I wish to express my gratitude for all that is mine of joy and health, and for the change of thought and character that has come about for me since I took up the study of Christian Science about fourteen years ago. At that time a friend placed the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, in my hand, asking if I knew anything of it. To this I replied, "It heals." The remembrance of the little I had read from time to time as a child, from literature placed in a Christian Science Reading Room window, was all I had for a basis of my conviction. I now began to take up the study of the textbook, however, and Science has become my great joy, a safeguard and a definite staff to lean upon.
A few days after I began to study, I was given an opportunity to prove my own statement that Christian Science heals. I fell, injuring the small finger of one hand. Knowing little of the textbook, I was only able to repeat a small portion of "the scientific statement of being" (p. 468). I tried to realize the meaning of the words, and to my joy it was as though a hand lifted the finger back into place. The light of that healing was very encouraging. It was the first glimpse I had of the light I was seeking to lead me out from the delicate health I experienced in childhood. The statements that there is no substance in matter and that God is All-in-all stood out until I began to understand more of what they really mean.
During the first five years of my study I had many healings, mostly with the aid of a practitioner. I am grateful to her for her faithful adherence to the textbook in answering my many questions. Sometimes the demonstrations of the power of Truth have been instantaneous, as in one instance when I injured a leg through falling down a flight of stairs about five years ago. I was healed by the realization that we must not accept error's suggestions, and that man cannot experience pain or injury, since these suggestions are unknown to God. This experience brought wonderful light, giving me a clearer understanding of what Christian Science really is when it is obediently practiced. Nothing needful is ever withheld when we are obedient to God.
