Article August 16, 1930 Issue

On Giving Testimonies

RUTH INGRAHAM

IS there someone who seems held to his seat by a nameless fear from the time the Wednesday evening meeting is open for the giving of testimonies until the closing hymn, and who then goes home depressed by self-condemnation because of his failure to testify? Instead of again yielding to this self-mesmerism, let him look into the love-lighted faces of the Scientists around him, many of whom are probably well-proved friends and coworkers, good comrades through shadows and sunshine. Does he fear them? No! Then let him rejoice in this association with the spiritually-minded until he feels a mounting sense of loving kinship with them all, and is ready to exclaim with Jacob, "This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." Then perfect love will have cast out fear, and he will find himself both host and guest, gladly sharing the fruits of Life.

One need not burden himself with the belief that his first testimony must be a complete recital of the experiences which brought him into Christian Science. The fear of not being able to do this adequately often holds one back from expressing even a measure of his gratitude. Would it not be better to make a beginning in at least a sentence or two of thanksgiving, and then wait until another time to express a little more? Maturing experience, increasing confidence, will bring fuller expression. After all, brevity is not undesirable. What the hungry listener wants is the assurance that we have found God and have felt His healing touch. Is it so hard to give this assurance?

If we were to meet a bewildered stranger in the streets of our home town and he asked the way, would it not be a very simple thing to direct him aright? If he had lost his purse and we had just picked it up, would it not be a joy to restore it and relieve his anxiety? If he had come from a country rife with war, tumult, and oppression, the fear of which was still upon him, could we keep from giving him a heart-warming welcome, assuring him of his immunity from such conditions in our own happy land? The words would fairly overflow of themselves! Loving compassion for the stranger and a desire to share our blessings with him would sweep away formality, timidity, indifference, or distrust, and as brother to brother we should speak to him with unselfconscious eloquence.

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