Article June 21, 1924 Issue

Our Testimony Meetings

EMMA H. SAYLES

Our testimony meetings are very sacred. They are spiritual feasts prepared and served by Christian Scientists, each earnest worker giving out of his own personal experiences such accounts of healing and regeneration as he feels will interest and help the seeker after truth who may be present. All loyal Christian Scientists desire to be obedient to the By-law of our Church Manual, as given by our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, relative to the giving of testimonies (Article VIII, Sect. 24); but how many of us have gone to these meetings week after week with a firm determination that we will not let timidity, pride, or fear of criticism keep us from contributing our share; and how often have we gone away depressed and discouraged, because we had listened to the voice of error within and allowed ourselves to be afraid. There is a solution for every problem; and we know deep down in our hearts that fear of talking in public can be healed just as any discordant condition can be. Do we handle and heal it as we would a pain in the body or a lack of supply? Or do we go on supinely agreeing with this error, admitting that we are afraid, and stop there? When we have attended a testimony meeting where the speakers rise spontaneously, and joyously pour out gratitude, we return to our homes rejuvenated, uplifted; and this is as it should be.

In the book of John we find Jesus constantly addressing his disciples as children,—"Children, have ye any meat?"

"Little children, yet a little while I am with you;" and in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 110) Mrs. Eddy says, "Beloved children, the world has need of you,—and more as children than as men and women: it needs your innocence, unselfishness, faithful affection, uncontaminated lives." An understanding of these words contains the solution of our testimony meetings: Christian Scientists, learning to become as little children, ready to share, gracious and happy in the sharing, having purified their thoughts from qualities unlike the childlike, express in simplicity, humility, confidence, and love just what Christian Science has done for them. This is a pæan of praise that reaches every corner of the densest materialism, awakening, reviving, uplifting thought to behold the bridegroom of spirituality. The child thought never criticizes unjustly or condemns: it lovingly accepts what is given, and takes the best out of it.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

Some Thoughts on Vacation