In "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany," Mary Baker Eddy lovingly tells us (pp. 149, 150): "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee. Therefore despair not nor murmur, for that which seeketh to save, to heal, and to deliver, will guide thee, if thou seekest this guidance." I know this to be true, for in darkest times I have been sustained and uplifted when I have actively sought God's guidance. In this way I learned that man's real reason for being is not just to gain personal happiness but to glorify God.
When my mother passed on, I was instantaneously healed of grief. Later, when I was faced with the passing of the one closest to me in my entire human experience, my freedom from grief proved to be permanent. Not only was I enabled to realize that nothing had happened to man and to see the absolute unreality and impossibility of death, but I was also able to see that it is not the body, or physical presence, of a person which we love. It is the qualities expressed, qualities which are of God and are therefore always with us.
When I first sought Christian Science treatment, I had been under a doctor's care for about a year because of what was diagnosed as cysts on an internal organ; but instead of improving, I grew steadily worse. The doctor did not wish to operate, but finally said that apparently it would be necessary, since nothing else had helped me. This alarmed me, and I was considerably worried over the prospect.
