My mother began to study Christian Science when I was a young child, and I remember many benefits early received. Not until I was in college, however, did I take up the study in earnest. At that time I was wearing glasses. I had worn them at intervals for several years and had been wearing them constantly for about a year. The difficulty, which had been diagnosed as astigmatism and strain, had become so aggravated that I could scarcely keep on with my college studies. I was in constant discomfort. Then it was that I realized the necessity of taking my stand on the side of Truth, for certainly the glasses had been a poor shift at best.
This question immediately came to my thought: What is my motive? Undeniably it was the desire for physical healing which was causing me to turn to Christian Science. In the light of the understanding I had already gained, I felt that this was not enough, and that I could go no farther until I had uplifted and purified my motive. This I proceeded to do, by pondering the significance of spiritual understanding. When I felt I could honestly say that I desired to know God, Spirit, above all—that even if the physical senses were to say I was totally blind, I should still desire spiritual understanding, the realization of spiritual reality, above all—then I knew my motive was right. The fact that I was believing in such an inharmonious condition simply indicated a lack of understanding, and it was my wrong thinking which could be and must be corrected.
Taking up our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, I read, seeking the spiritual understanding to correct all that I had been believing about eyes and sight. As I did this, it gradually became very clear to me that Mind alone sees;that sight is therefore not dependent on material eyes or material organism, for Mind is not in the brain, not in body, but is outside of material selfhood—is everywhere, infinite.
