WHEN church members are called upon to read in a Christian Science church or society, they strive to be responsive to God's infinite ability, and not to take upon themselves a false sense of responsibility. Perhaps one's first impulse on being asked to read is to question whether he will be able to read well enough before many people in public. He may even be tempted to look ahead and wonder whether he will be able to keep well enough all through the year, forgetting that the All-wise is able to sustain because He is also all-powerful. Surely such suggestions are based on self-consciousness, which is a belief in a consciousness apart from God, the only Mind.
As Readers realize that there is but one Mind, they lose these fears. The important thing to be considered is one's motive in reading, for much depends on motive. On page 454 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy says, "Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to speech and action." Again, on page 446 she says, "A wrong motive involves defeat."
What higher motive can one have than the desire to help heal humanity of its trouble, its pain, and its bondage to sin! This noble and unselfish motive rejects fear and gives one a sense of power and freedom, for the love which inspires it reflects Love, God, the infinite power which banishes sickness, sin, and sorrow.
