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2019 Christmas Eve Candlelight ServicePlainfield Christian Science Church, Independent

Cover photo taken at Mary Baker Eddy’s Original Church in Boston, MA

Organ Prelude

“O Come All Ye Faithful”“Hark the Herald Angels Sing”

Bell Prelude

“Angels we have heard on high”Bells first, then everyone

“The First Noel”

Chorus

Reading from Isaiah - Craig

“Lo How a Rose Ere Blooming”Chorus

“The Little Drummer Boy”Jon

“Make Room (for God in your heart)”Chorus

Reading from Matthew - Bella

“It Came Upon a Midnight Clear”

Chorus

“Listen for Christmas”Faith

“O Holy Night”Jon

Reading of an excerpt from “Christmas”

by Mary Baker Eddy - Gary

“Silent Night”Bells first, then everyone

Organ Postlude

“Angels we have heard on high”

Isaiah

Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wis-dom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:

But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with eq-uity for the meek of the earth:

Matthew

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his moth-er Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.

Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east

and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

Excerpt from “Christmas”Essays and Other Footprints (“The Red Book”), by Mary Baker Eddy, page 4

“For unto us a child is born” (Isaiah 9:6)

Over eighteen centuries ago, the advent of a babe stamped a new im-press on history.

Little dreamed the Emperor, enthroned in his gorgeous palace upon the Capitoline Hill, that a babe slumbering in a manger in the obscure hamlet of Bethlehem, a remote province in Assyria, was to establish an empire before which the power of the Caesars must dwindle into insignificance.

When the child Jesus was born, all the nations known of that period were in subjection to the government of Rome, and Caesar was the governor of Rome. He could do what he pleased with the property, the liberty and lives of over three hundred millions of people comprising the Roman Empire. Such power no mortal ever swayed before; such power no mortal will ever sway again.

“For unto us a child is born.” Millions of children were born before the babe of Bethlehem, but they were not heralded by angels. Even the ma-terial history of Jesus furnishes this fact, that the meek Nazarene was the most conspicuous character that ever trod the globe. Uneducated, he put to shame the arrogant Rabbis, overthrew the proudest systems of philosophy, ancient and modern; yea, warrior, king, and philoso-pher went down before him, and his teachings, and demonstrations are destined to take Christianity back to its primitive definitions.

But, we turn from the material to the spiritual history of the babe.

The prophet Isaiah sang — “for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given — and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.” Did not that wise seer forecast the destiny of Truth when he said, the government shall be upon his shoulder, it shall be a marvelous instructor, and omnipotent power, an imperish-able Principle? But the Hebrew bard in his grand epic referred to the advent of a spiritual idea, the idea of Life evolved from Spirit, man begotten of the Principle of all being; perfect Mind reflecting perfect Mind and mind never starting from or resulting in matter.

To understand this great fact in metaphysics, it is necessary to be born again; born of the Spirit and not of the flesh; and this was the birth referred to in those words of the prophet Isaiah, “For unto us a child is born and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful.”

“Silent Night”