Most newcomers to Christian Science who begin their study with an open and receptive thought are impressed with the healing and redemptive nature of its teaching. Step by step the beauty, richness, and value of its revelations are unfolded, and the Holy Scriptures, upon which Christian Science is based, cease to be a closed book. Often, however, the question arises, How much must I know of this blessed truth to be able to experience and demonstrate its healing power? The answer to this query came to the writer very early, even before she had read any Christian Science literature or held in her hands the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.
A few days after attending her first Christian Science Sunday service, she was suffering extreme pain caused by a bad tooth. When the suffering seemed to be at its severest and nothing material could be done about it, she suddenly recalled that, according to the comforting message received at this first church service, she need not suffer, for God, divine Love, fills all space. Gently, like a tender healing balm, came to thought these words: "Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious." That was all she remembered. The quotation was found later to be from the scientific interpretation of the Lord's Prayer on page 16 of the above-mentioned textbook. Preceding this interpretation Mrs. Eddy says, "Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spiritual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick." The healing power of even one line of this prayer was proved in this instance, since all at once, like the shutting off of a fountain, the pain stopped. There was no mistaking that the sudden cessation of pain was the direct result of her realization, in some degree, of the truth of these inspired words.
An earnest and enthusiastic study of Christian Science followed, and in a short time more troublesome conditions, such as rheumatism, migraine headaches, and a heart ailment, each of long standing, disappeared. These healings came about effortlessly and without any specific mental work being done. They were, as we understand in Christian Science, the result of the gradual replacement of erroneous thoughts with the truth of being. What seemed even more wonderful than the physical healings was that a heretofore almost constant feeling of unhappiness and burden lifted, and in its place came a sense of joy and gratefulness never before experienced.
