The Sunday Services

Archibald McLellan

On page 302 of "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says, "Much good has been accomplished through Christian Science Sunday services," a statement which is corroborated by the experience of every Christian Scientist. Not only is the beauty and simplicity of these services apparent to all who attend them, but their deep spiritual content brings a sense of peace and joy and understanding which frequently results in the healing of the sick. It is this healing power which is the distinctive feature of these services, and which differentiates them from all other religious experience of the present time, just as the same power established Immanuel—God with us—in the experience of the earliest Christians.

Realizing the value and importance of these services as a factor in the growth of the cause, and especially of the Lesson-Sermon, which constitutes their central figure, Mrs. Eddy set forth in a by-law of The Mother Church (Manual, Art. III, Sect. 1) a rule to be followed by those who are entrusted with the great responsibility of these services. From this by-law we quote as follows: "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."

This rule has properly been construed by readers to mean not only that they shall individually devote a suitable portion of each day to the study of the lesson which is to be read at the services on the following Sunday, but also that the first and second readers shall at some time during the week study or rehearse this lesson together, so that they may receive and therefore be able to give out at the regular service a harmonious understanding of its meaning. Such is the custom of the readers of The Mother Church, and its adoption is recommended to the readers of the branch churches, so that they too may come to the platform prepared to read the lesson in a unity of understanding and with power to heal the sick, awaken the sinful to repentance, and bind up the broken-hearted. Through this preparation they will realize that the Scripture texts and the correlative passages from Science and Health which they are called upon to read are not merely unrelated statements taken at random from these books and with no definite purpose in view, but on the contrary that they are parts of one harmonious whole, each correlated with the others and presenting the subject of the Lesson-Sermon in some of its infinite phases.

In the Quarterly it is said of these lessons that the "scriptural texts, and their correlative passages from our denominational text-book, ... corroborating and explaining the Bible texts in their spiritual import and application to all ages, past, present, and future—constitute a sermon undivorced from truth, uncontaminated and unfettered by human hypotheses, and divinely authorized." This is not only the ideal and purpose of the Lesson-Sermon as instituted by our Leader, but it is also a statement of the importance of this central figure of the Sunday services which should convey to both readers and congregation an impulse and desire to understand and transmit to the whole world the healing and uplifting message of Truth compiled from the two books which, as the explanatory note also makes clear, our Leader has ordained as "our only preachers."

That the fullest measure of good may be realized from the Sunday services, it is important that not only should the readers give this preliminary preparation to the proper presentation of the Lesson-Sermon from the desk, but also that the congregation should through individual daily study prepare themselves to receive its message in the pews. Through such intelligent cooperation and coordination of purpose and effort, the Sunday services will continue to accomplish the purpose for which they were instituted, namely, in obedience to the commission given his disciples by the great Teacher when he sent them forth "to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick."

Archibald McLellan.

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The Church Triumphant

March 10, 1917

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