When the statement, "God is Love and God is everywhere," was made to me by a student of Christian Science, I did not know that it would later bring me healing from nervous collapse. After months of spending most of my time crying, I was taken home from the office and ordered by the company doctor to rest for at least six months. Financial conditions in our home did not permit such a period of idleness. I had been attending Christian Science services, but they seemed to mean nothing to me. As I lay on the bed, crying as usual, wondering how I could possibly carry on, I heard a young niece say of me: "She is always telling us that God is Love and that He is everywhere. I wish she would believe it herself." I stopped crying to think this over and obtained the first sense of peace and calm that I had had in many months. I slept soundly all night and arose the next morning completely healed and ready to face the day happily. That was in 1918, and I have not been away from the office for an hour since because of illness.
Several years after the First World War, I was riding on a test flight in a single-motored German machine gun plane which had been reconditioned. The only place for me to ride was in the hole from which the machine gun had been taken. I could not be fastened in. Suddenly the engine began to sputter, and it seemed as if each explosion would be the last. To my joy I was not at all alarmed or frightened, for my thinking was filled with these words of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, as found in the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 306): "Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,—is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and eternal." So conscious was I of God's presence and protecting care that I was able to smile calmly at the pilot when he looked back at me. Then the engine stopped completely; but shortly it resumed normal action, and we finished our trip without further trouble. Many times since, I have experienced that same sense of safety when danger threatened.
I have had countless physical healings, among them healings of injuries received in an automobile accident, including a cut face, which healed without a scar, and a broken wrist, which was usable in less than a week; of burns on face and arms from hot grease, also healed without scars; and of injury to sight from a fall on a slippery floor, when eyeglasses were broken. Fears of storms, of dogs, of being out alone at night, and of many other things have been entirely healed as understanding of God as the only cause and creator has been gained. For all of these healings I am very grateful, but more precious by far is the sense of peace, joy, and well-being I am gaining from the daily study of the Bible and our Leader's writings.
