With a great desire to share the good which has come to me through Christian Science, I submit this testimony. It was nearly thirty years ago that a friend whose integrity and character I admired very much took me for the first time to a Christian Science testimony meeting. At that meeting I found the pearl of great price and learned that Mary Baker Eddy had revealed the truth to mankind.
A while later I sprained my ankle. My friend helped me to turn my thought to God, good, instead of to matter, and I was quickly healed. Since then, whenever I have proved faithful and obedient to the teachings of Christian Science, it has met my every need.
About ten years ago I found myself unemployed and asked for prayerful help from a Christian Science practitioner. He discerned in my thought a sense of discouragement and lack of faith. He helped me to understand the basic truth of these words in the Bible (Dan. 10:19): "O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong." Almost immediately my thought was wakened. I was introduced to the owners of a new firm, and I have been usefully and happily employed by them ever since.
During an extensive business trip in the Belgian Congo, I became very ill and weak and was unable to retain any food. I rejected the insistent temptation to have a physical diagnosis. The symptoms were most alarming, and the trouble did not abate. I then realized that I must follow Mrs. Eddy's instruction in Science and Health (p. 420): "If students do not readily heal themselves, they should early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aid them."
I got in touch with a Christian Science practitioner thousands of miles away, and he lovingly took up the work. The following passage was of great help (ibid., p. 376): "If the body is material, it cannot, for that very reason, suffer with a fever." The disease very quickly disappeared, leaving no aftereffects.
During the Second World War, I had numerous occasions to prove the protective power of ever-present Love. I joined the Belgian Free Forces in Great Britain, and after more than three years of patient waiting, we found ourselves on the shores of Normandy.
There, one night, I received a message to drive to headquarters. Headlights were not allowed, and I was driving very carefully along the few miles of narrow, dusty road. I kept thinking of Mind's unfailing direction and of what Mrs. Eddy writes on page 454 of Science and Health: "Love inspires, illumines, designates, and leads the way."
Suddenly I heard a voice, and a French peasant, one of the few in this war-torn spot, stepped out of the dark and warned me that there was an enemy mine a little way ahead on the road. I thanked him and went along my way carefully.
Thanks to this warning, I soon reached my destination safely. As we read in the Bible (Isa. 30:21), "Thine ears shall hear a word behind thee, saying, This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left."
The effects of the first series of inoculations in the Army were very painful, but two years later, when I had to have them again, I asked in advance for the help of a Christian Science Wartime Minister, as he was then called. He very kindly made the trip to the place where we were stationed.
I shall never forget the love and kindliness expressed by this consecrated worker. With comforting assurances of the presence of God, good, he helped me to realize that good alone is communicable. After studying the article entitled "Contagion" on pages 228 and 229 in "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mrs. Eddy, I was inoculated, but I was completely free from all aftereffects.
My gratitude to God is even more profound for the gradual transformation of my character in the measure that I have perceived His tender, immutable nature and man's perfection. Many new friendships have been formed, and I have a happy home with a wife who is a consecrated Christian Scientist.
My gratitude is great for The Christian Science Board of Directors and for all those connected with the editing and publishing of the periodicals. The Christian Science Monitor helps me to gain a better understanding of world events.
Many blessings have come through membership in The Mother Church and a branch church. Class instruction in Christian Science has revealed to me "the mounting footsteps of the upward way" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 202), which I sincerely wish to follow as a proof of my gratitude to God for our Master, Christ Jesus, and for our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy.
Brussels, Belgium
