Blessings of an abundant nature have been mine through the study and application of Christian Science. I attended a Christian Science Sunday School until I was seventeen years of age, at which time I went into the United States Navy. I found the spirit willing but the flesh weak, and gradually I strayed from my early teachings and found myself in a world of futile pleasures, passions, and misery.
At a time when I would have gladly traded in my life for anything other than what it appeared to be, I was led to turn my thoughts back to God. I didn't know where to start but prayed daily that I might be led to find a wife who would be good, true, and honest and who might help me to a better way of life than I had experienced for the past twelve years. In three months my prayers were answered. I met a girl at an evening adult education class at a city college. She was a Christian Scientist, and shortly after we were married she led me back to the study of Science through the following experience.
I had lost my job, seemingly through no fault of my own, and while applying for a new job, I was asked to submit to a physical examination. I did this without the slightest thought that it would present a problem. However, after the examination the doctor informed me that I had a severe hernia and that I would have to be operated on immediately if I wanted the job for which I had applied.
I was extremely upset at this news and did not want to submit to the operation, for even though I had strayed from the teachings of Christian Science, I had never taken to using materia medica. The situation seemed most alarming, though, for after the doctor's pronouncement, I experienced a great deal of pain. Our supply of money was small, and the need for the job seemed urgent.
I decided to call a practitioner, and treatment was started immediately. The pain ceased in a fairly short time, although the healing was not complete until about three months later. I recall that the practitioner told me that the hernia in my case was a belief of separation and that man can never be separated from God. That it was a belief of separation that had to be overcome was very clear to me, for no one seemed to have separated himself more from God than I had. I studied earnestly each day to realize my true unity with divine Mind and was soon led to find another job for which no physical examination was required. This job met our financial needs temporarily, and we were very grateful for it.
I spent as much time in a Christian Science Reading Room as I could, and about two months after I had first called the practitioner, I found myself one day reading "Unity of Good" by Mrs. Eddy. When I left the Reading Room, I realized that I had been instantaneously healed of drinking and of the smoking habit of twelve years' standing. I had been on the verge of becoming an alcoholic.
This healing helped me in untold ways, for, after that, I discovered that all the Christian Science literature I read was much clearer to my understanding, and I found myself using Science for my every need. A month later I had evidence of mental surgery and knew that the healing of the hernia was complete.
Later, I was divinely led to start in an entirely new field of employment, and even though it had a very modest beginning, it has unfolded as a very useful profession and has given me an outlet for creative work, which I had always wanted. My wife and I joined The Mother Church and a branch church shortly after my going into this new line of work.
We found that as we earnestly sought the kingdom of heaven before anything else, we were always blessed with a truer sense of supply. Our married life became more harmonious, and our church activities more important. Teaching in the Sunday School has been a tremendous blessing, for which I shall always be grateful. Class instruction means more as time progresses, and it has enabled me to do more and more of God's work.
Another healing for which I should like to express gratitude is that of a continual increase of bodily weight. When I was first married, I weighed about one hundred and forty pounds; and after the healing of smoking and drinking, I gradually increased in weight until I tipped the scales at one hundred and ninety-five pounds. I tried dieting, but only became more hungry and more irritable, and I didn't lose any weight. One morning when I was going out of the door to go to work, my wife said, "I am going to get out the Concordances today and do some work on that weight problem for myself, and I will include you in it."
I said, "Fine," and gave the matter no more thought.
That night when I came home, my wife said, "It came to me very clearly today while I was studying that you gained weight after you were healed of smoking and drinking and that overeating is just one false appetite replacing another." I was overjoyed with this unfoldment; and then I realized that I wasn't the least bit hungry, and I felt that I was healed. I sat down to dinner, and after having a very small portion of food, I excused myself, for I felt as if I had eaten a full four-course meal.
I lost thirty pounds in three weeks and twenty pounds the next four weeks. There were never any bad effects, nor have I regained any of the weight. I should also like to state that in addition to the physical healing of overeating, many other false appetites have fallen away.
I know that words are inadequate to express my humble thanks to God for His omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, for Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, and for Mrs. Eddy, who discovered and founded this wonderful truth, Christian Science, for the world. — Ontario, California.
