Ten years ago a sister-in-law took me to a Wednesday evening testimony meeting. My material world was crumbling, and I was very nervous, frightened, and tired. I cannot remember a word read at that service; neither can I remember a testimony given. But the all-pervading peace that filled my consciousness on entering that branch church in New Jersey has never left me. As I listened to the reading I knew God was very close, and when I heard the testimonies I knew God was closer than I had ever thought He could be. My immediate desire was to know more of Christian Science, because I knew it was what I had been seeking for years. I left that meeting healed of three bad habits—smoking, the excessive use of aspirin, and the use of cathartics. The next d&y, I found my young daughter healed of constipation. Love loosed us, and set our feet in the path of understanding.
Despair turned into hope, and hope to joy, when I made my first demonstration of God's presence in healing a few days later. I drank a quantity of spoiled tomato juice. For a moment I was very frightened, because of a dread fear of ptomaine poisoning, and then a "still small voice" repeated to me some words from the first Sunday Lesson-Sermon I ever heard: "And if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." I recognized the mental nature of sickness, and declared aloud, "I am taking my stand with God, right now!" Instantly, I was calm and unafraid, and experienced no ill effects. This gave me courage and inspiration to study more, and to try to demonstrate even the little I understood.
Healings followed in rapid succession, sometimes through study of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and sometimes with the added help of a consecrated Christian Science practitioner. An operation that was to have taken place was found unnecessary. All pain disappeared, and I never really knew when. Hard calluses on my feet disappeared after I asked help of a practitioner, and I walked without pain for the first time in months. Accidents were prevented, and the effects of accidents speedily overcome for my daughter and myself. Influenza in its extreme stage was quickly healed with the help of a practitioner.
