I am very grateful for God's great goodness "to the children of men" in sending Christ Jesus and later Mary Baker Eddy to help and guide us in the upward way out of matter into the realities of being.
In 1911, when my mother's family of five children were small, she was reading a popular book of the time and was aroused by the thought that, as a mother with a large family, she wished she could be as interested in the Bible as she was in the novel. A short time afterwards, when visiting a brother, she found some copies of the Christian Science Sentinel and asked if she might take them home. He said that the children had found them in an apartment of his which had recently been vacated. When Mother read these Sentinels, she knew that Christian Science was what she wanted, and she asked my father to buy her a copy of the oft-mentioned textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. Although they both were of the Mormon faith, my mother at once accepted the teachings of Christian Science, and we children were placed in the Christian Science Sunday School.
We had many healings in our home. It helped me through school and later helped me to hold several positions, each better than the previous one. I am especially grateful for the Reading Rooms, where I spent a portion of my lunch hour each day. Sometimes I went there to work out a specific problem and at other times more because it seemed the right thing to do. I am grateful for the guidance received there because it kept me on the straight and narrow path. I joined a branch church soon after reaching the age of eighteen years and greatly appreciate the early experience of church membership and also class instruction.
Christian Science has met my every need. The only time it has been necessary for me to be confined to bed was at the birth of our two children. Both births were harmonious and almost painless through the help of Christian Science. Our children are now of high school age, and God has met their every need. They went through the so-called children's diseases with little inconvenience. They have been healed of whooping cough, mumps, measles, chicken pox, burns, cuts, and the results of bad falls.
Some time ago one of the children suffered from constipation, and neither my own work nor the help of a practitioner seemed to bring about a permanent healing. Many times the aggressive suggestion to use a material remedy presented itself, for their father was not a student of Christian Science. The child became very thin, and one of our neighbors said he did not think the child had grown an inch in the years he had lived near by. No one knew of this condition except the practitioner, and I am grateful that during this time the child was always happy and singing. When the suggestion of using a material remedy presented itself, I would again ask for help and would continue to take my stand for Truth, and, as Mrs. Eddy tells us on page 380 of Science and Health, "Truth is always the victor." The child was healed, and this proved to me that God does know our every need, and that we are never "tempted above that [we] are able" (I Cor. 10:13).
At one time I seemed to be plunged into mental darkness. Although we had a nice home and many things to be grateful for, there was complete lack of joy, happiness, or freedom from an oppressive sense of fear and dullness. I am humbly grateful for the faithful work of the practitioner, who lovingly met my many calls for help either day or night. Through my own understanding, gained from many years of reading the Bible together with our textbook, I knew that the only way out was up, and although at times it seemed almost impossible, I continued my activities as before. The completeness of the demonstration has established me in the joy, peace, and freedom which always follow a victory in Truth.— Omaha, Nebraska.
