Concerning obedience to the Manual of The Mother Church, Mary Baker Eddy sets forth a cogent analysis, namely, "Of this I am sure, that each Rule and By-law in this Manual will increase the spirituality of him who obeys it, invigorate his capacity to heal the sick, to comfort such as mourn, and to awaken the sinner" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 230).

Note the positive assertion, "Of this I am sure." This surety of our Leader warrants compelling attention and forthright obedience on the part of those who call themselves Christian Scientists. Note also that Mrs. Eddy says she is sure that each Rule and By-Law, not just a chosen few, will richly reward the loyal observer. That being the case, the student of Christian Science joyously sets about to know his Manual better and to put into daily practice its sage precepts, being assured that in so doing his spirituality will be increased and his capacity to heal invigorated.

All the world is seeking healing-— deliverance from some phase of discomfort, unrest, disease, troubled thinking, bafflement. The subject of healing commands a willing ear and challenges the purest, noblest desires in the human breast. Mortality's wail (Jer. 15:18), "Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be healed?" is met with the irresistible conviction of David (Ps. 103:2, 3), "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: who for-giveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases." Those who have experienced such blessings through spiritual means alone come forth to magnify the Lord, whose Word is mighty to heal through the persuasive animus of the gentle Christ.

That the testimonies of those thus blessed may carry healing in their wings, and not present pictures of suffering to human consciousness or plant seeds of disease instead of uprooting them, Mrs. Eddy in her great wisdom has given us a By-Law entitled "Testimonials." It reads in part (Art. VIII, Sect. 24): "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, 'who healeth all thy diseases' (Psalm 103:3). This testimony, however, shall not include a description of symptoms or of suffering, though the generic name of the disease may be indicated."

The acme of a helpful testimony, then, is one which "illustrates the demonstration of Christ," a testimony that makes little of the physical symptoms, but rather stresses the spiritual truths which, when poured into consciousness, stir the so-called human mind to yield to the harmony of the divine Mind. Such a testimony scales "the pinnacle of praise" and brings blessing to all who hear it. It brings to those present at a testimony meeting spiritual facts which they may ponder, and by which they may establish the correct reasoning which destroys the errors pictured on the body as disease, rather than bear away the burdensome remembrance of symptoms.

One such testimony, that of a carpenter, sent a church member hastening home after a Wednesday evening meeting to examine in the dictionary the word mean and to set about to rule meanness out of her own mental home. This earnest man, testifying in simple and sincere language, explained how through the application of Christian Science his thinking had been transformed from meanness to generosity and how this transformation had freed him from a malady which the physicians had termed incurable.

Another such testimony was that of a woman who spoke of Jesus' healing of the two blind men who sat by the wayside begging. She explained that her own healing of tuberculosis had come about, like that of the two blind men, through steadfastly resisting the opposition of mortal mind.

Again, the simple testimony of a young boy who attended the Christian Science Sunday School and who had been instantancously healed of three warts when he grasped the fact that a Christian Science treatment never ceases to bless the recipient, impressed both old and young at another Wednesday evening meeting. The lad said it was like becoming aware for the first time of the mathematical fact that four and four equals eight and then reaping the harvest of this beneficent fact all the years to follow by simply accepting this truth in consciousness.

This type of testimony, laying stress on the truth that heals, rather than on the disease itself, does indeed scale "the pinnacle of praise."

Jesus' instruction to his disciples following the feeding of the five thousand may well be applied in connection with the giving of testimonies. Consider the Master's words (John 6:12), "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." If each Christian Scientist following a healing should resolve to gather into his mental basket the truths that had met his need, rather than to recall the aspects of the problem itself, he would be prepared at all times to speak a healing word in season.

The practice of an orderly and logical assembling of spiritual truths in consciousness, truths that were instrumental in bringing about a healing, would provide ready food with which to nourish a friend in distress or feed one's own famished affections. Thus equipped, the Christian Scientist would take to the midweek testimony meeting basketfuls of helpful truths gleaned from the spiritual experiences that had healed him and so be ready always to obey the Manual in regard to testimonies, thereby scaling "the pinnacle of praise" and illustrating the demonstration of Christ.