With a desire to help anyone who may be struggling with the problem of deciding whether to rely on medical treatment or on Christian Science, I should like to relate what one of my Army experiences taught me in this connection. While I was at a basic training camp, I began to suffer from a distressing physical condition.
I battled with it for some time. Finally I asked for treatment from my teacher in Christian Science. Although I had much help, there were times when the going was very difficult, particularly when I was taking strenuous hikes, running the obstacle course, and so on. I would find myself coming in from some particularly strenuous training and having to resist the suggestion that medical care offered a great deal of comfort and relief. I found those suggestions constantly presented and insidiously creeping in.
Although I was beautifully sustained, I did not really get my release until this statement from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy began to unfold in my consciousness (p. 442): "Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake." As I worked with this passage I began to see that God's law is always in operation. There is never a pause before it goes into operation. That aspect of law attracted my attention, and I saw I must be obedient to Mrs. Eddy's counsel to be a law to myself. I saw that being such a law to myself meant directly identifying myself with God's law. This would make it impossible for me to listen even momentarily to the seductive arguments of medical attention. Gradually I got to the point where I could resist instantly the argument that material remedies were something benevolent and attractive. When this suggestion started to whisper, immediately that law of my true being, with which I identified myself, was recognized as operative. Through the help thus received I was able finally to rise above the disease. I realized a freedom that I do not remember ever having known before.
