Editorial March 10, 1917 Issue

The Sunday Services

Archibald McLellan

On page 302 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says, "Much good has been accomplished through Christian Science Sunday services," a statement which is corroborated by the experience of every Christian Scientist. Not only is the beauty and simplicity of these services apparent to all who attend them, but their deep spiritual content brings a sense of peace and joy and understanding which frequently results in the healing of the sick. It is this healing power which is the distinctive feature of these services, and which differentiates them from all other religious experience of the present time, just as the same power established Immanuel—God with us—in the experience of the earliest Christians.

Realizing the value and importance of these services as a factor in the growth of the cause, and especially of the Lesson-Sermon, which constitutes their central figure, Mrs. Eddy set forth in a by-law of The Mother Church (Manual, Art. III, Sect. 1) a rule to be followed by those who are entrusted with the great responsibility of these services. From this by-law we quote as follows: "The readers of The Mother Church and of all its branch churches must devote a suitable portion of their time to preparation for the reading of the Sunday lesson,—a lesson on which the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends."

This rule has properly been construed by readers to mean not only that they shall individually devote a suitable portion of each day to the study of the lesson which is to be read at the services on the following Sunday, but also that the first and second readers shall at some time during the week study or rehearse this lesson together, so that they may receive and therefore be able to give out at the regular service a harmonious understanding of its meaning. Such is the custom of the readers of The Mother Church, and its adoption is recommended to the readers of the branch churches, so that they too may come to the platform prepared to read the lesson in a unity of understanding and with power to heal the sick, awaken the sinful to repentance, and bind up the broken-hearted. Through this preparation they will realize that the Scripture texts and the correlative passages from Science and Health which they are called upon to read are not merely unrelated statements taken at random from these books and with no definite purpose in view, but on the contrary that they are parts of one harmonious whole, each correlated with the others and presenting the subject of the Lesson-Sermon in some of its infinite phases.

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