Article November 25, 1916 Issue

"Our only preachers"

HELEN FRIEND-ROBINSON

IN the Explanatory Note found in the Quarterly we read that "the Bible and the Christian Science text-book are our only preachers," and the longer we study this Christ Science the more we appreciate the wisdom of our Leader in giving us these impersonal preachers.

Several years ago, when the writer was very young in Christian Science, the time came when the term of office of the readers in The Mother Church had expired and new readers were chosen to take their place. To many this may seem a prosaic statement and a very ordinary course of procedure, but to me it was an event fraught with vital issues in my spiritual development. About two years prior to this I had found my way to The Mother Church in great mental anguish, as well as burdened with many serious physical ailments (one internal condition being so serious that the only relief offered me was a surgical operation), and I was instantaneously healed during this my first visit.

It was while the first reader was reading the "scientific statement of being" (Science and Health, p. 468), which is read at the Sunday services of all the Christian Science churches throughout the world, that I felt the spiritual uplift which freed me permanently from all those terrible sufferings of so many years' standing. I knew that it was the spiritual influence of divine Truth, the absolute power of the word of God which had healed me; nevertheless, as time went on, quite unconsciously to myself I was forming a halo about the personality of those readers, which was not only retarding my own spiritual growth but perhaps adding as well an unnecessary burden to the readers, which they would later have to overcome. I had received healing under their ministry, and to my undeveloped sense this justified me in thinking that no other readers could ever bring out the meaning of the divine message as they did. Every intonation was treasured ; every statement became imbued with a personal interest, until I was drifting perilously near the brink of breaking the first commandment, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

"Streams in the south"