In our churches we hear this message read from the desk: "All are cordially invited to visit our Reading Room." What is it that issues this invitation and promises this welcome? It is The Mother Church. What is it that truly hears and responds to it? It is the awakening of spiritual sense in individual consciousness.

Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has provided the Christian Science Reading Room as a sanctuary for prayerful study. In the Church Manual (Art. XXV, Sect. 7) she safeguards the Reading Room by providing that "no objectionable pictures shall be exhibited in the rooms where the Christian Science textbook is published or sold. No idle gossip, no slander, no mischief-making, no evil speaking shall be allowed." It is comparatively easy to avoid these errors in their visible and audible forms. Our vital need is to exclude them from our consciousness so that no false mental pictures, no slanderous material beliefs, shall becloud our vision of perfect God and perfect man, indivisible, ever present.

A librarian listened keenly for some idea or statement which would bless those coming to the Reading Room. Immediately she recalled the words of our Leader in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 254): "Stranger, thou art the guest of God." She realized that "the guest of God" responds to the unique attraction of Spirit, expresses the freedom of Truth, and the harmony of divine Love. "The guest of God" reflects God, infinite good.

The librarian's office is to look out from the one infinite Mind; to realize with rejoicing the all-embracing of Spirit, which knows no distraction, no counterattraction; to feel the ever-presence of divine Love and express to all its unfailing tenderness. This, in fact, is the high office to which Christian Science calls every student of our Leader's works. The ability to be a true witness is spiritually inherent in every man, woman, and child. "Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord."

Here is an example of how wisely a librarian diverted a visitor from erroneous talking to constructive reading—and such reading is the main purpose of our Reading Rooms. When this man first came in, the errors of conceit, criticism, resentment, self-justification, were only too apparent. Applying the parable of the tares and the wheat, she drew his attention to certain passages in Science and Health and to specific articles in the periodicals. He obediently read them. Day after day he returned to find fresh pastures. As the wheat grew, the tares wilted. His own study brought him his reward. He knew himself as "the guest of God."

We must keep our faith strong and our expectation keen in all that relates to Christian Science healing. We must resolutely do our share in the healing work, without which every other activity in our movement would be incomplete. We shall find it inspiring always to read the testimonies in the periodicals. This strengthens our faith and gives us something fresh to pass along to others.

At the present time a thieving suggestion of lukewarmness seems to be stealing from many of us our former joy in attending the Wednesday meetings, and in testifying. Yet these testimony meetings are indispensable to strangers and precious to us, and so is each individual testimony precious. Cast out the dumb devil. Cast out the devil of numbness, the argument of unfelt or unexpressed gratitude. For each one the promise stands: "Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it."

As we note our Leader's words in "Miscellaneous Writings," page 149, lines 4—13, our zeal is renewed, our resolve to support the testimony meetings by our presence and by our testimonies is vitalized. We share the Psalmist's conviction, "I shall be anointed with fresh oil"—fresh inspiration, deeper consecration.

Denying and reversing subtle, silent arguments which would otherwise slow down our service for our Cause, we find that obedience conquers resistance, promptness defeats procrastination, gratitude eclipses fear, Love sustains inspiration, joy multiplies fruitage.

Lovingly Mrs. Eddy refers to "this white-winged messenger, our Journal" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 262). "Our Journal "! The Christian Science periodicals are truly ours only as we love them enough to read them and pass them along to others: as we all do our very best to extend their circulation and usefulness through our individual subscriptions, in accord with our Leader's expressed desire. So shall we, as church members, keep the printing presses of our Publishing Society sending forth more and more lavishly the message of universal salvation.

Outshining the anti-Christ picture of war is the eternal light of peace. The Christian Science Monitor, through its name, carries into the world's highways and byways what our Leader refers to as "the two largest words in the vocabulary of thought . . . 'Christian' and 'Science'" (No and Yes, p. 10). The Monitor blazes a new trail in the maze of journalism. It provides fuller and more varied information than any other daily newspaper. It maintains a constructive tone whilst publishing world news. It has a long way to go in the fulfillment of its complex task. It requires the encouragement and practical support of every church member. As yet it is not receiving it. Librarians have a great opportunity to stimulate interest in the Monitor. We shall all do better as we behold our Leader's vision and expectancy in relation to the Monitor and make her vision, her expectancy, our own. "Hold thy gaze to the light," she writes in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 355). Obeying this vital injunction, we outgrow the narrow outlook which cramps spiritual growth. We break the habit of personal criticism and escape the distress of self-condemnation. We find spiritual vigor, invulnerable faith, quenchless enthusiasm. We feel the joy of spiritual being. Day by day we experience the new birth, heaven on earth.

Many a new birth unfolds in our Reading Rooms. One day a stranger walked into a Reading Room in the business section of a big city and stayed there for some time without looking at any of the literature. Presently he slipped out, and the librarian intuitively felt that she should not speak to him. Several times he returned and did the same thing. One day he asked leave to tell her of his experience. For some time he had been so overwhelmed by his many troubles, and had drifted into such black despair, that he had determined to commit suicide. Before doing this he had a feeling he would like to see once more the premises in which he had been employed years ago. On arriving there he found they had been converted into a Christian Science Reading Room, but he entered, finding it was "free." Something drew him there again and again. He told the librarian that as he sat there he felt new hope dawning, fresh courage to carry on, and a peace he had never before experienced. Spiritual light had blotted out the old grim picture. Hardly knowing how to account for this change, he asked the librarian to tell him something about Christian Science. In the quiet of the Reading Room this stranger had felt himself "the guest of God."

Above the world's seeming chaos the unity of good reigns. As we demonstrate the government of divine Principle and the unity of good in our churches, we shall see it being established within and between the nations of the earth. Our individual work must bless all mankind. The mental pictures of cruel war and wanton destruction must be blotted out of our consciousness so "that those things which cannot be shaken may remain."

Divine Mind's oneness with all its ideas is eternally established. As "members one of another" we move forward in our united demonstration of the church triumphant, and of a world released from sin and suffering. Vigilantly, rejoicingly, we heed our Leader's call to the Field in her Message to The Mother Church, June, 1901 (p. 35), where she writes: "Christian Science appeals loudly to those asleep upon the hill-tops of Zion. It is a clarion call to the reign of righteousness, to the kingdom of heaven within us and on earth, and Love is the way alway."

May this "clarion call" to higher achievements, banishing selfishness and sloth, ring in our ears, glow in our hearts, abide in our innermost thoughts, and find expression in our lives.