The following experience seems to me to illustrate the teaching of Christian Science that all physical effects, even surgical conditions, are of mental origin. At nine o'clock one morning I was in an exposed part of the city when there was a high wind, and my hat was blown off. As I ran into the street after it, a sudden gust caught me and I was blown violently across the street and dashed into an iron railing, but with the exception of a few small cuts on my hands I seemed unhurt. I had a good deal of walking to do during the day, but it caused me not the slightest inconvenience.
About seven o'clock in the evening my left ankle began to feel sore, although there seemed no reason for this. By nine o'clock I could not put my foot to the ground and had to be assisted upstairs. To all appearance I had a badly sprained ankle, swollen and intensely painful. I have had considerable surgical experience, and from that point of view it seemed impossible that I could have injured my ankle in the morning and developed the symptoms in the evening without having had a single twinge of pain between times. Accepting the mental nature of disease, however, as taught in Christian Science, the explanation was quite simple, for Christian Science shows that it is fear, more than the accident itself, which produces bad results. The experience of the morning was a circumstance accepted by general belief as a reason for fear, and though I myself at the moment, having had no fear, had experienced no immediate ill effect, yet fear had been expressed by the onlookers and behind them was the general belief of mortal mind. I had therefore failed to protect myself sufficiently from the general fear or belief in mortal mind by knowing the allness of God's government, with the result that this fear projected itself on my body in the form of a sprained ankle, not at the time of the injury but ten hours later. The further proof of the correctness of this teaching was shown in the progress of the case. At nine o'clock I was free to read our textbook. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, which I did at once; by ten o'clock the ankle was so far better that I was able to walk a little and do all that I had to do before going to bed. Next morning I was able to walk with a slight limp and by mid-day all pain and stiffness had left. I have remained perfectly free ever since.
This is only one instance of the healing power of Christian Science which has come into my experience. I have been practically freed from headaches, throat trouble, rheumatism, colds, and bronchitis, but even then the half has not been told, for this physical freedom is but the outward sign of the growing understanding of what is meant in the Bible by the statement, "I am God and there is none else."— Glasgow, Scotland.
