The first time I attended a Sunday service in a Christian Science church I was struck by the objectivity I heard. The Bible Lesson, found in the Christian Science Quarterly and read at the service by First and Second Readers, had been compiled with obviously thoughtful care and clear focus on the subject. There were no passionate personal pleas, no judgmental chastisements. The selections from the Scriptures told their own story. The correlative passages from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy provided a more spiritually logical explanation of Bible citations than I'd ever heard before.
Even the way the Lord's Prayer was repeated by the congregation was a new experience for me in public worship. The spiritual interpretation of that prayer, read by the First Reader from Science and Health, shed new light on how I could apply Jesus' model prayer in my own thought. I left the service buoyant with a sense of fresh discovery that was not hinged on a personal preacher's charisma or rhetoric.
Clearly, great good has come to humanity from the pulpit. My grandfather was a preacher whose ministry was like that of the old-day "circuit-riding preacher," traveling from one small midwestern town to another, establishing churches and nurturing their fledgling congregations. His practical love for God, filled with praise of His goodness, profoundly influenced my life, as I'm confident it did others'.
