It is a joy to testify to the healing efficacy of Christian Science. Since I began the study of this truly scientific religion in 1953 I have been healed of chronic tooth troubles, colds, digestive disorders, and of an inclination toward mad ambition, false appetites, and mental despair.
Because of a serious foot condition, which required massage and especially high arch supports, I was discharged from active service in the Swiss Army and put into the reserve corps. My progressive understanding of the spiritual truths revealed in Christian Science gradually corrected the defect, and after I had come to the United States I was able to assume with complete freedom the duties of a mountain trip camp counselor in the White Mountains of New England during two consecutive summers. Because I relied on the one infinite divine Mind for guidance while on the trails of these beautiful mountains all the trips were completed without a single mishap, although the campers were in no way used to hiking or mountain climbing.
In Isaiah we read (42:16): "I will lead them in paths that they have not known: I will make darkness light before them, and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." This promise made by God has been fulfilled again and again in my experience. It was wintertime when I first began to read a biography in German of our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, in a low, heatless room in a Swiss mountaineers' hut. What a glorious and uplifting experience it was to look out of the window and behold the glistening white peaks always capped with snow and at the same time to glimpse some of the eternal, spiritual truths of the Science of real being!
God had always been very good to me as I had endeavored to do my part in being willing and obedient. As a country boy brought up on a farm I had had the privilege of becoming a university graduate through the foresight and generosity of my parents. Now, a substitute teacher in a mountain hamlet, I was waiting for a visa to enter the United States to take in even more of "the wide horizon's grander view" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 218) But the consular physician delayed passing me as physically fit because of the results of the X-ray pictures of my chest. This meant that I was unable to assume my teaching position in the United States at the beginning of the autumn term.
However, I had sent for a German translation of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and I read it eagerly and continually, although without grasping the whole meaning of what I read. After another X-ray picture was taken I was declared eligible for a visa. It was issued within ten days, and I began teaching a few days afterwards in Boston, Massachusetts.
Although not a member of a Church of Christ, Scientist, at that time, I began to attend The Mother Church regularly. At first I could follow the reading from the Bible easily only because I knew its content well. The English of Science and Health was more difficult for me to understand. But through the help of practitioners the light of Christ began to disperse the clouds of sense and uncertainty, and divine Principle's law of right adjustment and progress asserted itself more and more on my behalf. I was able to do postgraduate work and to find interesting positions that were promotive of spiritual growth. Since taking up the study of Christian Science, I have not missed a day's work because of sickness.
My gratitude goes out to our loving Father-Mother God for His Christ, for Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, for our revered Leader, and for the whole Christian Science movement. For membership in The Mother Church and in a branch church, for class instruction, and for the privilege of having served in a branch church as an usher, a Sunday School teacher, and a trustee, as well as for the unbounded joy of serving as First Reader, I am deeply and humbly grateful. This promise is truly fulfilled (Science and Health, Pref., p. vii): "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings."— Buffalo, New York.
