Watching the sun as it set over the lake was one of the loveliest features of the summer vacations our family used to spend in northern Michigan. We went each evening to one vantage spot or another to watch the brilliant gold-red ball sink lower in the sky. "Pssssssss," my husband and the children chorused when the lowest tip of the flaming sun appeared to touch the water. And soon the sun had disappeared entirely.
But that was not a signal for us to depart. The finest sight was yet to come. The colors of the sunset spread their long arms out to a waiting sky, and their hues deepened. This afterglow was the part we savored most.
What of the Reader's afterglow?
When Mrs. Eddy instituted the By-Law requiring rotation in office for the Readers of The Mother Church, she wrote significantly of the Reader's retirement: "The best Christian Scientists will be the first to adopt this By-law in their churches, and their Readers will retire ex officio, after three years of acceptable service as church Readers, to higher usefulness in this vast vineyard of our Lord." Soon after, in an article headed "Afterglow," she added: "The Readers who have filled this sacred office many years, have beyond it duties and attainments beckoning them. What these are I cannot yet say."The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 250;
Clearly, a retiring Reader has work before him. What that work is to be, each has to discern for himself. Just as one who has been elected Reader prayerfully prepares for the office before he assumes it, so one who is retiring from that post does well to prepare for the "higher usefulness" that is the demand ahead. Each one's mission is his alone. To the degree that he understands and fulfills the work God gives him to do will it be fruitful and prove to be the experience savored most.
Friends may say to a Reader, "Soon your work will be done. Then you will be free to relax and enjoy your Sundays and Wednesdays again." The Reader knows his work has just begun. His preoccupation is not with planning less spiritual activity but with planning more.
The basic and ultimate demand of Christian Science is to heal—ourselves, others, the world. The command is from Christ Jesus. "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give."Matt. 10:8; Mrs. Eddy writes: "The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this age through a 'still, small voice,' through silent utterances and divine anointing which quicken and increase the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher attainments in this line of light."Science and Health, p. 367;
Whatever his specific work, the Reader has ahead of him better healing. His activity in his branch church will be motivated and governed by that high goal. His daily occupation will be lifted through his desire to serve God and man and to help and heal those with whom he comes in contact. The ex-Reader's role in his home as father or mother, husband or wife, will be filled with more Christliness as he lives the truth he has gained through his study while reading. Readers who are already established in the public practice of Christian Science will continue their work with increasing effectiveness. Others will enter this healing ministry. Some will write articles for the Christian Science periodicals. All will seek divine guidance on how best to labor in their Father's "vast vineyard." All will strive to conduct each affair of their day in response to divine impulsion.
Webster defines "afterglow" as "a glow remaining where a light has disappeared." Reading in a Christian Science church is a brilliant but brief event in an individual's experience. Through diligent and systematic study of the Lesson-Sermon in preparation for the church service, he glimpses a more universal concept of the Truth. His study is not confined to searching out answers to his own problems, but it expands as he carefully considers the spiritual import of each citation in order to read it to others with understanding and authority. His spiritual sense is sharpened in so doing.
But reading has demands, and the Reader cannot linger on a single Lesson Sermon. When one week is finished, he must go on to the next. In the afterglow of his Readership he has opportunity to research and ponder a specific truth without interruption as it broadens and deepens in his thought, as it is demonstrated in his life.
Church activities, too, offer fresh meaning to the retiring Reader. He can put down with confidence any temptation to believe that other church work is a comedown after reading. If the suggestion presents itself that he is not needed in a large church, or that the routine of committee work now would seem dull, the alert ex-Reader rejects it at once. He knows that his God-governed church work will be increasingly inspiring and productive in the afterglow.
"The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-immolation, must deepen human experience" writes Mrs. Eddy, "until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposition, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God's spiritual, perfect man."ibid., p. 99.
This is the work—and the beauty—of the afterglow. No Reader would be content to miss that scene.
