A Small group of earnest students of Christian Science living in a suburban town had progressed in church organization from the holding of one testimony meeting a month to the holding of weekly Wednesday evening meetings. A young member of the group, consulting an experienced worker in another part of the Field regarding this important forward step, was told that her part should be to help make the meetings as interesting as possible.

Pondering this counsel, the young worker began to perceive something of the joyful responsibility of the individual Christian Scientist in relation to the Wednesday meeting. It became clear that the vitality and effectiveness of the testimony meeting are dependent in large measure on the spontaneity and sincerity with which the testimonies are given by those who have been healed through Christian Science.

Further thought revealed the fact that the Sunday service, imparting the theology of Christian Science, needs as its complement the Wednesday meeting, which offers practical proof of the efficacy of its healing doctrine. The worker realized that Mary Baker Eddy's expressed wish, as stated by her in the Church Manual (Art. XXX, Sect. 7), "I recommend that each member of this Church shall strive to demonstrate by his or her practice, that Christian Science heals the sick quickly and wholly, thus proving this Science to be all that we claim for it," might be interpreted to mean that the student should make use of the opportunity afforded by the Wednesday meeting to make known to his fellow men the proofs he had had that Christian Science heals. He must be, in the words of St. Paul (I Tim. 6:18), "willing to communicate."

Great good unfolded for this Scientist and for all others of that band of faithful workers as week by week they recounted their blessings and shared with the community their experiences of healing. One student found not only that she was being enriched by the testimonies given by others but that by contributing herself she was being freed from the self-consciousness and inability to speak in public which had held her a prisoner all through her school and college years. Timidity gave way before the loosening power of gratitude and the unselfed desire to share her blessings. Other workers, too, found joyous release in the weekly need of expressing the spirit of giving. It is small wonder that on that foundation of loving giving a thriving branch church has grown.

In our church no rites of ordination or exaltation of human persons restrict the unfoldment of spirituality, which alone entitles its members to hold office and carry on its activities. All who unite with this church are expected to be "lively stones." Each has his individual place to fill, his own work to do.

No one can be the mouthpiece for another in expressing thanksgiving for the priceless benefits received through Christian Science. No one can be a vicarious testifier for a membership by seeking to voice the gratitude that those benefited by Christian Science should give forth individually. A sense of fear and deficiency must not be allowed to stifle heartfelt outpouring of praise and joy by persuading us that silent gratitude is sufficient and that others more able than we will carry on the testifying. Above all, we must not be lulled into apathy by the specious argument of material sense that if we go to church on Sunday our attendance at the Wednesday meeting and active participation, in that meeting are of secondary importance.

The measureless helpfulness of the testimony meeting is more fully understood if one studies the By-Law relating to the giving of testimonies found in Article VIII, Section 24, of the Manual of The Mother Church by our Leader. This By-Law reveals the power and scope of true testimony: "More than a mere rehearsal of blessings, it scales the pinnacle of praise and illustrates the demonstration of Christ, 'who healeth all thy diseases' (Psalm 103:3)." Such testimony lifts the thought of giver and listener alike above the recounting of release from sickness, sin, or grief to "the pinnacle of praise" where God universal Love, is seen to be manifest through the Christ-idea, which delivers from all beliefs of evil.

When the seventy disciples returned to the Master with joy because of their success in healing, he admonished them (Luke 10:20), "Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven." Gratitude in one sense is the recognition by the testifier of the truth that the kingdom of heaven is indeed at hand, and that man is now a dweller in the kingdom of divine Love, where in the radiance of God's allness sin, sickness, and death are forever unknown.

The boundless power of such gratitude reaches beyond church walls and community borders to touch responsive hearts throughout the world. The glorious opportunity for such gratitude is offered by the Wednesday meeting to all who would share the blessings of healing through Christian Science. Can we afford to neglect this blessed opportunity?