Someone once likened the Reader's position, as he reads from the desk in a Church of Christ, Scientist, to being in a plastic booth alone with God. But what about the people in the congregation? Where do they come in? Isn't the Reader a human being reading to other human beings? But if this is the case, what is going on spiritually?
This was the question I had to answer when I was elected First Reader of a branch church. This opportunity came entirely unexpectedly, and I felt very unprepared. After the initial shock, a few lines of a hymn came to thought,
God is with me, and His presence
Shall my perfect guidance be,
Till my heart that peace inherit
God alone can give to me.1
1 Christian Science Hymnal, No. 81;↑
