Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health (p. 569), "Every mortal at some period, here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the mortal belief in a power opposed to God." I had often seen this proved in my own experience and in that of others. But then, a few years ago, I was faced with a seemingly insurmountable problem, when a severe disease in my legs came upon me, which was extremely painful and handicapped me greatly. With this testimony I would like to express my gratitude for my complete healing of that condition through Christian Science.
I do not know of a complete healing of a similar case through medical or any other material help. One can therefore understand how grateful I am for this healing, which bears witness to the great truth which God revealed to Mrs. Eddy in Christian Science.
It was not a quick healing, but to all those who are perhaps desperate when they do not receive help right away, I would like to point out the blessings I received from it. I have had many quick healings in Christian Science, but this lengthy working out was no less valuable to me. Now, in retrospect, the time span of this illness disappears into nothingness, and the understanding I gained is like a lamp along my way. I have been deeply enriched thereby.
I would like to express my gratitude for the growing spiritual insights that were the steps that led to my final freedom. In Christian Science it is a fundamental fact that diseases are not material, corporeal, but mental, and that therefore we correct beliefs of disease through regeneration of our thinking. So, of course, I considered it natural never to have a medical diagnosis, let alone medical or any other material treatment. But I had accepted the pain that plagued me during the time of the disease as an actual fact of which I was an innocent victim, and which I had to master by trying to free myself from it. Then it came to me one night: "Now, are you still a Christian Scientist if you believe that the pain is real because you feel it with your senses? You are thereby admitting that there could be a power besides God!"
This was a shattering realization in the midst of the seeming agony, and a struggle like that of Jacob with the angel that had touched his thigh. It was not an ignoring of the pain, but I overcame it through the realization and demonstration of the allness of God. During the entire night I waged this battle relentlessly against sense testimony with declarations of the truth of spiritual being. But this night brought victory over the pain. And so the healing progressed, until it was finally complete.
I could again place my feet correctly and move them. My strength I found again when I realized it was already present, when, to human view, it seemed to be getting less and less, for I saw that all power remains immutably established in God and therefore belongs also to His reflection—yes, that all my work was already done in Him. Soon I could do all my own house-work again, was even able during my vacation to climb the mountain peaks which a year before I had longingly gazed at from a distance through my window.
Through this experience I gained a firm understanding that I did not need to suffer from the sins of others—they simply didn't touch me anymore. Also, attacks on Christian Science could no longer reach my purified thought. When we acknowledge only God, good, then our view expands to take in the true, spiritual nature of all men as sons and daughters of God.
"The nothingness of nothing is plain," says Mrs. Eddy in the textbook (p. 346), "but we need to understand that error is nothing, and that its nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in order to prove the somethingness—yea, the allness—of Truth." And she further says: "It is self-evident that we are harmonious only as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error, and leads to the discernment of Truth."
Bremen, Federal Republic of Germany
