Article July 13, 1912 Issue

THE EXPLANATORY NOTE

CAPT. GEOFFREY WILKINSON.

It has become the custom in Christian Science churches for Christian Scientists in some cases to share their copy of the Quarterly with strangers who come to the services, in others to lend it to these strangers, and the custom is certainly one to be commended, demonstrating as it does a spirit of friendliness and welcome. But just as there is a time for everything, so surely there is a proper time to offer the Quarterly to a stranger.

In the church of which the writer is a member it is the custom for the first reader to make a pause after the reading of the explanatory note, to enable those who have Quarterlies to share them with those who have none; and if no movement is made before this pause, there is nothing to disturb the reading of the explanatory note, which surely is most desirable. When Mrs. Eddy arranged for the reading of the explanatory note to precede the reading of the Lesson-Sermon, it is reasonable to assume that it was her desire that all present should receive it with thoughtful attention; but do we all really appreciate the tremendous import of its contents?

First the attention is drawn to the fact that the Bible and the Christian Science text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," are the "only preachers" in the Christian Science church. The impersonal nature of the sermon is thus immediately intimated, a point that would hardly fail to impress itself upon the stranger who has been accustomed only to personal preaching. But is he likely to note this point if some one, albeit with the best of motives, is handing him a Quarterly at the moment? Attention is next drawn to the fact that the passages from Science and Health are correlative with those from the Scriptures, that they are in fact analogous to or explanatory of them. This impels the listener to direct his attention to this correlation, and he thus gains a new light on passages of Scripture which he may often have heard, but which before have meant little or nothing to him.

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