Two Christian Scientists elected by their fellow members to serve their branch church as Readers agreed with each other that they would keep the joy of their offices constantly in view. Immediately they discovered that this would not be difficult. To conduct the services in a Church of Christ, Scientist, they quickly saw, was to participate in a privileged way in bearing witness to God's constant self-revelation of His truth, His power, His love.
One of the helps available to those elected to serve as Readers is appreciation of the importance of being letter-perfect when it comes to reading publicly from the Bible and from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. Each of these books is in its own way a literary masterpiece. Each yields unsuspected treasures as its pages are searched, its truths pondered, its style evaluated. But the importance of familiarity with the letter, as far as the Readers are concerned, is similar to the importance of technique to a musician. It frees their thought from subordination to the means of reading—natural, clear interpretativeness —so that the end of reading may be everything. This end is receptivity to the message.
If the Readers listen carefully to hear God's Word, so will the congregation. The Christ, Truth, will be heard, and in a measure there will recur what happened on the walk to Emmaus, of which two of the followers of Jesus said (Luke 24:32), "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?"
