In the experience of many a student of Christian Science there is one healing or demonstration that stands out above all others as being particularly wonderful and responsible for much spiritual growth. In later times of difficulty the student may turn for renewed energy and inspiration to this glorious proof of God's care. I should like to share such an experience.
More than ten years ago, while serving in the Army, I became subject to severe attacks of pain in the spinal region. These attacks became more and more frequent and restricting until one morning I was not able to get out of bed. In fact, I could scarcely move in bed. I was rushed to a doctor for observation and then taken immediately to the station hospital.
After a few days the condition was diagnosed as tuberculosis of the spine. I was placed in a cast reaching from my chest to my knees and was told that I would be in the cast for several months, after which it would be necessary to undergo an operation. After the operation, the disease returned in the same area but in a different form, and a large abscess appeared on the spine.
Again the verdict was given that I should be placed in a cast for several months. Eight months had passed, and the future looked as dismal as ever. By this time I had been transferred to a veterans hospital and discharged from the Army.
Now I could take my stand for Christian Science alone. I called the physician to my bedside and told him I wanted to be released from the hospital to work out the problem through Science. He was very understanding, and my release was granted, although it was marked "against medical advice." Christian Science treatment was given, and within five days after I left the hospital, the abscess opened and began to drain. After several more days it disappeared. Before I was completely healed, however, the thought of oneness, one power and one Mind, had to fill my consciousness to the exclusion of all else. The practitioner helped me to see that I was subject to only one power, not two powers—mortal mind, or matter, part of the time and God, Principle, the rest of the time.
Mrs. Eddy states this fact succinctly in Science and Health, where we read (p. 481): "Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss." I saw that the "infinity, freedom, harmony, and boundless bliss" which are God's being are in reality mine too, by reflection.
I also had to realize that there is just one Mind, God. I had been erroneously thinking that I possessed a mind of my own, separate from God, which could think sickly, discordant, impure, inharmonious thoughts. I gradually awakened to the truth that there is only one infinite Mind, and therefore I could think only the thoughts God gave me to think, thoughts of health, wholeness, purity, absolute perfection.
As my consciousness filled with these glorious facts about man's true being, the healing was accomplished. This occurred less than three months after I left the hospital, and the difficulty has not recurred. This experience has helped me to see the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement (ibid., p. 231), "If God heals not the sick, they are not healed, for no lesser power equals the infinite All-power; but God, Truth, Life, Love, does heal the sick through the prayer of the righteous."— Casper, Wyoming.
