Looking back over the past fifteen years, during which time Christian Science has been my friend and companion, comforting, guiding, and strengthening my upward journey from sense to Soul, I think it is fitting to express my gratitude for the many blessings received. Because I have so many things to be thankful for, it would be hard to count them all—Mrs. Eddy's writings, the periodicals, the loving help of practitioners when the way was dark, and the uplifting effect of the hymns in our Christian Science Hymnal when I was lonely or discouraged.
At the time I turned to Christian Science for help, I was in a pitiful condition mentally and physically. Years of wrong thinking, disillusionment, and unhappiness had brought me into a state of mental collapse. A few years previously Christian Science had been brought to my notice, and I had bought the textbook, "Science and Health with Key the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, but did not fully appreciate its contents. I was not ready to accept it.
Now, in despair, I took up the textbook and opened its pages at random. My eyes fell on these words from the chapter "Footsteps of Truth" (p. 201): "We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our tatters close about us." How those words impressed themselves upon my consciousness! That is what I had been trying to do —to pour the truth into a vessel already full of error. Despairingly I wrote to a Christian Science practitioner for help. It was a case of "save, or I perish!" Within a few days a reassuring reply was received, and although I had not slept for nearly two weeks, that night I slept like a baby. My reason had been saved by the prayer of a righteous woman.
And so for me a new era began. The light of Truth shone forth into my darkened consciousness. My footsteps were planted in the right direction. I had found the way. I have witnessed and experienced beautiful healings, some instantaneous, others slow. At one stage I suffered a severe cold in the head for weeks. All my efforts to help myself failed, and I was obliged to seek help from a practitioner. Then the trouble cleared up in a few days, and I was free. On another occasion severe bowel trouble necessitated help from a Christian Science practitioner again. Lurking thoughts of hatred and resentment were uncovered, and much work had to be done. The practitioner reminded me of the helpful prayer in the Bible (Ps. 19:14), "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer," and it proved to be a great help. The acute condition disappeared overnight.
I recall a beautiful healing of my young son shortly after he started school. Itching sores began to break out on his body and were spreading rapidly. I was then new in Science; so I wrote to a practitioner for help. Within two days the sores began to dry up and ceased to spread. Before the prompt reply from the practitioner came, the child was well on the way to recovery. There was no question in the practitioner's letter, "How is the child?" She simply spoke of the child's oneness with his heavenly Father and said that all inharmonious conditions are a dream, from which we have to awaken. Although the children have had many healings since then, that one stands out in my memory.
On one occasion when I was laboring under a sense of persecution, I appealed to a practitioner for help. She told me to know that there is nothing in man that responds to, corresponds with, or invites error. As I realized the truth of these words, the sense of persecution ceased.
Mrs. Eddy was a marvelous woman; she knew her mission and courageously worked to benefit mankind in establishing the wonderful movement of Christian Science. I am deeply grateful to her and also to the brave practitioners who are doing such fine work.— Tweed River, New South Wales, Australia.
