A young Sunday School pupil attended a Sunday evening service in his church for the first time. The following week he announced that he would like to go again "to hear Auntie Beth read the notices!" (The First Reader was a friend of his.)
This comment surprised the boy's parents until they realized that during what had seemed to them a routine moment in the church service, he had felt the touch of the Christ in the form of a warm welcome, and had seen his place in church as a valued Sunday School pupil.
Another incident also highlights the importance of this section of the church service and the reason why it should never be passed over as a mere formality. A Reader in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, noticed a visitor who, it was learned later, was attending a Wednesday evening testimony meeting for the first time. The visitor had been sitting inconspicuously behind someone else, as one sometimes does in unfamiliar surroundings; but the minute the notices began, he leaned sideways so he could see the platform and gave very obvious attention, as though he were being spoken to individually.
