PERIODICALS FRUITAGE MEETING

A Meeting Held in the Extension of The Mother Church on Tuesday, June 5, 1962, at 10 a.m.

The meeting was opened with the singing of Hymn No. 213, "O God, our help in ages past." The chairman, Mrs. Frances S. Wells, Trustee of The Christian Science Publishing Society, read selections from the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. Silent prayer was followed by the audible repetition of the Lord's Prayer. Letters of greeting from The Christian Science Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society were read by the chairman.

Letter of Greeting from The Christian Science Board of Directors

Dear Fellow Christian Scientists:

We extend a very warm welcome to all of you gathered here today to consider our periodicals, their mission, how they are fulfilling that mission and how we, as individuals and as active church workers, can aid in achieving for these publications the place in today's world which Mary Baker Eddy intended for them. We are indeed grateful that our beloved Leader provided these periodicals for us and for all mankind.

The Christian Science Journal, the Christian Science Sentinel, and The Herald of Christian Science, filled with helpful, healing articles and testimonies, carry the Science of Truth to the world. They are needed more today than ever to silence aggressive materialism. The Christian Science Monitor, circling the globe on its mission to bless all mankind, carries needed information about world problems and constructive ideas to aid in their solution. The Christian Science Quarterly gives us, wherever we may be, our daily bread—the Lesson-Sermon.

We shall hear of some of the fruitage from these publications which will help us to realize anew how worthy they are of our continuing prayerful support.

We may well be proud of the Christian Science periodicals and of the high standard each has maintained. Our sincere thanks go to the dedicated workers who aid in editing and publishing them and to all of you from all parts of the Field who contribute to the periodicals and support them.

Very sincerely yours, The Christian Science Board of Directors

Letter from the Board of Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society

Dear Fellow Members:

In the words of our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, from "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 170), "Welcome home!" Truly The Mother Church is the home of every member.

Today the Board of Trustees of The Christian Science Publishing Society extends to you a most cordial welcome.

We know you have come home because of your love for and loyalty to the Cause of Christian Science. The spiritual afflatus which you will gain from your homecoming will enable you to return to your fields of labor uplifted and inspired with a keener desire to be better workers in the Father's vineyard.

We are aware of Mrs. Eddy's purpose in giving us our periodicals, The Christian Science journal, the Christian Science Sentinel, The Herald of Christian Science, and The Christian Science Monitor, designated by her as the organs of this Church. The periodicals are bringing the healing, saving Christ to the world.

Clearly it is our privilege and duty to support the organs of this Church. How can we do this? (1) The real need of the hour is a greater dedication to our Cause. This requires a selfless love and a deeper appreciation of Mrs. Eddy and her demonstration of Church, which includes the spiritual activity manifested through the periodicals. (2) To support our periodicals, we must recognize that apathy, indifference, and destructive criticism are mesmeric suggestions of the carnal mind.

In "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy tells us (p. 102), "So secret are the present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on the subject which the criminal desires." In Exodus we read (17:11), "It came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed." "Hand" designates power; so when we let down, give power to mesmeric mortal mind, animal magnetism seems to prevail. We must uphold our periodicals in every way we can, knowing that God alone prevails.

Think of our Master's sacrifices in bringing Christ, Truth, to the world! Think of our Leader's selfless love in establishing the Cause of Christian Science! Followers of the Christ, let us be willing to sacrifice self to bless mankind. Never was the need for the dissemination of Truth so great as it is today. This is all that will save the world from the materialism that threatens its utter destruction.

Let us go forth from this meeting more grateful than ever before that we are privileged to be Christian Scientists. Let us pledge greater love for and dedication to God and to His Cause, and let us support joyously the periodicals, which open the door to the Science of the Christ and make Truth understandable and demonstrable to all who read them with an open thought.

Mrs. Eddy writes in Miscellany (p. 232): "It rejoices me that you are recognizing the proper course, unfurling your banner to the breeze of God and sailing over rough seas with the helm in His hands. Steering thus, the waiting waves will weave for you their winning webs of life in looms of love that line the sacred shores. The right way wins the right of way, even the way of Truth and Love whereby all our debts are paid, mankind blessed, and God glorified."

Cordially yours, Board of Trustees The Christian Science Publishing Society

The Christian Science Monitor

By Henry S. Hayward

Overseas News Editor, The Christian Science Monitor

This occasion presents an extraordinary opportunity to reassess The Christian Science Monitor, established by our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy. Today is a time when newspapers face great challenges, and ours is no exception. It is a time when those of us who edit or write for our great and much-respected newspaper must be striving constantly to express more freshness in the treatment and presentation of the news. It is a moment to be alert and receptive to the latest concepts of good journalism in order to convey that daily message of inspiration and awakening, of encouragement or warning, to readers all over the world. It is also, I submit, a moment when we can find many urgent reasons for rededicating ourselves to the Monitor.

I speak as one who only recently has made the transition from foreign correspondent and bureau chief abroad to an editor's desk at headquarters. So I have had an inside view of how the Monitor works from both sides—from Boston, that is, and from vantage points across both the Atlantic and the Pacific. To me, eleven years abroad have served only to heighten my appreciation of three basic facts pertaining to the Monitor.

One is its continuing and lofty purpose. The world greatly needs perceptive interpretations of the news that swirls around us daily. It continues to need, indeed it needs more than ever before, high-minded, trustworthy, balanced reporting. It needs information conveyed in a way such as you and I can readily absorb. That is one of the continuing and basic aims of those who work for the Monitor.

The second fact I should like to cite follows naturally from the first. It is the scope of the Monitor. We all know that it is an international newspaper and that it has become truly worldwide in its circulation, its coverage, and its acceptance. It is recognized by officials in the highest of places. It is known in the dark, out-of-the-way corners of the globe better than most other papers or magazines. I can testify its receptivity is high even among the newest nations.

Yes, the Monitor is "must" reading for the top level of influential thinking people of many races and religions. Thus it certainly should be "must" reading for every thinking, active Christian Scientist today. It is hard to comprehend how he can feel properly informed without its daily messages.

As a correspondent overseas, my task was to make events in faraway places say something significant to readers in the American Midwest, in the British Midlands, in Canada, Australia, on the East Coast and the West Coast. So I always consciously wrote my dispatches with individuals in mind, often as what I visualized as a report to my own family. In so doing, I think I was acting in conformity with the Monitor's express purpose, which is to enlighten mankind by spreading the word of truth. What I saw and reported from raw new Asian outposts or venerable centers of European culture was designed to make readers such as yourselves comprehend the problem; also, whenever possible, to show you how the impact of what happens elsewhere affects your way of life.

Yet such reporting is only one aspect of the Monitor's daily presentation to readers. We also do not hesitate to stimulate thinking. Of course sometimes as we strive to present both sides of an issue, we encounter readers who still prefer to contemplate only one side! Yet we don't try to think for you; rather the intention remains to present both sides fairly.

The third point one cannot help but find impressive is the Monitor's role as a vital missionary of our movement. With its new editions, the paper is equipped to fulfill this function as never before. Referring to it our Leader states: "The next I named Monitor, to spread undivided the Science that operates unspent. The object of the Monitor is to injure no man but to bless all mankind" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 353). As a correspondent for the Monitor, I often have been privileged to see the impact on others of the paper I represented. Other newsmen respect the Monitor and came to tell me of that fact. They usually stayed to give or ask advice. Once while I was on a Japanese train, carrying a typewriter on which the Monitor's name was printed, a stranger came up to me and said: "I see from the words on your typewriter case that you are a Christian. I too would like to be a Christian. Let us talk." We did, brought together by just one important word in the Monitor's title.

This splendid missionary for our movement surely is worthy of our uninterrupted and diligent metaphysical support. Literally hundreds of times, I personally have felt that broad metaphysical support reaching me, as one minor cog in the machine and far away at that. I have felt it in moments of physical danger or as the answer to prayers for guidance on matters large or small. I always felt that impersonal metaphysical support helped me to do my best in producing readable Monitor stories or in encouraging a news bureau to operate as a coordinated team. Moreover, when we of the Monitor are functioning at our best on this invisible yet potent flood tide of support we are bound to make fewer mistakes, fewer miscalculations. And then the level of criticism from all sources tends to diminish, gratifying everyone.

Incidentally, we Christian Scientists should not allow ourselves to be put to sleep by the argument that the news nowadays is so complex or overwhelming, so puzzling or wearisome, that we cannot understand it or keep abreast of it. Or, worse still, that we don't care. With the Bible, our Leader's writings, our religious periodicals, and the Monitor, we should be the best-equipped people on earth to know what is going on and why. "This material world," Mrs. Eddy tells us in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 96), "is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be Science and peace." Can there be any question which side we as Christian Scientists—and the Monitor, as our Leader's demonstration—are on?

Correspondents and editors have one thing in common. It is to communicate with people and to articulate events. They do so always with you, the reader, in mind. Many others in humbler or even more responsible posts contribute to this daily adventure, this daily drive to get the news, get it right, and give it to you in perspective in the Monitor. No matter where they sit, those dedicated persons who work for it find making the Monitor is a stimulating task. For others, no matter what their occupation is, supporting the Monitor will be found a rewarding and worthwhile service to our beloved Cause in times such as these.

Let us, as members of The Mother Church, in a united manner rise to the call of duty by including our beloved newspaper in our daily prayers, knowing that nothing can delay or stop its success in healing and blessing all mankind.

The Herald of Christian Science: Its Twelve Editions

By George Nay Associate Editor of the Herald

A Christian Science practitioner had just received her first copy of the new Japanese edition of the Herald. Although she was delighted with its content and design, she also recognized it as an indication of an ever-widening reaching out for the Christ and as the response of The Mother Church to the call. She spent some time rejoicing over this inspiring proof of the gradual spread of Christian Science over the globe.

Just a few hours later, in walked a young Japanese woman, the first who had ever entered her office. The visitor came to ask for help in Christian Science. Here was her patient, and here was her tool! Anybody who understands the operation of divine Mind knows that this was not a coincidence.

To carry the message of Christian Science to the peoples of the earth in their own tongue, is the purpose our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, set for the Herald. We do not call its various editions "foreign" periodicals, for the teaching of Christian Science concerning the family of man has made that word obsolete.

The Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, first appeared but eighty-seven years ago, and today there is hardly a country on the face of the earth where Christian Science is not known. How did it spread so far, in the face of such great odds, in such a comparatively short time? The answer is simple: It has spread because it has proved its promise. The promise of Christian Science is a harmonious, progressive life free of disease, false appetites, moral aberrations, with their fears, failures, and bitterness.

The spread of our religion shows that, to paraphrase the words of Tom Paine, all that the message of the Christ asks is "the liberty of appearing." It will travel in spite of anything. In 1866 one woman, Mrs. Eddy, in a New England shoe town, and now multitudes of men and women liberated from the slavery of the senses. Leaping an ocean less than seventy-five years ago. Christian Science took root in Ireland: one Christian Scientist, an English woman near Dublin, and now thousands all over the British Isles and the far-flung British Commonwealth. Six years later in Germany, one German woman who read a book, Science and Health, and came to America to learn more about this healing Truth. And one American woman, herself healed of threatened blindness, two years later, speaking not a word of German but inspired by divine Love, went to Germany to heal and to teach Christian Science. Out of this small beginning was born The Herald of Christian Science, founded by our Leader in 1903, speeding the fulfillment of our "Daily Prayer." It is much the same story in most other countries of Europe.

Across the Pacific, in Japan, one American schoolteacher, a Christian Scientist, tutoring children of distinguished parents, and today we have the Japanese edition of the Herald and the truth gradually gaining a foothold in Japan. Djakarta, Indonesia, has long been a stronghold of Christian Science, and so today we have the Indonesian Herald to serve the entire Malay-speaking world. This is the first of our periodicals to appear in a Moslem country.

Last year one man from a town in India came to the United States, had class instruction, and returned to his home; and this year thirty people attended the informal talk given there by one of our lecturers.

In the Philippines, one man of a primitive mountain tribe learned of Christian Science after the Spanish-American War, and today we have a flourishing church in Manila, a society in Baguio, and, in addition, Christian Science services are held informally by ten different groups in the mountains.

How significant can one Christian Scientist be!

The lesson is the same everywhere: Progress of our Cause comes in response to the devoted spiritual purposefulness of the individual Christian Scientist, wherever he may be. A Christian Scientist may begin all alone, but he need not remain alone. Concerning the progress of our Cause, our Leader writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 245), "Let the voice of Truth and Love be heard above the dire din of mortal nothingness, and the majestic march of Christian Science go on ad infinitum, praising God, doing the works of primitive Christianity, and enlightening the world."

With the spread of our religion The Mother Church took steps to satisfy the growing need, to sustain the distant fields and give them a strong sense of their closeness to The Mother Church. As a result, the Herald is presently issued in eleven of the principal languages, the Japanese and Indonesian being recent additions. It is also issued in English Braille.

One important function of these Heralds is the building up of the field to which they go. As part of this work, we encourage qualified Christian Scientists in the respective fields to write for the Herald, for we know that a Christian Scientist who is devoting himself to the task of writing becomes a more active member and thereby more useful to himself, to his church, and to his field.

If his first contribution is not acceptable for printing but holds promise, we prepare a careful analysis of it, recommend to the author ways of improving it, and encourage him to undertake the work of rewriting. These are strictly individual letters; the only "form" about them is the "Sincerely yours." We have been most gratified with the response manifested in the increasing number of articles we are receiving from overseas. Quite a few of these are from our English-speaking readers as well.

You can help the Herald in the accomplishment of its high task right in your home town. Take the recent experience of a Christian Science practitioner in London. She was on the train reading the Japanese Herald when she noticed that a Japanese passenger came to sit by her and was trying hard to read the Herald out of the corner of his eye. So quite frankly she held the periodical in a way that made it easy for him to read. This, she tells me in a recent letter, has happened to her three times on the train and several times in her London bank. She writes, "I did not realize how many Japanese there are in London until I was loving and carrying about this Herald."

Besides subscribing for the Heralds, you can display them—all of them—not only in offices of Christian Science practitioners but especially in Reading Room windows. Such a display will show at a glance to the passersby—and to our own members—the worldwide scope of the Christian Science movement. Every field, here as well as abroad, needs to become aware of this fact. Without it one cannot have an adequate grasp of the full breadth of our Leader's work. This spiritual realization is absolutely necessary to a student if he is to be a truly effective practitioner—public or private —of Christian Science. And if he has the appreciation of our Leader's purpose for the worldwide expansion of Christian Science, he will support and love the Heralds; then God will open for him opportunities for their utilization.

Articles for the individual issues are chosen with due regard to the religious, historical, and cultural background, as well as the general temperamental characteristics of the people to whom that issue goes. All these factors together give us a fair idea of their need and their attitudes. Speaking in relative terms, there may be a vast difference of outlook between a Christian and a Buddhist, for instance, or between a Buddhist and a Moslem, or even between a Nordic Christian and a Latin Christian. But the truths of Christian Science are adequate to meet all human needs everywhere.

By thoughtfully compiling each issue to suit a particular people, we do not in any way fasten on them a set of mortal qualities; we merely deal with a people individually, as we would with patients, discerning what needs to be healed with each and directing our selections accordingly. While we have to recognize certain human characteristics and conditions, we bear in mind—as should every Christian Scientist— that our basic duty toward the human family is to see it, not as separated into peoples and races but as the one great family of men and women who, in truth, reflect the same Principle, or Life, who are united by the same Truth, inspired by the same Soul, motivated by the same Love, guided by the same infinite Mind.

The Master's injunction, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15), takes on new meaning today, comes with new urgency, and points to undreamed-of possibilities in today's advancing world!

The congregation then sang Hymn No. 160, "It matters not what be thy lot," the words of which were written by our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy.

The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel

By Clara Armitage Brown, of Houston, Texas

Speaking of the Christian Science periodicals, Mary Baker Eddy writes in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 353), "The first was The Christian Science Journal, designed to put on record the divine Science of Truth." A "record" may be defined as something reduced to writing as evidence. Thus the office of the Journal is to explain in writing the divine Science of Truth. It is to show how the understanding and demonstration of this Science make one love to be good and to do good.

As the official organ of The Mother Church, the Journal belongs to Christian Scientists. It keeps us informed concerning the activities of our movement and stirs us to greater spiritual endeavor.

The Journal sets forth the healing power of Truth and points out the ever-presence and availability of this Truth to destroy sin, disease, and death. It states and restates the exactness, the profoundness, the beauty, and the unlimited power and scope of pure spirituality. It exposes evil as powerless—without Principle or impulsion—and relegates it to the abstract, belonging not to person, place, or thing. It promotes love for the healing work as exemplified by Christ Jesus and our beloved Leader.

The Editors, contributors, testifiers, subscribers, and distributors of our Journal, also the churches, societies, college organizations, teachers, practitioners, and nurses listed therein, all share in this healing work. All have their part in putting on record the workableness and the effectiveness of Christian Science when applied to human affairs.

Concerning the Christian Science Sentinel, Mrs. Eddy continues (ibid., p. 353), "The second I entitled Sentinel, intended to hold guard over Truth, Life, and Love." The office of the Sentinel is to stand guard that erroneous, obstructive beliefs, which would hinder the spiritual advancement of Christian Scientists, and of our Cause, may be detected, exposed, and dispelled.

The motto of the Sentinel calls impressive attention to the words of Christ Jesus (Mark 13:37), "What I say unto you I say unto all, Watch." This is not a watch against person, place, or thing, but against mesmeric materialism; against substituting the letter for the spirit; against entrapment by the subtle suggestions of limitation, disease, and sin. The Sentinel holds not a fearful, anxious watch, but a wise, discerning watch, always seeking furtherance of good in the thoughts of the reader.

The Journal and Sentinel quicken both adults and children to more enlivened Christian activity. They awaken thought to the dangers hidden in mental apathy and rouse us to greater spiritual alertness. When mental laziness is permitted to hold sway, the door is open for ensnaring erroneous suggestions to invade thought, to confuse it make it afraid, paralyze it, so that one is without initiative or direction.

Against this invasion our Journal and Sentinel prove themselves invaluable. They rouse us from lethargy, realign us with Truth, turn us to the Bible and our Leader's writings, and inspire us to be more vigilant and diligent, more spiritually studious and active.

In establishing these monthly and weekly periodicals, our Leader not only provided the continuing spiritual enlightenment and refreshment which the Field receives through their pages, but also she gave to her followers the opportunity to enliven and expand their ability to express, in their own words, their unfolding understanding of God and His Science. Thus, much original spiritual thought appears in the Journal and Sentinel which sets forth and verifies the practicality and demonstrability of our Leader's teachings.

Paul said (Rom. 11:33), "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!" Out of the deepening spiritual love and understanding in the hearts of our membership, the Field is being fed through the pages of the Journal and Sentinel. These messengers of Truth and Love voice the uplifted, spiritualized thought of Christian Scientists, the world over. They reveal the progressive unfoldment of spiritual Truth in the understanding of the writers. What a blessed privilege to prepare articles for these periodicals! Many have indeed found it a growing, enriching experience!

As church members, we rejoice in the spiritual penetration and profoundness of thought being expressed through our Journal and Sentinel, but we are ever seeking to make this expression better, clearer, higher. Through increasing devotion and understanding, the statement of spiritual Truth, and the evidence offered in verification of the demonstrability of this Truth, come continually closer to the ideal presentation for which each writer is striving. The fruitage of this careful, earnest preparation is shown in the ever-widening comprehension and acceptance of the truths presented.

The prophet Ezekiel pictures the ever-growing volume of spiritual ideas, lighting the way for mankind, as a great river flowing to human consciousness and bringing healing thereto (see Chapter 47: 1-9). He describes this river as flowing out from the house, that is, from the temple or church. He pictures its holy waters, God-lighted ideas, as flowing to the desert, the aridness of the human mind, and bringing life and growth thereto; and as flowing into the sea, the troubled depth of human consciousness and bringing to it healing and preservation of good.

He pictures the depth of this spiritual river as first to the ankles, then as rising to the knees, then to the loins, and then as a river that cannot be passed over, a deep river, —a river to swim in. In like manner, the healing waters of Christian Science, rising daily in an ever-increasing volume of spiritual ideas, are endlessly flowing out from our Publishing House.

The divine logic of these ideas is revealing Christian Science to mankind as Christian, absolute, demonstrable. Speaking of this logic, Mrs. Eddy writes (No and Yes, p. 16), "This infinite logic is the infinite light,—uncomprehended, yet forever giving forth more light, because it has no darkness to emit."

This perfect. God-lighted logic presents conclusively the spiritual fact of the dominion of Spirit over matter and makes clear the spiritually mental nature of all that really exists. No subject taught in our universities is so profound, so undeniable, or so vital to the welfare of all mankind as is the Science of Truth. The world looks to Christian Scientists for demonstration of this Science.

John said (I John 1:5), "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." In reality the light of Spirit shines on us here now in all fullness beauty, and perfection. The way of spiritual unfoldment is bright about us. The power of divine Love is in our midst. These joyous truths our Journal and Sentinel are proclaiming.

The Bible Lessons

By Milton Simon, of New York, New York

Some years ago I was to address an association in Boston. The morning before the meeting I took a walk along the Charles River. As no one was in sight I thought I'd do a bit of rehearsing and started in a loud voice with, "Fellow Members. ..." The words were scarcely out of my mouth when a mother duck and six eager ducklings scrambled up from the river and gathered round. Of course, they were looking for food. What impressed me was their eagerness. Yet we may with greater expectancy, seek the spiritual food and inspiration provided for us in our Lesson-Sermons. In them personal preaching has been eliminated, and God talks to us directly through His written Word. We really study the Lesson-Sermon in a listening attitude, confident that every truth it contains is for us, unfolding in accord with divine law.

Let me tell you of a Sunday School experience that bears directly on the lessons. I was a pupil in a class of active, strapping eighteen-and nineteen-year-old boys. The subject one Sunday was "Probation After Death." We couldn't have been less interested! The teacher not only sensed the situation, but also was equal to it. After talking briefly about the lesson, she asked how we could apply it to ourselves. None of us knew; so she continued: "The only death there is, is not knowing God. Human beings are always on probation, that is, they're being tested and have to prove the divine Truth they know." Then she showed us the necessity of correcting our own thought through the application of the vital truths in the lesson. It was inspired teaching, and I, for one, never forgot the two points she stressed: First, that every subject in the Christian Science Quarterly is indispensable and, second, that each lesson carries a message that is pertinent to every Christian Scientist.

Now, many prefer to study the lesson in the morning. The reason is that it prepares one's thought for the daily tasks. But studying the lesson is not to be a mere ritual, nor should the silly superstition be entertained that the day will go wrong if we don't study it first. Nor is work in Christian Science ever synonymous with mere routine. Some years ago this sign appeared at the beginning of a dirt road: "Be careful of the rut you choose. You'll be in it for the next five miles." Really, it's possible, isn't it, for us to avoid a rut and instead gain fresh inspiration from our study?

Of course, there are countless ways in which you may apply the lesson. Some students seek to gain new ideas from it daily and to utilize them. Others study to perceive the topic, or the underlying thought, of each section. You may be uncertain whether your topic for a section is that of the Bible Lesson Committee's. Don't let that disturb you. What really matters is that you gain the spiritual message that's in the lesson for you.

Here's another way some apply the lesson: In addition to writing out the topics, they check individual references. I carry a Quarterly with me always. I pull it out at times during the day, refer to a topic or to a reference checked. An even better way—this precludes the necessity of pulling out the Quarterly so often—is to be so conscious of the lesson that the specific idea needed is at hand for you to use. Though we may have studied the entire lesson, we never regard it as concluded for the day, for we continue to use it to illumine our thought and direct our lives.

Sometimes there's a necessity for the Bible Lesson Committee to repeat references on certain subjects. There was a time when I wasn't too eager to read old or familiar references. Once I was discussing with a friend a certain lesson. It contained this familiar passage: "Behold the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21). Though the verse had for me nothing new, to her it brought an inspired sense of the fact that man includes God's kingdom and reflects His dominion. And, as we talked, my thought about it too was illumined as never before.

Since then I've realized how important it is to gain fresh inspiration from familiar passages in abundant proof of these words of our Leader. Mary Baker Eddy: "Your dual and impersonal pastor, the Bible, and 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' is with you; and the Life these give, the Truth they illustrate, the Love they demonstrate is the great Shepherd that feedeth my flock, and leadeth them 'beside the still waters'" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 322).

A customary procedure is to study the lesson to meet a specific problem. One may ask, "Shouldn't I study the lesson to solve my personal problems?" We certainly may. But we shouldn't forget that usually our need is to be uplifted in thought so that we no longer accept error's claim to reality. If we drop all thought of personal problems—our own or those of others and study to know God and man's true being, we shall gain the inspiration that provides the answers to all problems.

A friend of my mother's who had been ill twenty years suffering from a complication of diseases pronounced incurable was healed in one month after reading Science and Health with the dominant desire to understand God. A pupil of Mrs. Eddy's who lived in the same city asked her to relate her healing. When she'd finished, Mrs. Eddy's pupil exclaimed, "Ah, you caught the vision that wrote the book!"

How we long for the vision or inspiration that animated Jesus, the writers of the Bible, and our Leader! It can be ours in studying the lesson. One glimpse of divine wisdom, obtained and practiced, will do more for us than years of uninspired reading! I've known one right idea, one short period of spiritual illumination, to change a person's entire experience—verifying Peter's words, "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years" (II Pet. 3:8).

In the Manual of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy writes (Art. III, Sect. 1), "The Readers of The Mother Church and of all its branch churches must devote a suitable portion of their time to preparation for the reading of the Sunday lesson,-- a lesson on which the prosperity of Christian Science largely depends." And the prosperity of Christian Science is enhanced through our assimilating the dynamic spiritual truths in the lesson and in applying them during the week. Then we'll do more than go to church merely to get something out of the service. A veritable spiritual animus will illumine our churches each Sunday. This means that our church services will heal. It means too that because we're abiding in a healing consciousness, that spiritual consciousness will enlighten and control all our affairs and undertakings.

Let me tell you of a former Second Reader in The Mother Church who was asked how she was able to read with such authority. Her response was: "I study the lesson to spiritualize my thought. During the week I apply it to correct my own errors and heal my patients. By the time Sunday arrives, it's so vital to me that I don't have to read it. It reads itself!"

In the proportion that the lesson is as vital to us as it was to the Second Reader mentioned, the truths embodied in it will availingly reveal power in each situation confronting us! Moreover, our enlightened thought will inevitably contribute to the advancement of our great movement.

The meeting closed with the singing of Hymn No. 182, "Make channels for the streams of Love."