The vocal solo that precedes the reading of the Lesson-SermonIn the Christian Science Quarterly. in a Christian Science Sunday service has a Christly purpose. That purpose is healing. The solo should contribute a spiritual message to the restorative and redemptive essence of the service. Consecration on the part of the congregation and the soloist to this objective—the uplifting of thought in praise of the Almighty—can and does result in healing.
The Psalmist proclaims: "Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing." Ps. 100:2. Ideally, then, the solo should make us aware of God's ever-presence. That awareness is a foundation for healing in Christian Science.
Mrs. Eddy in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 11) emphasizes the spiritual basis of music: "I want not only quality, quantity, and variation in tone, but the unction of Love. Music is divine. Mind, not matter, makes music; and if the divine tone be lacking, the human tone has no melody for me." How well the phrase "unction of Love" indicates the healing quality that is needed in the solo, for one definition of "unction" is "the act of anointing as a rite of consecration or healing."