The Wednesday Meetings

Alfred Pittman

It is evident that for a great number of people the midweek meetings in Christian Science churches have a unique quality of interest, an attraction unsurpassed by any type of public gathering. And this is readily understandable as one becomes familiar with the meetings.

Consider for a moment their pattern and substance. There is first, along with hymns and prayer, a setting forth in readings from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, of the fact that spiritual power, the power of God, is now scientifically available for the healing of every trouble, and for the incomparable enrichment of mankind. Then follow, from the congregation, testimonies to the truth of this essential message. Not strangers, for the most part, but residents of the local community known to others in the congregation and living under circumstances more or less like theirs, tell how in the face of difficulties, or when there were no special difficulties, they have been able to prove the presence and power of God, infinite Love, and so have been helped and healed.

In any of the meetings, the speakers are likeky to represent a wide variety of human backgrounds. Now and again, in the larger churches, they are of several nationalities or races. They come from various occupations, and with varying degrees of understanding of Christian Science. And virtually all tell of help received where it seemed most needed in their own human situations, thereby impressively illustrating the universal availability of Christian Science.

Christian Scientists know that only a small part of what might be told is said in these meetings. Many a person in a single audience may have seen within a week a dozen unmistakable demonstrations of divine power; may indeed have seen continuous proofs of it. The necessarily confidential character of some of the occurrences, inexperience in public speaking on the part of those who have been witnesses of them, or simply lack of time in the meetings for all that might be said, keep many demonstrations from being reported in this manner.

But if not nearly all is said that might be. what is said is often of far-reaching effect. Healings frequently occur in the meetings as a result of testimonies, sometimes several healings from a single testimony, or from a single passage read from the desk; and these healings often lead to others. As the Psalmist wrote, "His word runneth very swiftly." Many Christian Scientists can recall instances similar to the following. A man, suffering from a disease which after several months of medical treatment showed no improvement, went to his first Christian Science service with a friend who was a student of Christian Science. It was a Wednesday evening meeting, held in a small town, and the attendance that evening was less than usual. There were few testimonies, and these, the Christian Scientist felt, not especially helpful. But the newcomer caught a glimpse of Truth in the meeting which resulted in his complete and permanent healing that night. As a consequence, he and a relative took up the study of Christian Science. The relative later became a public practitioner of this Science, and has helped many others, among them some who are now themselves practitioners.

Not only those who are ill or in distress, however, are helped in the meetings. True inspiration and joy are available in them for all. Not infrequently, people leave them with a lightness of heart such as they have never known before, and thereafter find more interest and satisfaction in all the circumstances of their lives—a brightened sense of things that does not fade but grows brighter, as they learn still more of God and man's oneness with Him, through the study of Christian Science. The whole congregation commonly comes away from the services with a sense of refreshment and enhanced peace.

Mrs. Eddy's high estimate of these gatherings is indicated by the fact that she placed them on the regular weekly programs of all Christian Science churches, and also by the section in the Manual of The Mother Church in which, with specific reference to the Wednesday services, she writes (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)."

Useful as the testimony meetings have been and now are, it is plain that they have only well begun to serve their great purpose for mankind. The endeavor of Christian Scientists, naturally, is not only to profit from them as fully as possible, and progressively, but to give all they can to them through prayer, testimonies, and appreciation of their significance. Alfred Pittman

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