The American Thanksgiving Day, a celebration fixed by law for the last part of November, has come and gone. In other countries, however, the Lesson-Sermon on "Thanksgiving" in the Christian Science Quarterly will be read in Science churches on other days. In the appendix of the Church Manual, its author, Mary Baker Eddy, provides an order of service for Thanksgiving Day for The Mother Church and all branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, throughout the world. These Thanksgiving services ever prove to be happy, uplifting experiences. Since a suitable portion of the time is reserved for "testimonies by Christian Scientists, appropriate for the occasion" (ibid., p. 124), one hears invariably at these meetings a spontaneous outpouring of gratitude for healing and redemption both heart-warming and inspirational. As a rule, there is scarcely enough time for the audible expression of thanks of those who desire to speak. If a reader of these lines has never attended a Thanksgiving service in a Christian Science church, there is a happy experience before him.

Christian Scientists, however, are privileged to provide more, many more, of these inspirational occasions during the year, for in every church of this denomination, and in many societies, Wednesday testimony meetings are held, where one may hear in addition to readings from the Bible and from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy experiences of those who have been healed. But sometimes one does not find at the Wednesday meetings that spirit of spontaneous gratitude which is in such abundant evidence at the annual Thanksgiving service. There may be pauses between testimonies. Instead of Scientists springing happily to their feet to give expression to their thankfulness for blessings received, there occasionally appears a reluctance on the part of some to share in this joyous activity.

Some may attempt to explain their silence by averring that they are not public speakers, that a devastating fear seizes them at the mere thought of talking before others, or that they have no outstanding healing to relate. However, an honest appraisal of the actual reasons for the nonparticipation in the giving of thanks is apt to reveal in a majority of cases one principal cause, and it is this: the Scientist is not carrying to his midweek meeting the sense of gratitude which filled his heart at the time of the annual Thanksgiving service. He has not awakened to the realization that he has a thanksgiving meeting every Wednesday of the year, and that it is his privilege, as one of the hosts at the feast, to bring his offering of spiritual experience, should it be needed, no matter how simple it may seem.

A dictionary definition of the old-fashioned picnic is an "entertainment at which each person contributed food to a common table." Suppose some person in a group suggests a picnic outing. After the time and place have been decided upon, the next point for discussion is, What shall I take? Who but specially invited guests would go to a picnic empty-handed? And what is the invariable result? An abundance of food, and, like the experience in the wilderness when the man of Nazareth fed his thousands, baskets full left. Here is a thought for Christian Scientists as they set out each Wednesday to their testimony meeting: My church has this day thrown open its doors to those who are hungry and thirsty for spiritual food and drink. I am a host at this feast. What am I giving? Am I prepared with an offering of gratitude, should my contribution be needed? Is my heart as filled with praise to God as it is at the annual Thanksgiving season?

What might we expect to see at Christian Science churches should the spirit of true thanksgiving prevail fifty-two weeks of the year? No one would ever think of missing a Wednesday meeting. Those having problems of sickness would make every effort to come to the house of prayer and praise, and in its sacred atmosphere lose their fears and distresses. The fame of such Pentecostal gatherings would spread in every community. We have an example of the great fruitage which can follow these feasts of Soul in the second chapter of Acts. After Peter's uplifting defense of the Christ on the day of Pentecost, which was a festival of thanks for the harvest, we read (verse 41), "Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls."

In her "Miscellaneous Writings," referring to the weekly testimony meetings, our Leader gives this admonition to her followers (p. 149): "Invite all cordially and freely to this banquet of Christian Science, this feast and flow of Soul. Ask them to bring what they possess of love and light to help leaven your loaf and replenish your scanty store. Then, after presenting the various offerings, and one after another has opened his lips to discourse and distribute what God has given him of experience, hope, faith, and understanding, gather up the fragments, and count the baskets full of accession to your love, and see that nothing has been lost."

A sacred and happy privilege devolves upon the First Reader in a Christian Science church or society in connection with the midweek testimony meetings. He is the host who selects and offers to the guests the milk and meat of the Word—the passages from the Bible and Science and Health. He also has the pleasurable task of selecting the hymns for the occasion, and without doubt he will see the wisdom of choosing some airs more or less familiar to people of all denomination Let him never forget that this "banquet of Christian Science" is spread for men and women of all faiths, to acquaint them with the blessings of present-day healing and regeneration.

As he steps up to the Reader's desk may he feel the benediction of his Leader's message to a First Reader (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 247): "Do you come to your little flock so filled with divine food that you cast your bread upon the waters? Then be sure that after many or a few days it will return to you." The guests at these banquets feel the love and cheer of a hospitable host. Many a faltering testifier has been strengthened by the encouraging smile of a Reader. And may not Reader and guest alike profit by the Christlike humility of that great latter-day disciple of the Master, Mrs. Eddy, who concluded the message quoted above with these words: "The little that I have accomplished has all been done through love,—self-forgetful, patient, unfaltering tenderness."

John Randall Dunn