I haven’t gotten very far with the assignment yet, but am already being helped.  I began reading the testimonies while serving in the Reading Room a few weeks back and jotted down some quotes by testifiers that really struck me.  I came across one of these jottings today and found it spoke powerfully in the aftermath of the recent terrorist attacks in Paris.  This was in the very first issue of the 1943 Sentinel, and the testifier was named Charles Rossitter Stuart: “Time after time, when the mesmerism of flaring headlines in the newspapers caused a state of mental depression and a deep concern for the peoples of certain nations, intensive study of Christian Science would break the hypnotic spell, and I would realize that in reality all is well in God’s universe.  … The world needs the stabilizing effect of Christian Science today as never before.  Only omnipotent Truth can disperse the mist of material thinking which is shutting out the crystal-clear vistas of the spiritual universe from so many millions of fear-stricken individuals at this time.” 

These words feel incredibly timely, and I so appreciate the testifier’s clarity about the hypnotic nature of what is aggressively presented as overwhelming circumstances. The consciousness of omnipotent Truth not only brings increased stability; it uncovers stunning glimpses of “the crystal-clear vistas of the spiritual universe.”  The same testifier had been healed in Christian Science of “colds, crossed eyes, bronchial trouble, facial blemishes, restlessness, neuritis, undesirable habits, a tendency to criticize others, domestic problems, critical business situations, selfishness, unloving attitude, resentment, and fear.”

There is great light to be seen and felt at this time.  Not in the picture of terror and turmoil, but in the reality of “one Father with His universal family, held in the gospel of Love.” (S&H, p. 577)