Sometime ago I became deeply involved in a business problem which caused great dismay and threatened business failure. I realized the basic cause of this frustration was disobedience and lack of self-discipline, yet all mortal efforts to extricate myself seemed only to plunge me deeper into the mire of fearful thinking, which finally resulted in a nervous collapse. In desperation, I called upon a Christian Science practitioner for help.
She said, "Young man, you get back into 'Church' and stay there and take into 'Church' with you everyone that your thoughts dwell on." I knew that she was referring to Mary Baker Eddy's definition of "Church," which begins with these words: "The structure of Truth and Love" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 583), and her statement so startled me and aroused my thinking that I sincerely began trying in every instance to see not only myself as the true, unhampered, buoyant expression of Mind but each of my business contacts in the same light. Competition was recognized as a blessing because it required greater and more efficient service.
I gained a fuller realization that since Church as we understand it in Christian Science is a state of consciousness, all man's activity is in Mind. This understanding brought complete freedom from the bondage formerly imposed by self-mesmeric thoughts of inadequacy, inferiority, dread, and self-pity.
Mrs. Eddy says in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 354), "A little more grace, a motive made pure, a few truths tenderly told, a heart softened, a character subdued, a life consecrated, would restore the right action of the mental mechanism, and make manifest the movement of body and soul in accord with God." I can sincerely attest to the validity of this statement, for since my endeavor to stay in Church, a new home has been provided; funds for a college education for my children have become available; the business prospered and was later profitably sold in order that I might enter a more useful field of endeavor free from the former restrictions.
My family has experienced the glorious oneness and happiness of working together which we never knew before. Was it any wonder that several physical healings in addition to that of the nervous disorder should occur during this period of regenerated thinking?
I am learning that a permanent healing can be had only by our retaining the true consciousness of being and sharing it in our associations with others.
My gratitude to God for Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, for his devoted servant, Mrs. Eddy, who gave the world the practical and useful Science of Christianity, for the privilege of class instruction, and for activity in a branch church, is unbounded. — Indianapolis, Indiana.
