For all the inspiration I have received from testimonies that I have heard given in branch Churches of Christ, Scientist, and in The Mother Church, I am most grateful.
A few years ago a testimony was given in the branch church of which I am a member that made a great impression on me. It related to the healing of dishonesty. A child who had been taking small articles, sometimes small amounts of money, was freed from dishonesty when the members of the family from which the articles were taken endeavored to see him as he really is, the perfect child of God's creating, entirely free from any false quality.
Shortly after I had heard this testimony my automobile was taken from the place where it was parked. My first thought when hearing of the theft was that I did not need to worry about the loss, for I could take the insurance and buy a new car. Then I saw that dealing with the situation in that manner was not in accord with what we are taught in Christian Science. I was giving reality to dishonesty, a quality which does not emanate from God and so could not be true. Turning to our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, I found this statement (p. 304): "The perfect man—governed by God, his perfect Principle—is sinless and eternal." I saw that in reality there is no man but the man of God's creating, who is perfect and therefore sinless; and because of this fact I could not be made to believe that anyone was dishonest. In about three or four hours the police called and said they had found the car, safe and unharmed.
