When Christian Science was first presented to me and a copy of the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, was sent to me, I had no inclination to study it. Not until some years later did I decide to read the book through. Then I realized almost immediately that here was something for which I had been searching for many years. Two or three days after commencing to study, I received the first of three instantaneous healings, all of which took place within twelve months.
One day I sprained my ankle very badly; this condition had been a recurrent trouble over a number of years and usually took some time to overcome. At first I clung to some nearby railings in great pain. Then I said to myself, "Well, I suppose that if Christian Science is true, I ought to be able to do something about this."
Immediately this thought came: "You cannot take pain into the presence of God." The healing was instantaneous. All pain and lameness left me, and I remember walking down the street rejoicing and saying to myself, "Why, this thing really works!"
The second experience occurred a few months later. I was staying in a hotel with friends who were not interested in Christian Science, but who were aware that I was a student. One afternoon we were due to take part in a cricket match, but in the middle of the morning I was stung by a wasp on the vein in my ankle. I immediately denied the reality of the pain and declared man's immunity from suffering, but I must not have seen that one idea of God cannot injure another, for by lunch time my foot and ankle were very swollen and painful. Moreover, the condition appeared to be spreading over my entire body, and I felt ill.
Nevertheless, I was able to drive my friends the two or three miles to the match and to take part in all the activities. Whenever I was not needed I went away by myself and lay on the ground, repeating the Lord's Prayer and also "the scientific statement of being" from page 468 of the textbook. The condition did not yield, however, and by late afternoon I felt at the end of my endurance. I longed to get back to the hotel, where I could go to my room and be alone. At this moment, my friends came and told me that we had been invited to go somewhere else for refreshments. As I was driving the party, I could not very well refuse, but I felt almost desperate. Then I saw that since God had sustained me through the afternoon, He surely would continue to do so. I got up from the ground and was instantaneously healed of the illness. By the next day a very slight swelling and irritation in the ankle remained, but these, too, quickly disappeared.
The third occasion came a month or two later. I went to spend a week end with friends who lived some distance from my home, and this visit necessitated an overnight journey each way. While there I became ill, and by the third day of my visit I was suffering severely. My friends knew that I was a Christian Scientist, and I was full of self-condemnation and a false sense of responsibility for my failure to prove my freedom. However, I persuaded my friends to let me travel home that night, and I got on the train by myself. I read Science and Health and worked prayerfully all night without any apparent result, and on arrival at my destination the next morning I still felt ill and discouraged. Suddenly the thought came to me that I should be able to leave this discord behind me as if it were a piece of unwanted luggage. I stepped from the train completely free, and that was the end of the experience.
I should like to express my gratitude for all the blessings which I have received from Christian Science, for the life and work of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, and for the periodicals, which so often meet our needs in times of stress.— London, England.
