It was thirty-nine years ago that I received my first healing in Christian Science. While suffering from what the doctors called appendicitis, I was told that I would have to be operated upon. At that time we had a friend boarding in our home who was a Christian Scientist, and she asked my wife if I would not try Science. When my wife asked me, I said that I was willing to try anything. When the friend was informed of my decision, she talked with a practitioner. This was around four thirty o'clock in the afternoon, and at nine o'clock that evening I felt much better and slept well all night. The next morning I returned to my work, and that day I went to see the practitioner myself. I have never had the slightest symptoms of appendicitis since that time. Before this experience I was inclined to criticize Christian Science. Since that time I have had many healings.
There was one healing which came through my own knowledge of God's loving care. I was splitting wood in my yard with a heavy sledge hammer when I felt a pain in my side so severe that it threw me to the ground. I lay there a little while repeating "the scientific statement of being," as given on page 468 of our textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and then I pulled myself up onto a block of wood and sat for a while. Then I went to my lunch, after which I went back to work. There was some discomfort in the afternoon, but the next morning I was free of it all.
Some years later I was superintendent of a large dairy farm, and I had many proofs through my own understanding that "God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms and preserves the individuality and identity of animals as well as of men" (ibid.., p. 550).
