One evening I suddenly became ill with a kidney condition which was so painful that it was necessary for me to telephone a Christian Science practitioner for help. I knew that I was dealing primarily with a false mental state, a condition of thought, a state of aggressive mental suggestion, not of matter.
I tried to realize that matter is nonintelligent, incapable of either receiving or imparting sensation; that all that man, God's reflection, can feel is the harmony of spiritual activity, the impartations of divine Mind, the comfort of Love; that in reflecting Mind, as he does, man can be conscious only of that which Mind conceives. Spiritual sense told me that man is a spiritual idea, always perfect and free, and I knew that this was but another opportunity to prove the omnipotence of God in my human experience.
Although I was going through very deep waters, I did not doubt that God is the great Physician, and I was able to reject the suggestion that I would need to resort to surgery before healing could take place. This statement of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, on page 167 of Science and Health came to me: "Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized."
