Mother and son found the plowed ground rough for walking. Sturdy as the little fellow was, he began to think that home was a long, long way off and that he was tired. At last he looked up at his parent and said, "Mommy, carry my hand!" With instant understanding the mother reached for his outstretched hand and enfolded it in her own warm, firm clasp.

"Shall we rest a while?" she asked. "There is a large tree just ahead and its shade will make a lovely place where we can sit down and do our remembering. I think, my son, we must have forgotten to remember as we came along or there could not be any weariness for us, could there?" Seated in the shade they began what they called their remembering game.

"I remember," said the mother softly: "'They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.'"

The boy smiled. "And I remember in Sunday school we sing, 'And mother finds her home and heavenly rest'" (Poems by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 5).

"'"God rests in action'"" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 519), quoted the mother thoughtfully.

"God couldn't be tired, could He, mother? And I'm made in His image," he nodded.

The remembering continued. Many statements of truth from the Bible and from Science and Health were realized until God's presence and His ability to meet every need became more real to them. Soon the sparkle returned to their eyes and abundant strength to their bodies, and in no time at all they were at home.

How like our journey from sense to Soul! At times utterly weary from the rough places in the road that leads to the real sense of home, that is to a harmonious state of thought that may yet seem a long way off we feel the desire and the need for a renewal of strength. Our wise Leader well knew that there would be times in each student's experience when he would be grateful for a place where, in quiet meditation, he might humbly ask the Father and Mother of all to carry his hand. And so the Christian Science Reading Rooms were provided.

For many who are but newly awakened to their sonship with God, good, the Christian Science Reading Room is the only place to which they can turn for quiet thinking. It is for them a veritable oasis in the midst of turbulent mortal thoughts encountered at home and abroad. Here they may have the opportunity, uninterrupted, to learn of or to remember the inseparability of God from His children, the ever-presence of spiritual good.

I have had the privilege of serving in a Reading Room. Many and priceless are the experiences that come to the librarians as well as to the attendants of a Reading Room. Those serving often watch with joy the growth of some who come regularly for study.

There comes to mind one young woman who came to this sanctuary. Her whole appearance told a story of much suffering, sin, poverty, hopelessness, of a human life all but crushed. Yet somehow along that rough road she had been traveling she had been directed to this refuge where, in quiet meditation, she could find God's hand, place her own in it and so gain strength to go home to the consciousness which reflects spiritual good alone. This young woman learned so rapidly of her birthright as the child of God that in a short time she was transformed mentally, and as a result her entire outward appearance reflected the change in her thinking. One would hardly have recognized this alert, neat, happy girl as the same individual who had entered the Reading Room a few weeks before.

This young woman had consciously fulfilled the Bible admonition, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." She had found it true of herself that she was the spiritual image and likeness of God it was in the quiet of a Christian Science Reading Room that she had learned how to turn in confidence to her heavenly Parent and say, "Dear Father-Mother, God, carry my hand."

In today's stress and strain of human events many will not have the opportunity or the time to visit a Reading Room, but much that the Reading Room has to offer is being sent to those in their country's service and is freely given to all who make their needs known. And, too, the opportunity will be present in every field of activity to learn the great truth that separating error from thought by knowing the forever at-one-ment of God and man is not dependent upon quiet surroundings, nor can it be hindered by noise or confusion from without. Remembering God can take place only in thought, and in the exact measure that one intelligently abides in Him does God carry his hand.