"God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." So wrote Paul in II Corinthians (9:8), and the truth of his words has been proved to me many times in my own experience.
My childhood was one of continuous invalidism—bondage to illness, limitation of activities, and submission to fears expressed by those around me. For a long time I searched for an answer to this problem and felt certain it might be found through prayer. After reading about various denominations, I began to attend different churches, seeking the God-given liberty to which I felt I was entitled. My first visit to a Christian Science practitioner so firmly convinced me that I had found the truth that never since that time have I been tempted to turn from it. Nor has the truth once failed to meet my every need when correctly and wholeheartedly applied.
An experience which took place about two years ago taught me the value of keeping one's thoughts in line with divine Principle. With a sense of burdened anticipation of the work to be accomplished that day, I undertook my tasks without joy and gratitude. Instead of rejoicing and praising God for His countless blessings, my thoughts were those of self-pity, self-justification, and the like. While dressing hurriedly to be on time for an appointment, I struck my foot against the bed and broke a toe. The instant this occurred, I knew that had I been concentrating upon the greatness of God and the glories of His creation instead of upon the unlovely thoughts which had consumed my consciousness, there would have been no such discordant experience. All that day I was occupied with replacing burden with joy, self-pity with gratitude, self-justification with compassion, and resentment with hymns of praise. I was able to walk before the day was ended and was able to fulfill all necessary work from that day on. The healing was rapid and permanent.
There have been several other healings of broken bones in our family, all of which have been accomplished solely through the application of Christian Science. Our small daughter fell while at play one time and broke her arm near the elbow. She was uncomfortable most of the night but came to me the next morning and said, "Mother, just because my arm hurts, there is no reason for me to miss school, is there?" She missed only a half hour of school. She played freely with the other children, and her activities were unhampered in every way. This healing too was quick and has been permanent. It was accomplished in part by a firm refusal to yield to a longing to give human sympathy, by a constant endeavor to encourage the child, and by witnessing only to the perfection of a child of God.
While riding in her grandfather's car on a heavily traveled street, this same child, when about three years old, leaned against the door and fell out. The grandfather tearfully and fearfully hurried to bring her home. The child appeared to be seriously injured. In trying to calm the grandparent's fears and to hold steadfastly to the truth of being, I found strength and inspiration in Mrs. Eddy's statement in Science and Health (p. 424): "Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, and we must leave the mortal basis of belief and unite with the one Mind, in order to change the notion of chance to the proper sense of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony. Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection."
After about two hours of reading aloud to the child, singing hymns from the Christian Science Hymnal, and earnestly praying by her side, I rejoiced to witness the little girl arise from her bed with the assurance that she felt perfectly well and wished to play. She was entirely free.
Our son has found that protection from inharmony is better than working out of it, and he has been remarkably free from illness and accidents. For the many opportunities which my husband and I have had in our home to work together in proving the allness of God and the nothingness of material conditions, I am humbly grateful. Every trial proves to be a blessing, if one makes it so.
For membership in The Mother Church, for the joy of serving in a branch church, and for class instruction, I am deeply grateful. I thank God for His great gift to the world, Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, and for the remarkable courage and wisdom of our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, in founding Christian Science. My gratitude can be fully expressed only in living it.— South Bend, Indiana.
