During three years in the Army I had ample opportunity to prove the efficacy of Christian Science and to have demonstrated to me the completeness of this truth as revealed by Mary Baker Eddy. I was drafted into the Army several months after completing the thesis for my Master's degree at an eastern university. Thoughout college I had studied Christian Science and realized that it is the vital truth. It required less than a month in the Army with its alien rigors to make me realize how false and speculative were the doctrines of even the more acceptable philosophers.
The first twenty-seven days spent in the Army at a Reception Center in northern New York State in January seemed exceptionally hard to me. Often the thermometer went as low as thirteen degrees below zero. Most of the men quickly developed a cough from the soft coal smoke which permeated the entire area. I was free from sickness for a good deal of the time, but finally my increasing resentment at the conduct of those around me placed me at the mercy of the cough. I was so severely stricken that I coughed for hours unceasingly, and my voice was reduced to a mere rasping grunt. I had had aspirations to be a singer, and this malady struck me in a sensitive spot.
I applied myself to reading the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. I accepted no medical aid, nor did I report my condition, but continued to shovel coal, scrub barracks, and do an eighteen-hour stretch of K. P. About the twenty-fifth day I read with understanding the following Scriptural passage quoted in one of the pamphlets distributed by The Christian Science Publishing Society, which had been sent me by my parents: "Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven" (Luke 10:20). I realized then that I did not have to be disturbed by what I saw around me, that my true entity was intact, and that I had my own work to do. Several days later I was on a train going to a camp in Oklahoma, a state in which I had lived some years previously, and to which I enjoyed the prospect of returning, even in Army garb. There I found sunshine, orderliness, and a Christian Science Wartime Minister. I was very grateful for the Christian Science services, which were held in a chapel only one block from the barracks to which I was assigned. A Reading Room was provided in this same chapel, where I was able to study and receive much inspiration and benefit.
The symptoms of indisposition from the previous camp had all yielded, except the condition of my voice, which was still rasping. One afternoon several weeks after my arrival I told the Wartime Minister that if I had a better concept of God I would be healed; that I knew I needed God. He said, "Yes, but do you know that God needs you, too?" I had forgotten that. The next Thursday evening at our testimony meeting I was leading the singing and continued to do so as long as I remained at that camp.
My next move was to a large west coast city, where there was a Christian Science Service Center. The year and a half I spent in that area was a golden period. There were many instances when depression assailed me, but through the study of Mrs. Eddy's works and with the help of my friends there were many periods of great joy. With the help of a practitioner hostility between myself and a fellow soldier of superior rank was healed. I also was transferred into congenial company to do work more fitted to my background and abilities. During this time also I had the great privilege of visiting in the home of one of Mrs. Eddy's students. That more than paid for the inconveniences of Army living.
The next eight months were spent in a large southwestern state, where again the truths of Christian Science were a constant staff and guide. Throughout my Army experience I was consistently able to find time to read the Lesson-Sermon from the Christian Science Quarterly daily. To one who knows the Army's demands on one's time that fact is remarkable. But by putting first things first I was always able to accomplish that joyful and nutritive task.
Now, as throughout my Army career, I am increasingly grateful for the Christian Science Wartime Ministers, for all the activities of The Mother Church and branch churches, and for the ever-present help which Christian Science was to me, whereby fatigue, lack, a sense of insubordination, physical and moral danger, spiritual inertia, and depression were overcome. My experience was such as truly to convince me that the answer is ever affirmative to the Scriptural question (Ps. 78: 19), "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" I am truly grateful to Mrs. Eddy for her discovery of Christian Science and for her establishment of a church which is of such benefit to us. I am grateful for membership in The Mother Church and for class instruction.— Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
It is with much joy and thankfulness that I give this testimony. About nine years ago a friend lent me a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, but I got very little from it at that time. Four years later I asked another friend of mine to help me to understand Christian Science. She explained that God is always the same, and that Mrs. Eddy had discovered the healing power which Jesus had taught and demonstrated, and which had been lost for about sixteen hundred years.
The next morning I took my Bible and asked God to show me if it was true. It seemed as if an unseen hand opened my Bible to where Jesus commanded (Mark 16: 15, 17, 18): "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. . . . And these signs shall follow them that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." Then I read (James 2:20), "Faith without works is dead," and (John 14:12), "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." I read the Bible all that week. At this time I was treasurer of an orthodox church. I became conscious of the fact that I was a member of a church which did not teach the whole truth; that that church was, like the church in Jesus' time, turning a deaf ear to spiritual healing. It dawned on me that I too was still crucifying the Christ. I found my way to a Reading Room and again borrowed a copy of Science and Health.
Since my husband's mother was much in need of healing, I decided to go to the Christian Science church on the following Sunday. On Saturday night I became very much troubled, for all my friends went to the church of which I was a member, and I knew that if I went but once to the Christian Science church I would change. I could hardly go to sleep because of wondering what to do. But when I awoke in the morning, I heard a voice saying (Matt. 7: 7), "Seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." I jumped out of bed without another doubt and said to my husband, "We are going to the Christian Science church." He was willing and we went, taking his mother with us. She was so crippled with arthritis that we were several minutes getting her up the steps into the church. Once in that quiet sanctuary, I felt as though I had stepped into heaven. Tears filled my eyes. That evening we talked over some of the things I had been reading, and then my husband, our daughter, and I stepped over to a neighbor's house for a few minutes. On our return my mother-in-law got up and walked, entirely free from the arthritis and neuritis. She had been doctoring for over a year, and the doctor had said he knew nothing further to do for her; she was losing weight so fast he did not believe she would live more than six months longer.
I earnestly started the daily study of the Lesson-Sermon from the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health. I also read all the other books by our Leader. Since that time neither our daughter nor I have used medicine in any form. I have not spent one day in bed because of illness. We have had many healings, some instantly and through our own understanding, others with the help of a practitioner. Influenza, colds, infected eyes, mumps, measles, athletic foot, ivy poisoning, headaches, appendicitis, scarlet fever, and streptococcic infection have been healed. The fever in the last case was broken in less than one hour after the practitioner was called.
At one time our daughter was swinging from the limb of a willow tree. I thought I heard a limb snap, followed by a thud, but not hearing any cry I did not stop to look out. In a few moments I heard our little girl calling to me. I ran out, and the first sight of her was most terrifying. She was saying, "My back, oh, my back!" I helped her a few feet to the porch and while doing so declared to her, "There is no sensation in matter." I told her that man is not in the material body; that in truth she was the image and likeness of God, perfect and eternal, as we are taught in Science and Health. Soon I got her into the house and onto the davenport. I called a practitioner, who declared the truth and gave me passages to read to her from the Bible and the textbook. Then came the thought of internal injury, because she complained of her stomach. But this too was quickly quieted. In about ten minutes she was out of doors playing again, and the next day she was back playing in the tree, with no fear of falling. When I went out to see where the limb was broken, I thanked God again for His wonderful protection and for helping me to see that "perfect love casteth out fear" (I John 4:18), for the limb had broken about twenty feet up.
I am most grateful for this wonderful truth taught and demonstrated by Christ Jesus and given to us in such an understandable way by Mrs. Eddy; also for membership in The Mother Church and for the opportunity of serving in a branch church.— Indianapolis, Indiana.
I am happy and thankful to give my testimony regarding the instantaneous healing I received while searching the Christian Science textbook for the truth of God's healing power. I had been a sufferer for many months from that painful and disfiguring ailment, arthritis; my knees were stiff and bent, and I could not walk alone. I was under the care of an osteopath, but in spite of all his treatments, I found no relief.
In my possession at this time was a copy of Science and Health, which I knew contained the truth about God; so, dismissing the doctor, I set about wholeheartedly to search for that healing truth, and on the Sunday afternoon mentioned by my daughter-in-law, while I was sitting at home alone with God, I found it.
While I was in prayerful meditation all pain left. I looked down at my feet, wiggled my toes, shuffled my feet about, raised one foot an inch or two from the floor, then the other a little higher, until soon I could raise them both fifteen or twenty inches from the floor. After a little rest and thanksgiving to God, I got up from the rocker and stood with knees almost straight. I ventured a step forward, then another and another, until, very slowly and awkwardly, I reached the door, turned, and walked back to my rocker. This I did many times, and when my family returned they found a thankful mother able to walk.
This demonstration of God's love and healing was a wonderful experience and led me to Christian Science.— Indianapolis, Indiana.
