Article May 23, 1931 Issue

The Wednesday Evening Meeting

WILLIAM H. M. ADAMS

The characteristic feature of Sunday services in the Christian Science church is the reading of the impersonal Lesson-Sermon, or Bible Lesson, contained in the Christian Science Quarterly, which, through well-chosen selections of correlative passages from the Bible and the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, is designed to bring out the teaching of Christian Science on a variety of subjects. And a chief characteristic of the Wednesday evening testimony meeting, in addition to the reading by the First Reader of brief selections from the Bible and from Science and Health, and the singing by the congregation of hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal, is that which takes place after the announcement has been made by the First Reader that the meeting is open for "experiences, testimonies, and remarks on Christian Science" (Church Manual, p. 122).

Just as she saw a great need for the impersonal preaching of the Word, Mrs. Eddy also saw the need of giving to the world first-hand testimony of the healing, by Truth alone, of all manner of human ills. And so, in the organization of her church she provided the midweek testimony meeting, thus making available a great opportunity for testifying to the redemption and healing of mankind through Christian Science.

The Wednesday evening meeting is a time for both giving and receiving. It is truly a "feast and flow of Soul" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 149). While it is the duty of the members to support all of the services and meetings of the church, they are in a peculiar sense responsible for the success of the Wednesday evening meeting. This meeting offers a rare opportunity for recipients of the blessings of Christian Science to share their joy, and increase it, by giving public testimony to benefits received. The organized work of the church may need to be widely distributed to various committees and to appointed and elected officers; but the Wednesday evening meeting offers equal opportunity to every Christian Scientist and church member to have a part in one of the fruitful activities of the church. While it is the privilege of all who are present to receive of the offerings lovingly presented at the Wednesday evening meetings "without money and without price," it may be that the greatest blessing is carried away from these meetings by those who have given grateful testimony of their experiences, so proving true the words of the Master, "It is more blessed to give than to receive."

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