It is fifteen years since I first found Christian Science. At that time my husband had suffered from a condition of stomach trouble for many years. He had had the best services of reputable physicians, but none of them could effect any lasting relief. When Christian Science was proposed as a remedy for this condition, it was accepted only in the hope of averting an operation. Not knowing anything about Christian Science up to that time, he accepted it in these words: "If it does not do me any good, certainly it can do me no harm, since its method of healing is prayer."
A practitioner was found; and in less than two weeks a complete healing was accomplished. Why the prayer of this Christian Science practitioner could effect a cure when our prayers were ineffectual was a mystery. So we read "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and also other authorized Christian Science literature, with a desire to fathom the mystery. This reading was indeed a great revelation. We found we had to change our concept first of all of God. Then we had to see man as God's image and likeness—that is, as spiritual and not physical, as we had always believed. Then we had to see man's true relation to his creator as an inseparable one. We learned that true prayer is a declaration of eternal good instead of a supplication to bring about our will or wish.
Divine healing was accepted readily, as I was sure God did not intend that His children should be sick. Through the first several years of my study of Christian Science, I was laboring under a belief of limitation. This condition seemed quite as distressing as sickness. I knew, however, that whether the belief was lack of health or lack of supply, God could heal the condition, so I worked earnestly to prove it. I read in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 307), "God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies." I desired to be receptive to these spiritual ideas. I found, too, on page 298 of Science and Health that Mrs. Eddy tells us that "angels are pure thoughts from God." So I realized that I must take an inventory and put out of consciousness every thought unlike God, and obey the command, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." During this period of mental work an idea came to me to follow a particular line of endeavor. It was as though a voice had said, "This is the way, walk ye in it." Obedient to this voice, I did carry out this idea, which is day by day supplying my need.
