Christian Science found me, or reasserted itself in my experience, on the sands of the Fiji Islands about seven years ago. My grandmother had been a devout student of this Science, and as a child I had attended the Christian Science Sunday School. Through reliance on Truth, I had enjoyed freedom from the diseases usually associated with childhood. However, circumstances were such that after I was twelve years of age and for the ensuing twenty-five years, I gave no thought to Christian Science as a religion, as a healing agent, or as the way of life. During this period, I had but a fragment of a backlog to sustain me spiritually in the responsibilities and problems that came to me. As time went on, an overburdened sense of confusion and worry took root in consciousness and finally resulted in a severe emotional breakdown.
As I daily walked on the beach of the Fiji Islands, where I had come to give some theatrical performances, I found myself praying to be led back to God, and I earnestly endeavored to piece together the words of "the scientific statement of being" from page 468 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. At first I could scarcely recall a line, but gradually I found myself able to say all of it aloud, and this refound truth brought with it temporary release from exhaustion and darkness and enabled me to go forward with the performances.
When we flew to Honolulu, however, my condition grew worse, and our performances had to be canceled. I was sent to a medical clinic and was finally flown home to California. Physicians there examined me and treated me, but without success. I was in a state of extreme fear and depression, unable to sleep at all, and in extreme pain.
Suddenly one day one of the physicians inquired of my husband as to whether I had ever had any Christian Science in my life. My husband replied in the affirmative and was told that such patients have little faith in medicines and as a result receive little benefit from them. The physician said: "Dismiss all thought of further medical help and get a Christian Science practitioner. She will find her help there."
The unselfed advice of this physician marked the turning point in my life, for though I still experienced deep waters and was oftentimes discouraged, I found Christian Science again and began to lay the groundwork for my liberation. There were days when all I could hold on to were the lines from the Bible (I John 1:5), "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all." At other times these words from our textbook, Science and Health, comforted and sustained me (p. 473): "God is everywhere, and nothing apart from Him is present or has power."
Through the consecrated and constant help of a faithful worker in the vineyard of the Father, I was gradually lifted out of the mists of material sense into the radiance and freedom of spiritual light. Along with this release, human problems, which had seemed well-nigh insoluble, such as extreme lack, an overburdened sense of responsibility, loss of relatives, and legal problems of a most serious nature, faded into nothingness.
Everything fell into line, and my human experience, together with that of our two young sons, became transformed into harmonious daily living. My friends beheld this wondrous adjustment of every discordant condition and shared in my overwhelming gratitude. To me, the most fruitful outgrowth of the entire experience was God's provision for me and mine in leading us to the consecrated practitioner whose reflection of divine Love opened up for us a new life, with peace and richness such as we had never before known.
I am sincerely and humbly thankful for membership in The Mother Church and in a branch church and for the unforgettable experience of class instruction. I am ever conscious of the fact that Mrs. Eddy has given to the world a workable, provable religion that reaches out and encompasses all who are ready for something bigger than the mortal, human concept. My prayer is to strive to follow the Christ in my thinking and behavior.— Carmel, California.
