Article June 27, 1925 Issue

Wednesday Evening Testimony Meetings

EDITH PARKER BERRY

In the Manual of The Mother Church (p. 47), our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, gives to all members of The Mother Church and its branch churches a By-law relating to testimonials. This By-law is very interestingly placed in the chapter on Discipline, and is for the "Guidance of Members." It is of great importance and value to the Christian Science movement that members of a Christian Science church obey this By-law. Why is it so "highly important," as the By-law says? Is it not because there is a duty incumbent upon them to help relieve the sorrows and sufferings of humanity, by relating to the stranger that is within their gates something of the healing and regenerating power of this Christ-Science that has healed them?

Think of the scope permitted at a Wednesday evening meeting when the announcement is made that the meeting is open for testimonies of healing, or for a speaker to relate an experience where Christian Science has been applied and not found wanting. Every active member must have had some such experience, or else the practical nature of this Science has not been grasped. Remarks, too, bring enlightenment to listeners; but great care should be exercised that these remarks be strictly relative to Christian Science.

Does not the housewife who has purchased some labor-saving device delight in telling her neighbor of its benefits? And does not the business-man who has installed on his premises some new invention, which relieves his staff of much unnecessary drudgery, quickly tell his colleagues of its success? Then why should we hesitate at our testimony meetings, provided for the very purpose of telling mankind of the healing and regenerating power of Christian Science, knowledge of which will ultimately eliminate all human suffering and sorrow? Each member should ask himself: Is my gratitude for the knowledge of Christian Science sincere enough to enable me to forget myself, and to remember my duty to God by acknowledging at our Wednesday evening meetings the goodness and health He has bestowed on me?

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