Article September 9, 1916 Issue

Testimony Meetings

WILLIAM S. CAMPBELL

The interest manifested in the Wednesday evening testimony meetings, which constitute so important a part of the Christian Science movement, abundantly attests the prophetic vision of our Leader in making provision for this method of publishing, to those who have ears to hear, the efficacy of the Christ-power to destroy sickness as well as sin. Some who attend these meetings are like those of whom the Master spoke; they have ears yet hear not,—they fail to discern the spiritual thought. This may be partly due to the prominence of the unimportant in the testimonies. Given as they are for the most part by those who are unaccustomed to speaking in public, the testimonies are not always models of concise and direct statement.

A helpful lesson may be learned from the man who gathers gold by the process known as placer mining. All day long he labors, washing out a mass of sand in order to separate from it the grains of gold that it contains. At nightfall, when ready to return to his home, he does not load himself down with the sand that he has unearthed and leave the gold behind; he carries with him the gold and leaves the sand behind. In the Wednesday evening meetings there are few testimonies that do not contain some grains of gold. In one of these meetings some time ago there was given a testimony which included an unnecessary recital of details. In the congregation was a person who later expressed the opinion that this particular testimony was valueless and might better not have been given. That person carried away a load of sand. Another person went home from this meeting with the realization that she had been healed while listening to that same testimony. Those who attend a testimony meeting may well remember the wisdom of the miner, and carry away only the grains of gold.

In this connection, however, it should be remembered that the work of the miner is made laborious by the quantity of sand that he is required to separate from the grains of gold. Those who are actuated by a desire to bless and to be blessed by telling in a testimony meeting of their experience in proving the efficacy of divine power to heal, may well heed the admonition of Paul Timothy, "Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." The thought of the speaker will have molded into a from that will be at once interesting and helpful if careful attention is given to these words in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 24): "Testimony in regard to the healing of the sick is highly important. More than a mere rehearsal of blessings, it scales the pinnacle of praise and illustrates the demonstration of Christ, 'who healeth all thy diseases.'"

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Straight and Narrow