Mere words seem inadequate to express my gratitude for Christian Science and for the loving and courageous practitioners. Science was introduced to me when a loved one was suffering from a serious condition of heart trouble. I was discouraged and most fearful. A friend who was not a Christian Scientist, but who had studied Science for spiritual understanding to help him in teaching Bible lessons in an orthodox church, suggested that I try it; and a practitioner was called. My fears were so great that I related them to the practitioner. She said, "Why, dear, this loved one does not belong to you; he is God's child." At the request of the loved one treatment was given. For the complete healing that followed, my gratitude is unbounded.
I should like to express my gratitude for The Christian Science Monitor and for a healing of grief and self-pity that it brought me. Several years after I began the study of Christian Science, my husband passed on. Up to that time I had had a great deal of help from the practitioner referred to above. Many false traits of character had been healed, but grief and loneliness appeared to be something for me to work out myself, or with a minimum of help from a practitioner. While I never did go down into the depths of grief, I was faced by many negative suggestions, such as, "You are alone; no one really cares; you don't know how to make a living." For about four months I was never free from at least one of these arguments. When the burden was particularly heavy, I would call close friends, who would take me out or just come to my home and visit, making no mention of my problem. But when they would leave, I would be no better than I had been before they came. I subscribed to the Christian Science periodicals, but not being a newspaper reader, I had not enjoyed any of the Monitor except the religious articles.
One day, after a struggle with the erroneous suggestions and with a dread of the coming night, I thought I would call some of my friends. Then the thought came: That isn't what you need. Why not stay at home and read the unread Monitors? This I did, and I read many articles. By late evening I felt free and realized that I had been enjoying good companionship, for I had been companioning with ideas found on the woman's page, in the comics, the editorials, and the news columns, as well as in the religious article on The Home Forum page. This was indeed a wonderful healing, because the erroneous suggestions lost their power to disturb me. Afterward I enjoyed my friends more than ever, since I was in a better position to give as well as to receive helpful ideas.
