About forty years ago Christian Science healed me of a malignant abdominal growth. The condition was diagnosed by a medical surgeon specialist, a graduate of the Mayo Clinic. After a lengthy consultation I was given a written statement informing me that without an immediate surgical operation they could not expect me to live more than six weeks, and that even with the operation they could not hope to cure the fast growing malignancy.
At that time I had been interested in Christian Science a few years and had already experienced healings of some minor troubles. Although I was shocked at the verdict they had just handed me, I did not consent to an operation. Instead, I showed the written statement of the diagnosis to a Christian Science practitioner, without revealing it to anyone else. I told her that I was almost resigned to the hopelessness of the case, and—having little hope of clinging to this mortal phase of existence any longer—I only wanted to get hold of all the truth I could, to search for a fuller comprehension of God, just to become prepared to pass on.
Here I would like to share a few of the quotations from the Bible and from the writings of Mary Baker Eddy that led me to take new hope. There are some I remember vividly, which the practitioner, in her unswerving and absolute reliance on God and the power of prayer to heal, patiently pointed out for my encouragement and for correction of my attitude. I remember she first declared, "Life is without beginning and without end" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy, p. 468). Also, she wisely directed me to a profound statement in our textbook that reads, "It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the physical condition" (ibid., p. 297).
