When I was a boy, we moved next door to a Christian Science family. After her husband had gone to work, the wife would go out into the backyard to study the Christian Science Quarterly Lesson-Sermon from the Bible and Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. She invited my sister and me over to listen, told us that God watched over us, and taught us "the scientific statement of being," given on page 468 of Science and Health. She told us that if we would turn to God and repeat this statement He would take care of us. So I started using the truths of this statement, such as, "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all," when I cut a finger, skinned a knee, or needed help in school.
The year after I was out of high school, I was on a train which hit a truck loaded with cans filled with gasoline. The gasoline ignited, and the fire enveloped the train. When I heard the crash and saw the fire, I started saying "the scientific statement of being," and the next I knew I was in the road, and several women were putting out the fire on my clothing. I again turned to the statement not only for myself but for them also. I was rushed to a hospital, where I asked that my family be notified that I was badly burned and needed a Christian Science practitioner at once.
When my family arrived at the hospital, they were informed that I could not live over forty-eight hours because I had been burned so severely that if the burns did not kill me shock would. They were advised that it would be best if I did pass on, for if I lived I would be blind for life. The hospital reported that my eyes were burned so deeply that they could do nothing for me; that my face was burned so completely that I would never have a face again; and that if I did live, it would be a year before they could graft skin or do any plastic surgery. But they said that even with all they could do I could never appear in public again and would be a burden to the family.
