I would like to express my gratitude for the healing many years ago of severe arthritis, which came through reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I had been suffering from this problem for ten years, had been in and out of hospitals, where doctors had given me no hope of ever being able to walk without sticks again. They stated I would become more of an invalid.
At that time I was very depressed. Then, one day as I was about to lean on a wall for support, I found myself looking in a window of a Christian Science Reading Room and reading these words in Science and Health (p. 495): "When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling steadfastly to God and His idea." The operative word to me was "illusion." I kept reading this over and over again, because I didn't understand it. Arthritis seemed no illusion to me.
I wanted to understand what I had read, so I went into the Reading Room and asked the librarian if I could read that book. I started at the beginning, and I returned again and again to the Reading Room to read until I bought my own copy. I read Science and Health through and studied different passages, including those in the weekly Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly. I wanted to understand these statements because I was manifesting much the opposite to what was stated in this book. One such statement was (ibid., p. 118): "Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It must destroy the entire mass of error, and so be eternally glorified in man's spiritual freedom." The book and its logic so interested me that it didn't occur to me to ask for help from a Christian Science practitioner. Each day I felt great benefit from what I read.
