ALL the offices in Churches of Christ, Scientist, require conscious closeness to the divine Mind, God, the source of all inspiration, guidance, and activity. In no office is this more obviously true than in that of First Reader or Second Reader. A Reader finds that he is himself blessed and blesses his fellow men as he maintains the sense of closeness to God.
Our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, points to this truth in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where she writes (p. 295): "The manifestation of God through mortals is as light passing through the window-pane. The light and the glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass is less opaque than the walls. The mortal mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that one which has lost much materiality—much error—in order to become a better transparency for Truth."
It is quite obvious that light will shine most clearly and unobstructedly through whatever is most transparent, namely the windowpane. This is a natural process. In like manner the divine Mind, as Mrs. Eddy points out, will manifest itself most clearly through that consciousness which is most transparent to Christ, Truth, or, as she explains it, has lost much error.
