Article September 13, 1913 Issue

Efficient Readers

ELIZABETH W. WATTS

There is no place in Science where absolute self-effacement is more to be desired than in the reading of the Lesson Sermons. So wisely and so insistently has our Leader instilled the impersonal element into our service, that any tendency toward a method of reading which might possibly turn one's attention from the subject-matter to the reader, is to be studiously avoided. This error may appear in various guises, sometimes in an ecclesiasticism which through old habits of worship would preach; sometimes in an elocutionary effort, which through former training would manifest itself in a style too studied or too dramatic for the voicing of the simple truth; sometimes in an overemphasis, which instead of gently feeding the eager listeners with the bread of Life, would address them in a way which implies a fear that they may not understand; and sometimes in a mannerism, not yet outgrown, which would draw attention to self and thereby rob the reader of the elements of spiritual poise, harmony, and quiet dignity.

Our Leader's requirements in the selection of readers, as found in Article 3 of the Church Manual, are simple yet sufficient. She demands that they be exemplary Christians, well educated, and members of The Mother Church. She does not require that they preach, teach, or that they shall have been trained in some school of dramatic expression. The texts of truth in our service, scientifically thought as they are read, and launched on pinions of spiritual inspiration and understanding, embody all of the essential characteristics of good reading. Let the reader's thought be meek though not servile, active and authoritative though not aggressive, joyful and loving though not emotional, cultured though not pedantic, and these mental qualities will assert themselves in effective reading through no self-conscious process on the part of the reader and through no uncompromising concession to material rote or rule. Our Lesson-Sermons best explain themselves.

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