Article July 9, 1910 Issue

THE TESTIMONIAL MEETINGS

CARL HORTON PIERCE.

In times past there may have been a temptation to criticize some one whose testimony did not conform to the listener's condition of thought, but as we progress in the understanding of Christian Science, we come more and more to realize that even a word of some testimony may be as "living bread" to a hungry heart. Jesus, despite his masterful display of the power of Mind in multiplying the loaves and fishes, allowed not even the crumbs to go ungathered, but commanded his disciples to gather up the broken bread. Our Leader likewise bids us give earnest attention to these testimonies; and obediently we "gather up the fragments,"—"the crumbs of comfort from Christ's table" (Science and Health, p. 234),—that nothing be lost.

So much for the gathering. Jesus declared for unselfish service; and he evidenced this service coincidently with his hour of highest attainment. He came not to receive from men, but to pour out liberally from his well-filled treasury into "empty or sin-filled human storehouses (Ibid., p. 54). Following his precious precepts, therefore, we must needs come to the Wednesday meetings prepared to give as well as to receive. To many a beginner, the resistance that one seems to meet in getting up to speak seems well-nigh incredible. There are the arguments of "I can't speak well," "I simply can't make the demonstration over fear!" and many others of like nature.

What is the matter? Simply this: self is trying to shut out the pure and unobstructed current of the words of love that are waiting at the lips if one will only open the door. The Master said, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Is one's heart filled with an abundance, ready to be poured out for a hungering brother who may have come to this Wednesday evening meeting for the first time? Then pray to Truth, "Open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." If we pray God to open our lips, then we can surely trust Him to fill the mouth after the lips are open. Many a time the sense of reticence over speaking has been broken when the grateful one simply rose to his feet in the Wednesday evening meeting, declaring, as he did so his new-found trust in God. From then on God gave the rest of the words of the testimony. The individual had done his part.

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THE TESTIMONIAL MEETINGS

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