Mrs. Eddy says, "When God heals the sick or the sinning, they should know the great benefit which Mind has wrought" (Science and Health, p. 570). I hope that I am fully conscious of and grateful for the great benefit which Mind has wrought in my behalf. Christian Science has healed me physically, mentally, morally, and spiritually, and I would indeed be ungrateful if I withheld longer my testimony regarding some of the benefits I have received. I could not begin to enumerate all, so I will not attempt to do so. I can only touch lightly on a few of the more important demonstrations. When Christian Science first came into my experience I was a youth in high school, engrossed in athletics and material pleasures, and had fallen victim to many of the temptations of youth. I became somewhat interested in Christian Science, because I had seen it tested by various members of my family in the healing of physical diseases, and not found wanting. But at that time I desired only "the loaves and fishes," and it was not until the so-called pains of sense succeeded the so-called pleasures, that I really began to seek the "Father's house." It required several hard experiences to show me the fallacy of seeking pleasure or happiness except in God, good.
The severest experience of this kind which I had was when I was taken with acute lung trouble. I was, however, healed in less than one month, and I have had no return of the disease since, which was eight years ago. The really important thing to me about the experience was that it awakened in me for the first time a desire to know something about God, about the Principle that had wrought the results which I had seen manifested. Not suddenly were the thought habits of years overcome, for, as Mrs. Eddy says on page 343 of "Miscellaneous Writings," "the weeds of mortal mind are not always destroyed by the first uprooting; they reappear, like devastating witch-grass, to choke the coming clover." Gradually, however, in the exact proportion to my faithfulness in seeking "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," "the former things" have lost all hold and attraction, and now are thought of only as dreams.
Words fail me when I contemplate or attempt to express in some measure "the beauty of holiness" revealed to me in Christian Science. I am truly grateful for all that it has given me in the way of better health, better morals, and a better sense of Principle in business. It has indeed made me a better man, friend, and citizen; it has given me a greater love for all mankind; it has given me the longing to see the whole world freed from the fetters of sin, sickness, and death, and the desire to assist in this redemption in what measure it is given me. But more than all this am I grateful for the understanding of God that Christian Science has brought to me; the sureness and certainty of the way; the enduring fact "that my redeemer liveth." I am perhaps most grateful for tin's understanding of the true God, but my heart overflows with gratitude and love for Mrs. Eddy, who lived close enough to God to hear and record His glorious message to this age. My prayer is that I may ever follow faithfully, and be worthy the name of a Christian Scientist.
