Christian Science has brought much light and joy into my experience. These lines from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy best express it (p. 548): "How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds cover the sun's face! So Christian Science can be seen only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away. Earth has little light or joy for mortals before Life is spiritually learned."
When I was a child, my mother was healed of a bone infection and deterioration after unsuccessful surgery. I always remember being told that it was Christian Science that healed my mother through prayer. It was considered a miracle. However, we all went back to the Protestant church we had always attended.
In my twenties I had two operations for a sinus infection. Finally, the doctor frankly told me he could do no more for me and recommended diet and sunbathing. I asked a Christian Science practitioner to help me. She said she would give me treatment only on condition that I read and study the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly each day. This was the first I knew of reading these lessons for myself, and I was led to the systematic study of Christian Science. I began to see that it was practical and logical, and when the healing of the sinus condition came, it seemed natural and not a miracle.
After my second marriage my husband joined a Christian Science Society with me. Our three sons were reared in accordance with the teachings of Christian Science. One of our sons was heard telling a friend, "We know Christian Science is right because we can prove it." Their needs were always met through the study and application of this teaching.
My husband and I had an interesting experience in connection with a business he had established, owned, and operated. When he was appointed to fill a term of high county office, he leased his own business, which was prosperous and a service to many. The business was allowed to run down and deteriorate because the man who leased it was acquiring other business interests. After three years we took it over again. I gave up my work in the office of an elementary school and tried to manage the business, as we decided it was worth every effort it would take to restore it. Much of the work was unfamiliar to me. It took much courage, long hours of office work, and study in Christian Science. My husband helped me after hours.
There was a period when I seemed to make errors and had to do work over, wasting time and materials. Knowing that I derived my intelligence from God, I increasingly found myself expressing the needed accuracy and precision. The error was noticeably corrected. This quotation from Science and Health inspired and helped me (p. 206): "Omnipotent and infinite Mind made all and includes all. This Mind does not make mistakes and subsequently correct them." After two years the business prospered again and was sold for a fair price. It is still in operation.
At one time while I was away from home, a very painful condition developed with one of my teeth. I telephoned a Christian Science practitioner and returned home. The practitioner's work for me was very effective. As my fear lessened, so did the pain and swelling. Since the tooth had become loose, I went to the dentist. He X-rayed it and told me the bone beneath the tooth was infected and had deteriorated. He gave me an appointment for a later date.
The practitioner continued to help me to gain a clearer concept of substance. I looked up and studied references from the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings relating to substance. This gave me a clearer understanding that matter was nothing more than a shadow, changing as mortal mind thinking changes; and that real substance is spiritual, indestructible, and its formations are perfect.
Several weeks later I kept my appointment with the dentist, confident the healing work was done. After taking another X-ray picture and examining the tooth carefully, he remarked that if he hadn't seen it he wouldn't have believed it. The tooth was firmly in place. New bone structure was building up around the tooth. This took place over two years ago, and this condition has given me no more trouble.
I also had a quick healing last winter of pain in my back and chest. The title of the Lesson-Sermon that week was "Ancient and Modern Necromancy, alias Mesmerism and Hypnotism, Denounced." It was interesting and exciting to me to find in this lesson exactly what I needed to reassure me that this condition was nothing more than a hypnotic suggestion of mortal mind, no matter how real it appeared to be. By the time I finished my study my thoughts were soaring gratefully. Not a trace of the pain remained. I was free.
Christian Science does more than heal sickness and sin. It lifts thought out of depressing materialism into spiritual and mental loveliness.
I feel deeply grateful to God for giving us Christian Science, for the example of Christ Jesus and his teachings, demonstrating to us that Life is Spirit, eternal and infinite, and for Mrs. Eddy for the textbook and her other writings. I am also grateful for class instruction from a dedicated teacher.
Goliad, Texas
