Over twenty years ago I experienced an instantaneous healing of injuries received in an automobile accident. For seven years before this healing I had lived without hope that the future held any happiness for me. An orthopedic specialist had taken X rays and told my parents that vertebrae were broken in my back. In order to walk, I wore both a steel brace to support my back and a lift on my left shoe. Treatment by specialists and two operations brought no relief from my suffering, and I had to spend much of my time in bed.
In my extremity-, I telephoned for a member of my family to come and« visit me. When she arrived, she said, "I have brought you the most precious gift I could find, and I know it will heal you." It was a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. As I read the chapter on Prayer that night, I felt that God was very close to me, and I fell asleep. It was the first good natural sleep I had had for a long time, and my gratitude knew no bounds. The next morning I asked to be taken to a Christian Science practitioner.
She greeted me lovingly, asked no questions, and prayed silently for quite a while. Then she talked to me about my true self as a child of God, protected, loved, and governed at all times by the power of His goodness. She told me simple but profound truths about God's laws, the only true laws. I had never heard these things before, and my thought was so receptive that I became conscious only of good, God. I felt strength surge through me and knew that I was healed.
I walked home alone, feeling as though I were walking on air. I emptied all the medicine in the house into a basket and threw it into the trash. I knew I would never need any material remedies or appliances again, and this has proved to be true. At the same time I was healed of the desire for cigarettes. The next year I joined a Church of Christ, Scientist, and this experience brought further blessings and progress. I had many proofs that God would never fail my trust in Him.
As time passed, although I felt entirely well, there were unhappy thoughts of past experiences. In reading the Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly, instituted by our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, I experienced a rebirth of thought. I realized that there is no past history of inharmony and that my spiritual identity as God's reflection is all there is and all there ever has been of me. Moreover, I learned not to condemn myself or others, since to do so would be to condemn God's work. I found increasing faith and assurance in working out things alone with God, and the unhappy memories gave way to Truth.
This experience proved a help to me when years later I went through a period of great difficulty. Chronic bronchitis persisted in spite of my prayerful work. I had much fear to overcome because I had had bronchial pneumonia as a child. Every night during severe coughing spells I held to the lovely hymn entitled "The Mother's Evening Prayer" written by Mrs. Eddy (Poems, p. 4) . This hymn and the ninety-first Psalm helped me very much. Finally I declared aloud that God is All. The fear yielded, and I was healed. This was about twelve years ago, and the trouble has never returned.
In more recent years I have seen a beautiful adjustment of discordant human relationships through the healing truth that God's law, the law of Love, creates and maintains perpetual harmony. Grief has been overcome, and there have been healings of constipation and the effects of a fall from a horse.
I am deeply grateful for class instruction. It has helped me to cast off suggestions of disease, heredity, and inharmony as beliefs of life in matter. It is wonderful to know that the healing power of God's love, peace, and joy can be experienced by every one of us. Everything good and worthwhile that has come into my life has come from God, who has become understandable to me as the result of my study and application of the inspired works of Mrs. Eddy.— Rockville, Maryland.
