Many years ago I came into Christian Science seeking peace. The teachings of my former church, that God sends sickness and death as well as the blessings of life, had been instilled into me from childhood but gave me little concern, since ours was a happy home with no serious illnesses.
It was when the shadow of death fell upon our household that I began to think. A young sister was sent away to seek health in a distant state. This seemed to me attempting to undo God's work, if He sent the sickness. After seven years' futile search we brought her home to die. I saw then that if God had sent this sickness to make her better, then He had failed, for she was only embittered; and a God who failed was unthinkable to me.
A Christian Scientist in the town where we were living heard of her condition and came to tell her that God did not send sickness, for "God is love." The truth of this statement was sufficient to rob death of its sting for her. But for me, I could not believe the old way and had nothing to sustain me. Like Mary of old, I cried, "They have taken away my Lord." Verses of Scripture I read made me feel that if I could only know more of God I could find peace. While in this mental darkness and sense of despair a neighbor asked me to attend a Christian Science Wednesday evening testimony meeting. The Lord's Prayer repeated in unison took on a different meaning. A realization that "thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory" healed me of a skin trouble that I had had since childhood, and that had been pronounced incurable by the physicians. Only creams could be used on my face, as water was said to be poisonous to it. I saw that if God is omnipotent and Spirit, then water has no power. As a result, water has since had no ill effects.
