When I came into Christian Science, over seven years ago, I was suffering with what several physicians told me was an incurable disease. I then turned to Christian Science, and with two weeks' absent treatment I was healed. While I feel very grateful for the physical healing, the understanding I have gained of God is far more to me. We are told in the Bible that God is "a very present help in trouble," and I had proof of this three years ago, while visiting a brother in Santa Barbara county, Cal., who lived quite near the coast, where there is a fine beach.
We had taken drives north on the beach about ten miles, and one day he said we would go south, for he wished me to see some wonderful formations of rocks and caves at the end of the beach, where the rocks start at the foot of a mountain and extend out in the ocean for some distance. We had to climb up a few feet, then we could go out on them, as they are quite level. We were on our way back when my brother said there was a cave around the other side of the mountain which he wished me to see. The path going round was ascending as well, and was very narrow, as the sand from above had been washed down. When we were up about fifty feet I began to feel somewhat timid, with the jagged rocks below and the waves dashing over them. We had to go in single file, so my brother reached back and took hold of my right hand to steady me somewhat. We had come to a very narrow place, and just then that passage of Scripture about "the everlasting arms" came to me, also Jesus' words, "Be not afraid."
My brother had stepped over the narrow place safely, but when I put my foot into his track the sand gave way, and I went down, but very slowly. Then there came to me those beautiful lines of the 91st Psalm: "There shall no evil befall thee . . . For he shall give his angels charge over thee . . . They shall bear thee up in their hands;" and all fear left me. As I said, I went down very slowly, so my brother had time to tighten his clasp on my fingers; and there I hung, with just his hold on the fingers of my right hand, but there was no strain on the arm. For a moment my brother seemed dazed, but soon dug a niche in the sand with his foot and said, "If possible, bring up one knee into that." When I made the motion to do so, it seemed no exertion at all—I seemed to be lifted up. My brother said, "That is fine;" but I had made no struggle to save myself, and it would indeed have been worse than useless, for there was nothing for me to grasp hold of. Soon he dug another niche, and asked if I could bring up the other foot into that. When I did as he asked, I was lifted right up on both feet, and there I was, standing up.
