Article April 21, 1934 Issue

"Experiences, testimonies, and remarks"

BERENICE JUDAH SCOVILLE

The far-seeing wisdom of our Leader in establishing the testimony meetings as an integral part of the activities of the church which she founded, is something for which there is an ever deepening appreciation on the part of those into whose lives have come confidence and joy due to the understanding of God and man which they have gained through the prayerful study of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. These weekly gatherings afford opportunity to voice gratitude for this understanding and its fruits; and the act of bearing public witness to the efficacy of divine Science to meet every discordant condition brings further growth to students through their loving desire to encourage others on the journey from sense to Soul.

A vital purpose of the testimony meetings is to give the inquirer convincing evidence that Christian Science brings the relief for which he is searching. Many times the first information which comes to the non-Scientist is regarding physical healing; and it is essential that our statements about healing be clear and to the point. In the Manual (Art. VIII, Sect. 24) our Leader states: "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 demonstration of Christ." While prohibiting a recital of vivid material details, the same Section grants permission to indicate, wisely of course, "the generic name of the disease;" and so long as we have a clear recognition of the unreality of disease we shall not be afraid to do so. We do not hesitate to name the errors of lack, grief, or unemployment, when telling of their overcoming, although these terms also stand for unrealities. A sufferer from the claims of tuberculosis, cancer, or some other dread disease is far more encouraged to rely wholly upon the divine power of the Christ, Truth, when he hears a definite statement that the individual standing before him was healed of that disease by Christian Science.

Our Leader had a wonderful sense of word values, and it is illuminating to study the order in which she has placed the topics for the testimony meetings. A dictionary gives the following definitions: "experience, the actual living through an event, participation through sensation or feeling;" "testimony, a solemn declaration made to establish or prove some fact;" "remark, the expression of something marked or noticed." Thus it is seen that "experiences, testimonies, and remarks" are statements regarding something already established.

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