WHEN the time draws near for the election of new readers in the branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, Section 6 of Article III in the Manual of The Mother Church may well be given careful study by the members. In past years it has been a moot question in some Christian Science churches whether a man or a woman should be elected to the office of first reader, the fact having been overlooked that our Leader definitely covered this point in a short article entitled "Readers in Church" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 249).
Readership in a Christian Science church imposes a great responsibility and a solemn obligation, in meeting which much love, loyalty, and lowliness of spirit is needed. Joyously entering upon his labor of love, the reader may some time find that the promised land, where he had expected to find peace, happiness, and spiritual progress, needs first to be cleared of the tribes of the Amorites, the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, which seemingly infest it. Perhaps he discovers thoughts of pride, vainglory, love of domination, or self-will coming to the surface of his consciousness. Or fear of standing before a large congregation may grapple him; weakness and uncertainty try to drag him into the depths of discouragement and doubt. Criticism of his personality, his voice, his reading, may reach his ears; unkind comparison of his work with that of former readers may wound his sensitiveness and burden him with fear of failure.
If in such a seeming hour of darkness the student turns to the first page of Mrs. Eddy's Message for 1901, a shaft of light will illumine his sky when he reads these inspiring words: "Rest assured you can never lack God's outstretched arm so long as you are in His service;" and as one opens his heart to this message, other angels will minister unto him. Error is silenced as consciousness is lifted above the sense of personality, whether his own or that of his hearers, while his gaze is fixed unfalteringly upon the goal of his endeavors, to prove so clear and faithful a mouthpiece for Truth that the sick shall be healed, saddened hearts comforted, and the sin-enslaved find freedom.
