board of Directors
 
 
O Jesus, our dear Master,
Your works, now understood,
Reveal their full effulgence
Through love and brotherhood.
Today Christ's precious Science
Your healing power makes plain:
With joy may all obey you
And cast out sin and pain.

The Christ, eternal manhood,
As God's own Son beloved,
A tender ever-presence
Within each heart is proved.
O God, our Father-Mother,
Your name we see expressed
By man, who in Your Science
Is perfect, holy, blessed.

O Science, God-sent message
To tired humanity,
You are Love's revelation
Of Truth that makes us free.
Your kingdom, God, within us
Shows forth Love's sweet control.
God's idea, man, rejoices;
We know the reign of Soul.