Not gently, but forcibly, at times, the stubborn human will can be turned toward God's will in divine Science.
For about four years I had suffered convulsive bouts with asthma, which came with greater frequency and severity. I desperately clung to life despite warnings to my family from the doctors that I could not outlast the seizures. My husband suddenly passed on, and fear and false responsibility possessed me with the thought that if I were to lose my hold on life our child would be left totally uncared for.
I struggled through two weeks of mounting helplessness, or so I then thought. I was alone, and, when in extremity I turned to God, the phone was two rooms away from my sickbed. With what seemed exhausting effort, I finally reached the phone and faced the dilemma. A doctor, an ambulance, a hospital—again? There seemed no time to spare. I thought of Christian Science with the question, "What is it?" I didn't know, but I dialed the number of a Christian Science practitioner and met instant response. The practitioner understood my gasped call for help.
She simply said, "You will not die. If you have a copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, get it now."
It was on a bookshelf across the room. I answered, "I can't!" Then, trying to express the greater fear which was in my thought, namely who would care for my child, I began again. "My daughter. . . ." And again she comprehended.
"Your daughter is not your concern. She is God's child. God is her Father; He will protect His little one. I will work for you while you read the first chapter of Science and Health. In three days come to my office."
I answered, "I can't!" But I did go to her office in three days. That marked the end of chronic asthma.
That day and night the textbook, Science and Health, opened its pages to my hungering thought. I read. Then I ate and slept, and the next morning returned to work. There wasn't even any convalescence. And the great load of a mother's false responsibility rolled from my shoulders because I had found the fatherhood and motherhood of God for myself and for the child. It enabled me to "rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good," as Mrs. Eddy states in the textbook on page 393. She continues, "God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man."
That was twenty-nine years ago. Life filled, health-filled years opened to me through the Love-filled thought of a consecrated practitioner, alert at her post to heed the call of men. I do not even remember her name. But gratitude wells, a never-ebbing tide, to her, to the Christian Science church that welcomed me to membership in it after due study, to the Cause of Christian Science, which I soon espoused, to the beloved teacher who later guided and uplifted my formerly resistant thought.
Through greater understanding of all that Mrs. Eddy revealed for humanity I availed myself of capabilities I had not known I possessed. Results have been a better environment, lucrative employment, harmonious relationships, class teaching, a happy new marriage with an experienced Christian Scientist, and opportunities to work for the Cause of Christian Science in responsible branch church offices, including that of First Reader. Thus my days are filled with thanksgiving for all the good that comes for me to share with my neighbor.
Tryon, North Carolina
I should like to supplement my wife's testimony with some expressions of my own deep gratitude for Christian Science.
My interest in Christian Science did not come through healing but rather through the firm conviction of its clear logic, a conviction which has glowed with increasing brightness through many years.
My thought fills with gratitude for our Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, and more intimately at this time for the teaching of one of her loyal students. This has been such a wonderful foundation upon which to base one's work, particularly in church activities, and it is to me of inestimable value.
