Article November 5, 1910 Issue

READING-ROOM WORK

IDA M. NICKERSON.

I wish to express gratitude for the by-laws which regulate reading-room work. At one time I had for several days been trying to see how "the eternal stillness and immovable Love" of which Mrs. Eddy speaks in "Retrospection and Introspection" (p. 89), could be realized more fully in our reading-room. On a holiday I went there to do some extra work, and was led to examine a new copy of the Manual. As I read I came to Section 7 of Article XXV., which says, "No objectionable pictures shall be exhibited in the rooms where the Christian Science textbook is published or sold. No idle gossip, no slander, no mischief-making, no evil speaking shall be allowed." I exclaimed joyfully, "Here is my answer, for the textbook is sold in the reading-room, and this by-law applies here." In later editions of the Manual we are referred to this as a reading-room by-law.

Again I had reason for gratitude when I was told of the by-law which defines what literature shall be exhibited and sold in the, reading-rooms. While there has never been any literature admitted to the reading-room in this locality except that which comes from the Publishing Society, yet this by-law gave us the needed authority for refusing to furnish anything else. More recently we have had yet another proof of our Leader's loving care over this branch of the work, in the by-law which separates practitioners' offices from the reading-rooms. Surely divine Love is leading us, and is meeting our every need, even as our Leader has so beautifully expressed it in Science and Health (p. 494).

I would also like to speak of another way in which help came when I was feeling the need of more definite instruction regarding certain phases of reading-room work. I chanced to pick up an old Sentinel (June 3, 1905), in which was an editorial entitled, "The Reading-Room." More than once it has provided an answer for important questions as they arose. I have also been deeply grateful for the thought of cooperation expressed at the publishing house whenever needed information has been sought. I have often been cheered and strengthened by the love reflected there.

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