Alertness in Church

RICHARD B. FRANTZREB

The young adult who has completed Sunday School may be puzzled just how to get the most out of the Christian Science church service. In comparison with a dynamic Sunday School class, the church service may at first seem dull. But the service is a joy and a blessing. Its simple and direct expression of Truth makes it a transparency for divine inspiration. It is able to meet the need of all who come to it with receptive hearts. And it does because it expresses the divine Love that meets every human need.

Sometimes during the reading of the Lesson-Sermon from the Christian Science Quarterly one's mind may wander to thoughts of criticism, of his unresolved personal problems, of things he must do later in the day. He may even be tempted with drowsiness.

This is just the way mortal mind, or material thinking, presents itself to us during a church service. Inattention in church is one phase of the aggressive mental suggestion that Mrs. Eddy warns about in the Section of the Manual of The Mother Church entitled "Alertness to Duty." She writes, "It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to defend himself daily against aggressive mental suggestion, and not be made to forget nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind."^{Man., Art. VIII, Sect. 6;}