Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, founded The First Church of Christ, Scientist, for the good of mankind, and each of its many activities was instituted to meet a special need. The reading-room is one of the most important channels of the church through which the word of Truth, unobstructed by human opinions, meets the need of mankind. Today the prophecy of Habakkuk is literally being fulfilled, as by means of Christian Science literature the earth is "filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord." In the reading-room all have the opportunity to obtain a demonstrable understanding of divine Principle as revealed through the Word of God.
This quiet place is of inestimable value to business men and women; here too the weary wanderer in matter may find rest and peace, and the sincere inquirer be satisfied, having all questions answered and his fears removed through the revelation of Truth and Love to this age. As the Christian Science reading-room is a great blessing to the community in which it is established, it should be in as easily accessible a place as possible. In many small places and where the work of the cause has just started, it is not always expedient or even possible to have a regular librarian, but those who in turn have charge of the rooms should watch and work to keep out the thought of confusion among themselves as well as among the visitors, and always to have in mind that the reading-room is a part of the Church of Christ, Scientist, and was never intended as a place for social gathering and conversation. Nor do those who need and seek the knowledge of God go to the reading-room to be entertained by personal opinions. In this connection it is well to study often Section 7 of Article XXV of the Manual of The Mother Church. He who is hungering and thirsting for righteousness can he satisfied with nothing less than Truth, and from the authorized literature he will have his questions answered and will get only what he can understand.
Nearly every question put to a librarian can and should he answered in this way. If you and I should need to know what Christian Science teaches on any specific subject, or if we are in doubt of the absolute and therefore scientific truth of something we have heard, we would certainly know that if we could go directly to Mrs. Eddy we would learn the truth on the subject. Now through the Concordance to Science and Health and the Concordance to our Leader's other writings we have the privilege of doing this very thing, thus averting the misfortune of a mistake ever occurring in either our theory or our practice, as any statement which is not based upon Principle and proved to be correct from her premise, is not Christian Science and we need give it no more credence. As we read on page 174 of Science and Health: "Truth is revealed. If needs only to be practised."
From the infinite Mind comes all knowledge and the ability to understand and demonstrate it. God interprets His own ideas,—reveals, explains, and heals,—while human opinions would adulterate the ideas of God, misinterpret, substitute, render them null and void, and neutralize their spiritual power and manifestation. The librarian knows that Christian Science is the truth that heals all sin and disease; and as God is all-power, all-presence, He is all sufficient, and there is no mortal mind to argue or believe anything to the contrary. The librarian cannot make the word of God heal; it is the nature of Truth to express itself, and to heal.
The work of a Scientist is his individual demonstration, the intelligent unfolding of instruction from God. It is the result of his own growth, so there can be no set or outlined way laid down for another's work except as contained in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. It is both a privilege and a protection to hold an office in a Christian Science church, as it is an opportunity to grow, to unfold in the understanding of the infinite nature of God, good, and it is in working for others that we get our greatest blessings. Personality never fills an office, but divine Principle, God, does, and man reflects the activity of divine Mind. The carnal mind is the seat of all evil, and its antagonism to Truth necessitates constant watching of one's own thought.
The healing of the beliefs of sin and disease with the truth constitutes the work of the librarian. He or she must watch lest anything enter the mental atmosphere to interfere with the word and its manifestation and object, for God's word cannot he perverted, robbed, or contaminated. To keep open the door that leads to spiritual understanding requires meekness, obedience, alertness, and spiritual discernment, so as to be able to detect quickly any counterfeit which would offer a substitute for God's idea. In "No and Yes" (p. 9) Mrs. Eddy says, "Divinely defined, Science is the atmosphere of God." In this atmosphere all sin, sickness, every antagonism to good, ceases to exist. Where God is, all good is, and its manifestation, and this is the rightful atmosphere of a Christian Science reading-room.
The real man's innermost desire is for spiritual good, which brings health and happiness; and as a mortal awakens to his material limitations and failures, he inevitably turns to God. Doubtless he has previously found that scholasticism and medical science, as well as some other systems, have failed to meet his needs. He may have heard of Christian Science through what it has done for a friend or some member of his family, or perhaps from a newspaper article or even an adverse sermon. At any rate, his interest or curiosity has been sufficiently aroused to cause him to investigate the subject.
The inquirer at the rooms may be prejudiced, incredulous, desiring rather to argue or disprove the demonstrations of Christian Science, or he may be, as in the majority of cases, sincerely seeking for God. Coming with an open mind and honest motive, he quickly perceives the truth and puts it into practice. If the librarian is sufficiently alert and works intelligently, none need go away without a blessing. It would seem hardly necessary to say that the librarian of a Christian Science reading-room must be one who loves and appreciates Christian Science and its Leader, Mrs. Eddy, so as to be able to meet intelligently the arguments of malicious animal magnetism respecting the revelator and the revelation.
In the Foreword to Miscellany the duty of the members of The Mother Church to their Leader and her position in this age is made very plain. There we read (p. vii): "Strive it ever so hard, The Church of Christ, Scientist, can never do for its Leader what its Leader has done for this church; but its members can so protect their own thoughts that they are not unwittingly made to deprive their Leader of her rightful place as the revelator to this age of the immortal truths testified to by Jesus and the prophets." Evil always tries to counterfeit Truth, and would call its false beliefs true. Adam evidently believed he had a higher revelation when the serpent said, "Your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods,"—new light given about the origin and nature of man and the universe,—but this Adam or occult dream originated in suggestion and not with God, and eventually proved self-destructive.
Christian Science is the light and law of man's being, guiding every one and leading to God. When one beholds even a little of the complete revelation of the Christ, Truth, he cannot fail to see Mrs. Eddy in her rightful place. No one can make the revelation plainer or easier, for God's ways are not the ways of mortal mind; there is but one way to get the correct result, namely, to apply the rule. In the words of Isaiah: "Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."
