MEMBERSHIP in a Christian Science church always presents opportunities for service to that organization, and failure to grasp these opportunities is often due to the fact that we are unaware of their presence. To be dissatisfied in simply attending church, and to desire to become members, shows our willingness to share in church activities. It sometimes may seem as if conditions make it impossible for us to assume this share. Such a conclusion is often due to the fact that we are thinking of those activities called official, whereas there are many opportunities of service independent of these.
Regularity of attendance, which is expected of members, is a service which we can, as a rule, properly perform. We are taking a part if for no other reason than that the newcomer, who is seeking for Truth, may feel inspiration and moral support in the discovery that others are traveling the same road with manifest joy and devotion.
Our presence, moreover, at church services may lead to ways of giving in which we can take a more conscious part. Some one may need a smile or a handshake which we can give. Some one may need the very word our experience has prepared us to speak, to enable him to depart lifted above some error of grief, or pain, or anxiety, or sin. Are we always in our place, then, ready thus to serve? Paul says in his first letter to Timothy, "Charge them . . . that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate."
