During the many years I have known of Christian Science, I have never ceased to be grateful for having found it. In this Science, through my study of it, the word religion has taken on for me a truly spiritual meaning and also a practical one. At that earlier period I had suffered from constipation for six years and was taking medicine for it. Although in the beginning I had not thought of a physical healing by reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, I forgot to take the medicine and realized I had been healed simply by reading the first chapter of the book, entitled "Prayer."
During my first years of study of Christian Science, the heavy chronic colds I suffered from every winter disappeared, thanks to prayer specifically applied to the problem. On a certain Wednesday when I had lost my voice, I remembered Mrs. Eddy's recommendation in the Manual of The Mother Church under the caption "Prayer in Church." It reads as follows: "The prayers in Christian Science churches shall be offered for the congregations collectively and exclusively" (Art. VIII, Sect. 5). Upon arriving at church that evening to attend the testimony meeting, I resolved not to think of myself for an instant but to realize constantly that the words read from the desk were blessing the whole congregation. We all know how strong the tendency is to think of oneself and to make everything personal, but I made the needed effort, and the following morning my voice was completely normal.
Another healing I remember with much gratitude, thanks to a practitioner's help, was that of being very rapidly freed from a painful abscess in the ear.
