My reasons for expressing gratitude for Christian Science are more than can be numbered.
For the healing of sorrow and self-pity after the passing on of a loved one and for the physical healing that delivered me from the belief that I must pass on, I am especially grateful, because they led to my continued study of Christian Science, which enables me daily to work out my own salvation and to help others.
I should like to mention one healing. My family, who are not students of Christian Science, were notified that my younger brother had given his life for his country at Iwo Jima during the recent war. I was some five hundred miles from home, and at first, feeling that I was sustained through the study and application of the truths in Christian Science, I did not plan to go home. However, the following day I was led to make preparation to go, knowing it was the loving thing to do. I called a Christian Science practitioner and asked for treatment, that I might help heal the sorrow in my home.
The practitioner said that death was a belief of separation and that I must not separate man from God. On the train I opened the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, at random and read the thought-provoking lines (p. 358), "Can a leaden bullet deprive a man of Life,—that is, of God, who is man's Life?" This was a challenge, for I realized that I had not been healed myself and that I must be if I wished to help others. The rest of the trip was spent in prayerful study, while I relied entirely on the truths from the Bible and Science and Health to heal me. I asked God for strength to obey the command (Matt. 5:16), "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."
On reaching home, I found much I could do to make things easier for the family. Later in the afternoon I found occasion for further needed study, and I received my healing when I refused to admit that there was a mind anywhere to believe in death or error of any kind. I knew God to be the only Mind, and I realized the truth of Mrs. Eddy's words on page 306 of Science and Health: "But man cannot be separated for an instant from God, if man reflects God. Thus Science proves man's existence to be intact." That night I saw that each member of the family had forgotten self and was trying to help the others. The following day I heard one of them remark that he did not intend to grieve.
For this healing and for opportunity to help others I am truly grateful, for I know that this truth is for all.
I am grateful for membership in The Mother Church, for class instruction, for the opportunity to teach in a Christian Science Sunday School, and for the ever-available truth that flows daily into my home through the Christian Science literature. For the practitioner who helped me to get started in the study of Christian Science and for the one who so unwaveringly stood by me until I was no longer afraid that I must pass on, I am especially grateful.— Houston, Texas.
