For many years I had been active in a Protestant church, but persistent ill-health made me yearn for a deeper understanding of God. I began to wonder if true Christianity really existed.
One Sunday I attended a Christian Science church. When I went to the testimony meeting there on Wednesday, I felt a great sense of peace and a closeness to God I had not before known. I knew I had found something of greater value to me than anything else. In the years since then the study and application of Christian Science have brought numerous blessings into my life.
At one time I had a cold which rapidly developed into pneumonia. One night there was evidence that I would pass on. At that point my husband, who was not a Christian Scientist, said, "I'm going to get a doctor whether you want one or not."
I replied: "No, you're not. If I pass on, I am going to pass on trusting God."
Then these words from a hymn came to my thought (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 86):
O blest is he to whom is given
The instinct that can tell
That God is on the field, although
He seems invisible.
I held firmly to that idea. Almost immediately my body began to regain its warmth, and my heartbeat became normal.
The next morning my family wanted me to have breakfast in bed, but I told them, "I have never before had breakfast in bed, and I am not going to start now." And I did not. Four days later I was out on errands, walking about three miles, although it was in the middle of February and very cold.
Some years later I broke a wrist. I turned to God in prayer for help. I prepared my husband's dinner, and when he came home and saw the wrist he said, "I will take you to a doctor before we eat."
But I replied: "I have a doctor. God is my physician."
Nothing more was said on the subject. I studied and prayed all that night, but the wrist was the same in the morning. My husband then asked a friend of ours, a student of Christian Science, to come over and stay with me. After we had studied the Bible Lesson, provided in the Quarterly, I fell asleep for about twenty minutes. I was awakened by the bones of my wrist moving into place. By the time my husband came home, the pain was gone, and I could move my thumb and my wrist. By the next day I was using that hand, and within a week it was completely healed.
While visiting relatives in Florida I developed hives. That night I took a mental inventory and became aware that I had been deifying one member of the family. I studied Mrs. Eddy's article in "Miscellaneous Writings" entitled "Deification of Personality," particularly this sentence (pp. 308, 309): "I earnestly advise all Christian Scientists to remove from their observation or study the personal sense of any one, and not to dwell in thought upon their own or others' corporeality, either as good or evil." I corrected my thought about that individual and began to glorify God, serving Him instead of material personality. The hives cleared up. The next day there was no irritation, and the evidence of the condition soon dried up.
Christian Science has changed my entire life. As one of our loved hymns says (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 64), "My heart is singing: I have found the way."— Oak Park, Illinois.
