One summer I spent my vacation hiking along the beaches of Oregon. Shortly after I started, some sand got in my boot and caused a sore on the heel. At first I did not pay much attention to it, but as it continued to bother me I began to read Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy each night and to declare "the scientific statement of being" (p. 468) as I went along. However, the sore grew steadily worse until it became discolored, and it required considerable effort each morning for me to get limbered up for walking.
One morning I was looking around among the rocks during a very low tide. My companion had gone on, since he was not interested in the marine growth. As I was looking at all the different creatures, the sea anemones, and other sea growths, all in the clear water around the base of the rocks, it came to me how they were all cared for by that infinite Mind whose presence I had been declaring for the past several days. The realization of this infinite, encompassing power and presence came to me so clearly that I just stood in awe. It seemed that He was all around and about me, and that the same divine intelligence was taking care of me. Immediately all fear and stiffness were gone, and in a few days the ugly sore also disappeared.
I read in a Christian Science Sentinel long afterwards, "First the declaration, then the realization." That was just what occurred in this instance. As the Bible says, "The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, to all that call upon him in truth."
