It was my privilege to attend a Christian Science Sunday School, and I had my first proof of God's power to heal in my early teens. I was playing baseball on the school playground when I hurt myself and fell and found I was unable to stand upright.
A Christian Science practitioner whom I knew lived directly across the street from the playground, and with some difficulty because of severe pain, I managed to get to her home. She answered my ring of her doorbell and had me come in to take a seat in her living room. She gave me treatment, and in a few minutes the pain was gone. I thanked her and returned to the playground to play ball.
Several years later I was being examined by a United States Army doctor. He asked me when I had been treated for a hernia. I told him I did not recall having such treatment. He said that I apparently had had one and that the resulting healing was perfect in every respect. I then recalled the playground experience and realized I had been healed of a hernia.
Upon my return to civilian life, I drifted away from the study of Christian Science for twenty years or more. In my fifties I found myself seriously ill with a stomach disorder. I was addicted to tobacco and alcohol; I had many ungodly traits of character; and I was also in financial difficulties.
I had always felt that in time of need I could turn back to Christian Science for healing; so this I did. With the help of a practitioner, I was healed of the stomach illness in a few weeks' time. The healing of the desire for tobacco and alcohol took a year or so more. My financial difficulties were resolved.
At last I reached the point in spiritual growth which enabled me to become a member of The Mother Church and of a branch church, and much more spiritual growth ensued from this action. I also received class instruction, from which I have experienced much spiritual progress.
More recently my automobile was involved in a head-on collision with another one. Although the effects were severe, I did not lose consciousness. I was sustained in the difficult moments that followed by trying to know the truth as we are taught to do in Christian Science. I kept affirming that in God's kingdom accidents are unknown.
When an ambulance arrived, they put the passengers in the other car into the ambulance and then came to me and told me they would take me to a hospital also.
I was feeling quite miserable at the moment; and the thought of a warm bed and someone to look out for me was quite attractive, but I refused their offer. I told them that I was a Christian Scientist and would not need medical aid.
They said that I should go with them for the purpose of establishing the nature of my injuries to support any claim for compensation from the insurance companies at a later date. I told them that I could not be deprived of anything that was rightfully mine.
Shortly thereafter the highway patrol officer arrived, and he took me to a motel. The pain in my knees was very acute, but the truth I had been declaring sustained me, so that I was able to get from the patrol car into the motel office.
From the motel I telephoned to my home some three hundred miles away and asked my wife to request a practitioner to give me treatment and to ask my son to drive up the next day to get me. He arrived during the night, and the next day he took me home. In five days I was able to walk well enough to go to my place of business and resume part of my duties as an insurance broker.
About ten days after my return home, the adjuster for the other person involved in the accident contacted me. He asked me if I would be willing to be examined by one of his company's doctors. I agreed to this.
Several days later the adjuster telephoned me and in amazement said that he did not see how I was able to walk. The X rays showed that I had broken both kneecaps and suffered facial and abdominal injuries as well. He said, though, that the bones had been properly set and that healing was progressing satisfactorily.
An acceptable financial settlement was made, and within thirty days I had fully recovered.
I feel it is impossible for me ever to repay our dear Leader, Mrs. Eddy, for her unselfed devotion and tireless efforts in revealing Christian Science, founding The Mother Church, and also establishing The Christian Science Publishing Society, from which there is a steady flow of spiritual truths bringing healing to humanity.
The Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy has become more than a book of rules to me. I want it to be a way of life, leading me to follow in the footsteps of our Way-shower, Christ Jesus. Following in this way, each one of us will eventually experience the spiritualization to which Mrs. Eddy refers in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" when she writes (p. 218), "The spiritual body, the incorporeal idea, came with the ascension." — Oakland, California.
