In the opening lines of the Preface to "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, writes (p. vii), "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings." These are indeed opening lines. They open to many of us our first glimpse of God and herald the dawn of an endless day of beatitude. At each advancing stage in our progress they unfold new views and wider horizons.
Mrs. Eddy also states in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 131), "God is our Father and our Mother, our Minister and the great Physician: He is man's only real relative on earth and in heaven." The sustaining infinite came to me first as God's motherhood and then as His fatherhood. My mother passed on when I was a very small child. This left a blank in my life until I came into Christian Science and found God as Mother; then the empty place was filled.
Next came a struggle with my father's opposition to Mrs. Eddy's teachings, an opposition based on old theological beliefs. Two sisters and I had become students of Science, and one of the sisters was healed of heart trouble after being completely incapacitated. This healing came gradually, but after the first week of treatment she was healed of chronic inaction of the bowels of sixteen years' standing. This proof of God's healing power encouraged her to hope for relief from the heart condition. The healing was accomplished; and she afterward enjoyed years of vigorous living, playing tennis and swimming freely.
