In Isaiah we read: "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear." That this is a demonstrable fact I have had overwhelming proof. Sixteen years ago, my second son, then about twelve years old, was examined by an eminent brain specialist in London, England, who pronounced him to be mentally deficient, owing to a supposedly hereditary form of disease, which he diagnosed as suppressed epilepsy. As he held out no hope of cure, the boy was placed in an asylum for the feeble-minded, and for eleven years, although he developed physically, there was little change in his mental condition. He could read and write a little, but did not express himself very coherently.
Five years ago I came into Christian Science, and after seeking and finding help for myself, began to work for my boy, he being then twenty-three years of age. I had very little understanding, but my own experience convinced me that this wonderful truth would heal him if I persevered. I knew that God could not create a weak mind, since He is infinite intelligence, and I endeavored to hold this spiritual fact constantly in thought. There was little change for two years, and I often had to meet the suggestion that such a case needed present treatment. I was in America, while my son was in England, and it also seemed more difficult owing to his surroundings, there being nearly five hundred patients in the institution where he was; but Mrs. Eddy tells us that "the transfer of the thoughts of one erring mind to another, Science renders impossible" (Science and Health, p. 211). I had not been working on this thought long, before my son was removed to a seaside home in connection with the asylum and kept there permanently. This was done by the authorities without any request. The third year my son's letters showed marked improvement, and I sent him a copy of our text-book, Science and Health, telling him to read a little each day. This he did, and after a few months he was able to begin to study the Lesson-Sermons. Little by little he took greater interest in them, and he then began to improve rapidly.
Step by step he won his freedom, gaining permission to go out and about the small town where the home was situated, and finally enrolled himself as a member of the movement known as General Baden-Powell's Boy Scouts. Very soon he was appointed assistant scout master, taught himself signaling, and became instructor to his corps. At this point the way opened out for me to visit England, and I was enabled to spend some weeks with him. I found him not only normal, but keenly observant, anxious to make up for his lack of education, and full of ambition to take his place in the world. While I recognized that he had certainly outgrown his surroundings, there did not seem to be much, if any, prospect of removing him, owing to my immediate departure for America, and the difficulty of finding a home with suitable employment for him. I, however, held to the thought of man's freedom, and constantly endeavored to realize that, as the image and likeness of God, the divine idea could never be in bondage to any belief of limitation or material environment, and within a few weeks the way opened out. My youngest son, who is manager on a sugar-cane farm in South Africa, and an earnest student of Christian Science, suddenly found himself in a position to send for his brother, and he is now on the way to lead a useful life, growing day by day into a clearer understanding of the truth which has made him free.
