What consecration and humility fill the heart of the earnest Christian Scientist who is elected to the office of Reader in a Church of Christ, Scientist! Great is the longing to be faithful to that high trust, to let the Word of God go forth from the Reader's desk on its shining mission of enlightenment and healing, unimpeded by personal idiosyncrasies or deficiencies.
After the election of new Readers, much well-intentioned and sometimes helpful human advice is not infrequently given them by fellow members. One newly elected Reader felt confused and dismayed by conflicting suggestions and criticisms. Then came the angel message in the Golden Text from Psalms in the current Bible Lesson as provided in the Christian Science Quarterly (138:8): "The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me." A burden was removed. The Reader had only to do the best she could and leave the rest to God.
Christian Scientists have accepted God as the Father and Mother of us all. The real, spiritual identities of all present at a church service must then be children of God, members of God's loving family. Holding in consciousness this ideal of one family helps to overcome trepidation on the part of the Reader. May it not also be permissible to think of the human congregation as a church family that has come to hear the Lesson-Sermon and learn more of God? With this in thought, the Reader will listen to and humbly drink in for his own instruction the Lesson he is reading. This will eliminate any didacticism in his manner.
