So far as physical healing is concerned. Christian Science has been more of a preventive than a cure for me, for I have had the blessing of being practically brought up in Science and have hardly known what sickness was. When I was a young girl my mother was wonderfully healed of a so-called incurable tumor, and that experience led us to give up gladly our old theology, which had been teaching us that it was God's will that she should die, as well as all therapeutics, which had proved so helpless, and we strove to follow the new and more reasonable teaching, which revealed a consistent God of love. In the years which have followed. Christian Science has supplied my every need. After leaving school a congenial profession opened to me and I believe I have not lost more than a day's work on account of ill health. All suggestions of physical inharmony have been quickly silenced through my own understanding or with the help of others. I have found in Christian Science constant guidance, protection, and strength, and more and more has life unfolded in accordance with God's law of harmony and progress.
Comparing sometimes my own outlook upon life with that of friends who are not Scientists, I realize what a different world we live in even now and how much we have to be thankful for that already we see such signs of the kingdom of heaven at hand. Our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, says: "Religions may waste away, but the fittest survives; and so long as we have the right ideal, life is worth living and God takes care of our life." (Miscellany. p. 166.) We find this indeed true as we live in the light which shines through her writings and illumines the pages of the Bible.
I should like to say a word of appreciation for our periodicals. The Monitor, of course, is indispensable in its own field, probably the broadest field of all. As to the Sentinel and Journal, when I have spent time reading one I feel as if I had spent it among Christian Science friends, who have shared with me their thoughts and experiences and have sometimes made me do some clear thinking to keep up with them. I have always regarded the periodicals as our missionaries, with the advantage over personal missionaries that we could have them ourselves while sending them to others. Mrs. Eddy founded them with a great purpose, which cannot be thwarted. Of course they cannot and do not purport to take the place of her writings in our study, but, like our exchange of experiences with our friends, they can give us much help along the way and in them one can but feel that our friends, the contributors, are giving us of their best. It is therefore a pleasure and privilege to read them and share them, as Mrs. Eddy requested, sending them out as loving invitations to others to share in the "living waters" which we have found in Christian Science.
