THOSE HIGHLY IMPORTANT TESTIMONIES

PAUL B. GRUSCHOW

Have you ever gone to a Wednesday evening meeting in a Christian Science church with a few crumbs of gratitude and shared them with the entire congregation? Wasn't it a satisfaction to know that you had fulfilled a highly important duty, and that you had banished those whispering lies which talked of inability, academic insufficiency, inferiority, and fear of facing your brother man?

How important is a testimony? Who can really say just when the word spoken through inspiration of God will stop echoing down the corridors of time and memory? Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, has devoted an entire section in the Manual of The Mother Church (Art. VIII, Sect. 24) to this healing activity. She who chose her words so carefully was not satisfied to term this mode of expression merely "important," but tells us that "testimony in regard to the healing of the sick is highly important." Defining the altitude and scope of this work, she says in the next sentence, "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)." Testimony meetings give us the opportunity to bear witness to the healing Christ. Several pages of this very issue are devoted to testimonies written by people in different walks of life, from many parts of the world, and from various age groups. The Christian Science Journal also has a goodly percentage of space devoted to testimonies.

Mrs. Eddy outlines on page 122 of the Church Manual the order of service for testimony meetings. It expressly provides a place for "experiences, testimonies, and remarks on Christian Science." Usually the period given to this activity is about half the time of the meeting. In other words, half the time is devoted to the reading of citations from the Bible, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, prayer, and hymns. These set forth the theology of Christian Science. The other half of the meeting is turned over to the congregation for brief illustrations of how this theology has been used in daily living and how it has healed sin, sickness, discomfort, limitation, lack, sorrow, and so forth.

The selections read are the highest religious thought from the Holy Bible and Science and Health. The prayer is that given us by the master Metaphysician, Christ Jesus. The music must come up to a recognized standard of excellence.

We would not tolerate improperly played hymns, nor would we want the First Reader to read incorrectly. Have we no responsibility? Yes, there is a definite responsibility for every member of the congregation who has been blessed by the teachings of Christian Science. We must not accept animal magnetism's argument that would mesmerize us into too personal and limited a sense of the glorious opportunity at hand. There are those present who have come asking if Christian Science heals. Shall our silence give them a negative answer? There are those present who are struggling to be free from the restrictive chains and binding beliefs of personal sense. Shall our stony silence turn them away un-comforted? Or shall we enthusiastically rise and obey the command of the Psalmist (Ps. 107:2), "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy"?

If someone reading this is thinking that his experience is too slight, his background too meager for him to give a testimony, that he is too unimportant, or that he is not inspired to speak next Wednesday, let him turn to page 256 of Science and Health and learn a better approach to this question in the words of our Leader, "Advancing to a higher plane of action, thought rises from the material sense to the spiritual, from the scholastic to the inspirational, and from the mortal to the immortal." Let him also know that inspiration is constant, and present now, because it is a quality of our ever-present God. A speaker's remarks need not include a lengthy dissertation on metaphysics or a studied, formal discourse on Christian Science. A simple, direct, and loving statement of what Christian Science has done for him, and how, is what is needed. Thereby shall we touch the hearts of those about us with love, and inspire, comfort, and encourage the weary and heavy laden.

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