Whenever I hear read from the desk of a Christian Science church the account of Jesus' healing of the ten lepers, I am reminded of an experience of mine which occurred in 1930, while I was vacationing in the West. One night I attended a concert in a large outdoor bowl. The singer appeared and walked to the front of the platform, and as he began to sing I found that suddenly, without a moment's warning, I had become totally blind. I recalled the thousands of people around me, not one of whom I knew. Not only was I alone at the concert but I did not have an acquaintance within forty miles. It was at this point that I spanned the ten years I had been away from Christian Science and the Sunday school. How I worked I do not recall, but some of the truths I had learned, returned to me in my hour of great need. At no time was there a moment's fear, for having turned to God wholeheartedly I felt His protection. I know that I worked throughout the concert, while trying to enjoy the music. Not for a second did I doubt God's ability to care for me. With the conclusion of the program my sight returned, and there has never been the slightest recurrence of that condition. Like the nine lepers I took my healing and went my way. It was nine years before I expressed my gratitude to God for this healing or attended a Christian Science church.
During the intervening years I was steeped in materia medica, for I lived in a funeral home and was associated with the business. I hated this profession, and was almost constantly under a doctor's care. Physically I seemed to be a nervous wreck and at the end of human endurance. Then our firm, with two others, was involved in a business lawsuit. Surely the words, "Man's extremity is God's opportunity," were proved true by me. Again I turned to God for deliverance, and His help was forthcoming.
A friend, who had become a Christian Science practitioner, had told me a year before, when I needed physical healing badly, that whenever I was ready he would be glad to talk with me. But I had never once thought of turning to Christian Science for healing. Now, however, I was ready for this help, not thinking of myself, but of the business. While talking with the practitioner, I realized the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 86), "The atmosphere of mortal mind constitutes our mortal environment." I was being freed from the enslaving thoughts which I had accepted as inevitable. I saw my freedom as a child of God as a present possibility, and I began to claim it, although there were many thoughts to be healed before the suit was rightly settled.
