Article July 21, 1923 Issue

Testimonies

ETHEL GEORGINE RUSSELL

Any one attending a Christian Science church on Sunday or Wednesday will hear the First Reader give out, among other notices, one to this effect: All are lovingly invited to attend our services. It may not have occurred to some church members to take note that the invitation goes out as from each individual member. The responsibility does not rest upon the shoulders of a few; each and all share alike, and become hosts and hostesses. This would apply, perhaps, more especially to our Wednesday evening testimony meetings, to which we invite our brethren to come and hear of the wonders we have to tell of the healing and regenerating power of Christian Science. The invitation is a very sacred one; and what are we doing about it? A person once invited a guest to dine, and when the guest arrived the host greeted him with, "Oh! you've come! Well, I'm sorry, for I forgot all about you, and there is nothing to eat in the house." Is it possible that we may be like that host at our testimony meetings? Do we arrive at the church having forgotten about our invitation, and that we should be ready to tell of the blessings bestowed upon us by our loving Father-Mother God? And is our brother to be "sent empty away"?

In the one hundred and seventh psalm we read: "Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!" "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy." Here would appear to be a distinct command for us to give testimony; for to be a Christian Scientist is to be "the redeemed of the Lord." Daily and hourly we are being redeemed from the false beliefs of sin, disease, and death (the world, the flesh, and the devil, that is), and awakened to the true consciousness of our life "hid with Christ in God," of our spiritual sonship with the Father, of our at-one-ment with divine Principle, Life, Truth, and Love.

In our Church Manual, that unfailing guide to Christianly scientific conduct, Mrs. Eddy has written (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 demonstrationof Christ, 'who healeth all thy diseases' (Psalm 103:3)." Every careful housekeeper and hostess pays attention to her store cupboard; and it is wise for us in our capacity of hosts and hostesses to turn our thoughts beforehand to the coming Wednesday evening feast, and to ask ourselves the question, "What hast thou in the house?" It is our supreme privilege to prepare an offering of pure love wherewith to feed the hungry, to help lift the burden weighing so heavily on the shoulders of some weary wanderer, to offer the "cup of cold water in Christ's name" (Science and Health, p. 436), and to bring to such a one the realization of the meaning of those beautiful words by Mrs. Eddy in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 45): "Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith."

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