Article September 10, 1938 Issue

Quiet Resting Places

DOROTHY MARY HUTCHINGS

In the thirty-second chapter of Isaiah we find the prophet's words, "My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places." What a sense of stability and quietude these words bring to those who are living in the midst of a seemingly warlike, unsure, unquiet world! Christian Science teaches that the quality of our thinking determines that of our outward experiences. Peace must first be found in the solitude of one's own communion with God, and when one's thinking is based on an understanding of His allness, this inner peace remains, unbroken by any turbulent outer experience through which one may seem to be passing.

The various activities of the Christian Science movement, founded by Mrs. Eddy, and provided for in her Church Manual, form a protection and safeguard for all church members. Among these activities Mrs. Eddy instituted the Christian Science Reading Rooms, with a proviso that each branch church should maintain a Reading Room. Its Reading Room, then, is a part of the activity of a branch church, and it should be so regarded by the members, and should receive their definite and wholehearted support.

The Reading Room forms a link between the branch church and the public, and in the thought of those who are placed in charge of this activity there should be a deep sense of loving welcome to visitors. Impersonal, universal, unselfed love draws to the truth thought which is receptive. When it is clearly seen that good attracts those who are receptive to its influence, the activity of the Reading Room will not be impaired, nor time wasted in useless conversation. In Hosea, God's kindness to Israel is beautifully expressed in these words: "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them." These words may well be pondered by librarians in Christian Science Reading Rooms, for they lead thought to the loving-kindness which reflects God and thereby heals and blesses.

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