Articles

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.

Would you like to achieve something really good? Do something really worthwhile? Be of real use? Find some deeper satisfaction in the daily round of everyday living? Well, you can. Christian Science teaches that unlimited good is present to be achieved.

Man has never left spiritual perfection. The Bible assures us, "God hath made man upright.

An important step in overcoming human conflicts is to understand the absolute unity of God, divine Mind, and man, His perfect reflection, as well as to recognize the illusory nature of matter and its effects. The truth that man is spiritually at one with God is a basis for proving this fact in everyday life.

Just as some scholastic learning is obligatory in order that young people may become qualified to make their way in the world, so the learning of higher, more spiritual lessons is indispensable if we are to become truly fitted to play a more active and valuable part in our community and our world. There can, however, be no schooling without a teacher, no true learning without a guide.

If one recognizes organization as a means and not an end, he will keep it in the proper perspective and be able to use it effectively. Organization—even when divinely impelled—is human, not divine, and so eventually it will be superseded by higher means.

Christian Science teaches that the real man, our true self, does not drift with the so-called stream of time but stands now on the firm shore of timeless being. In this divine Science we learn that our true being is not part of the transience of time; we live in the eternal now, without the burden of a temporal past, without the uncertainty of a temporal future, without a beginning or ending.

Though personal sense may deem it an individual honor, or a status symbol, Readership in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, like many human activities that serve God, is essentially a moral and spiritual obligation. The office of Reader is not one of seclusion, but of service.

"Truth is revealed. It needs only to be practised.

On the back of a door in the farmhouse where I grew up were some pencil marks measuring the height of my sister, my brother, and myself at different ages. It was our parents' custom to check these marks from time to time and note how much we had grown.