Christian Science has been a guiding influence in our home since I was a child. I shall always be grateful that my mother was receptive to this truth when it was presented to her by my father's relatives.
Because we lived too far away to attend the nearest Church of Christ, Scientist, we acquired our first instruction in Science by reading the textbook, Science and Health, and the other writings of Mrs. Eddy and the Christian Science periodicals.
Members of our family have been healed of many discordant conditions by applying the rules of our religion. Broken bones, pneumonia, skin irritations, chills and fever, and a tumor are a few of the physical ills overcome. Lost articles have been recovered, supply has been proved equal to demand, and special protection has been experienced on trips by plane and car.
My first healing brought about through my own right thinking was that of a crooked neck. Before the closing of school one afternoon, my class noticed, as did I, that my head had turned to one side. There was no pain, but the neck was stiff. Many material remedies were offered, some in jest, since the condition seemed so ridiculous. I declined all, and that evening, alone in my room, I realized the omniaction of God and the harmony of man as the reflection of God. Before I retired the healing was complete.
Many years later I awoke one morning with the same symptoms, and this time the condition was painful. Throughout the day I denied the testimony of the material senses and affirmed the truths of spiritual man, but the error persisted. Finally in the evening, willing to search my consciousness, I found that I had been seeing a businessman as crooked in his dealings. When I saw man as the expression of Truth, and therefore of integrity, the healing was instantaneous.
After I had been teaching a few years I became dissatisfied and resigned to become a librarian. This change of profession did not change the unhappiness and restlessness in my thinking, and, for several years, I moved from one position to another. At the same time this increasingly disturbed thought was manifested in a diseased condition, which gradually took on the appearance of a tumor. Because I knew that I could rely entirely on Christian Science for healing, I was never tempted to consult a physician for diagnosis or for healing.
I was never incapacitated. At one time between jobs I remained unemployed for six months to devote more time to the study of Christian Science. When I sought another position, I chose a locality in which there was a branch church. As a city employee, I was required to take a physical examination. The examining physician named the condition a tumor and advised me to consult a gynecologist immediately, indicating that an operation would be necessary. The next day I went to work, filling out the necessary employment forms but declining to participate in a group insurance policy.
Two statements from the textbook helped me to uncover the error in my thought. The first is on page 242 and reads, "In patient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant of error,—self-will, self-justification, and self-love,—which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin and death."
The second statement, which is found on page 462, reads: "Anatomy, when conceived of spiritually, is mental self-knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to discover their quality, quantity, and origin. Are thoughts divine or human? That is the important question. This branch of study is indispensable to the excision of error. The anatomy of Christian Science teaches when and how to probe the self-inflicted wounds of selfishness, malice, envy, and hate."
The healing took several years but finally came when I gave special attention to the phrases "universal solvent of Love," "mental self-knowledge," and "self-inflicted wounds." As love for God, expressed in love for my co-workers, family, and others, dissolved criticism, ill will, and the like, so the tumor dissolved.
I am grateful for the five practitioners who helped me at different times in this trying experience and for all engaged in the prayerful work of healing.
Christian Science has shown me how to follow Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, and my gratitude for its Discoverer and Founder, Mrs. Eddy, is unbounded. Every day I thank God for the understanding that He is the Father of all, that I am able in ever-increasing degree to understand His true nature and that of man in His image and likeness, and that the Science of Christianity is being more universally accepted. — Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
