Christian Science has transformed my entire life. I gratefully acknowledge my freedom—physical, financial, and mental—from years of self-imposed bondage. This freedom dawned as I realized the impersonal nature of evil; that it has no cause, effect, or reality. The real man has never been less than a poised expression of perfection.
Five years ago, while living in Haiti, in the West Indies, I was taken ill with intestinal influenza, accompanied by a severe mental depression that alarmed those around me. Spasmodic efforts to apply what I knew of Christian Science brought no relief. Finally a member of the household decided that I should be taken around the coast to Port-au-Prince for medical care. Here an epidemic of typhoid fever was prevalent, and many fears were expressed by the friends caring for me. Desperate, I sent a cable to a member of my family in the United States, asking for treatment in Christian Science. An answer came immediately: "God is able to furnish you 'a table in the wilderness.'" I decided then and there to trust God completely, and to pray "in secret" continuously.
One morning I was studying the passage in Matthew where Jesus said to his followers, "Enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." I knew that the closet is the sanctuary of spiritual oneness of being. I suddenly realized that God was taking care of me, not as a sick child, but as a perfect idea. A profound sense of security and gratitude for the healing presence of divine Love filled my thought. The physical bondage was lifted, and the healing was complete in a few days. This was one of many experiences, while I was living abroad, which proved the challenging truth of the Biblical query, "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off?"
