It has been my great privilege to have been a member of a Christian Science family all my life. The spiritual truths known for me in childhood and the habit taught me then to discipline my own thoughts, speech, and action to honor only God, include only good, have kept my human experience almost completely free from illness. For this good health, which has continued into adulthood, I give daily gratitude to God.
Faithful attendance at a Christian Science Sunday School gave me an understanding of God as divine Mind, ever present and ever reflected by man, which truth made all my schooling, including high school and college, a grand experience. Instead of nervousness and anxiety before examinations, I did all I could to realize the presence of divine intelligence, available not only to myself, but to everyone taking the examination.
There was one examination for which I asked for help from a Christian Science practitioner. This was the comprehensive examination in my major subject at college, the final requirement for graduation. The examination was a written one in two parts, on two consecutive afternoons. I studied all day and far into the night for several days beforehand, going over my notes of courses taken in the previous two years or so, and when the time came I answered the first afternoon's questions in what I felt was a satisfactory manner. But then an overwhelming sense of defeat and exhaustion came over me, as though the material I had to look over before the next day were mountainous, and I felt that even showing up for the next day's session was useless.
Not being able to overcome by my own efforts this sense of defeat, I called a practitioner before leaving the house the next morning. She assured me God would not deprive me of my reward for years of honest academic study, that all true wisdom is in Mind, available to all, and she promised to work for me in Christian Science. By the time I arrived for the examination, although I still felt unprepared humanly, I resolved to rely completely on God. I read each question and then answered each one in turn, meeting every argument of fear and fatigue with Jesus' words (Matt. 16: 23), "Get thee behind me, Satan," and listening persistently only to God.
As the words came to my thought, I wrote them down, writing busily every minute for the three hours of the examination. The next day the head of the department made a special visit to one of my classes to tell me I had made the highest grade on the examination, mainly on the work I had done the second day. On Class Day I received a cash award given each year to the student who makes the highest grade in this examination.
In my own family Christian Science is invaluable in meeting everyday needs as well as special problems. One time when impetigo was manifested in the home, the help of a practitioner was asked for. The next day the condition was still very evident. While I was talking with the practitioner, he quoted Mary Baker Eddy's words in "Unity of Good" (p. 60). Referring to mortal and material sense, she says, "This false sense of substance must yield to His eternal presence, and so dissolve."
During the rest of the day I reasoned with this statement. I could see that the condition was not one of matter, but a false belief concerning what is real entertained in thought. This false belief could not defy God, ever present and including no element of disease. Naturally, inevitably, the erroneous belief and its bodily manifestation must disappear, having no true foundation. I rejoiced in spite of the material picture, rejoiced that it was never true. The next day I could report to the practitioner that, as a result of his work and the unfolding that had come to me, there was a definite improvement. This was followed in only a day or two by a complete healing.
My sincere gratitude goes out to God for His wonderful truth, for Christ Jesus, our Way-shower, and for Mrs. Eddy and her magnificent lifework, the discovery of Christian Science and the founding of the Christian Science movement.— Downey, California.
Our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, states in the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 519), "Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas." I am grateful to verify my daughter's account of her receptivity to guidance by divine Mind during the examination she mentions. All through her school years her excellent grades proved her willing acceptance of God as infinite Mind.
For the privilege of being reared in Christian Science and for the blessing of attending Christian Science Sunday School and associating with Scientists in home and church I too am grateful. The very first words that I learned to read as a little child were, "God is Love" (ibid., p. 2). Good health and a continuing sense of well-being have been my experience in the study and application of this Science.— Port Charlotte, Florida.
