I am grateful to be able to affirm that Christian Science heals disease. For some weeks during the spring and summer of 1970, I was plagued by a surprising number and variety of ailments. Some were nervous disorders, some organic, and some digestive. One healing which took place at this time—the elimination of kidney stones through prayer—is commonly accomplished with surgery in medical practice. This disorder was most painful. Some of the ailments were debilitating, and others just nuisances. But the important point about all of them is that each was healed exclusively by Christian Science treatment.
One of the most bothersome problems was the refusal of the stomach to retain food. The effect was a substantial loss of weight and such weakness that I could not stand erect without support. Here clearly was a lack of control. The organs and muscles of the body seemed to claim an independent existence of their own, and the right to go into spasm as they saw fit. But reasoning from a spiritual basis that all cause and effect are mental, I saw that this simply meant that my thinking was out of control and needed discipline.
The discipline required that I have a better, more accurate concept of myself as spiritual, the image and likeness of God, instead of as a mortal, living in a mortal body with a rebellious stomach. This correct concept enabled me to accept the fact that "the divine Mind that made man maintains His own image and likeness" (Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, p. 151), and to understand what Jesus meant when he said (Matt. 6:25), "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink .... Is not the life more than meat?"
