My mother told me about Christian Science shortly after I married. I had been ill for months before the birth of my first child. After she was born, the doctor told me I would always be an invalid and probably would not be able to walk. At my mother's earnest request I started to read Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy.
At first I was very skeptical and could not understand how the reading of a book could help me. However, I began to understand something of the truth in this great work and of the fundamental Science of being which it revealed. Thereafter my health and strength returned almost without my consciousness of the renewal, and I was able to live a normal happy life.
When my child was about four years old, she suddenly became very unwell. I remember reading to her from the Bible, and we came across the passage in James, the fifth chapter, where there are comforting assurances that "the prayer of faith shall save the sick" and that "the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (vv.15,16). We talked about this and I was astonished that so young a child could understand the meaning of these passages so clearly. After our reasoning spiritually in this way she was quickly healed.
Another time, with the help of a Christian Science practitioner she was quite unharmed after swallowing a safety pin.
Not only in physical healing did I find Christian Science such a help, but also in guidance in so many ways. My mother-in-law told me I must give up Science, and moreover she said I had no right to hold a different religious opinion from my husband's. I prayed to know what answer to make to this attack, and it came to me to ask her this: If you had studied and become very interested in a new language, could you give it up or forget it? She never broached the subject again, and in fact we became better friends.
As our children grew I found wonderful help from Science in bringing them up. I had some friends, not Scientists, to tea one day and one of them said, "My small boy asked me today what God is. Did you ever hear anything so extraordinary? Of course, I couldn't tell him!" I was so grateful to know that through reading Science and Health I had learned that God is Love, and that my children understood this without a shadow of doubt. When the youngest child, barely two years old, fell and hurt his head, an aunt picked him up and said she would put something soothing on it. I was not there at the time, but the baby said very firmly, "No. Shepherd make it well." He knew Mrs. Eddy's hymn "'Feed My Sheep,'" with the opening words "Shepherd, show me how to go," quite well and was sure of God as the Shepherd and that God, Truth, would heal him. (See Christian Science Hymnal, No. 304.)
I remember two outstanding healings when the children were young. One of them had a bad attack of croup. The whole house was awakened and my husband sent for a doctor, but before he arrived, our other children and I sat by the child's cot and declared the truth, turning wholeheartedly to God for help. The child was perfectly well when the doctor arrived, and he asked why he had been sent for.
An interesting development of this was that a man staying with us, who was suffering from severe shell shock, was so impressed with this healing that he asked my husband to explain how it had been done. I am grateful to say my husband acknowledged it was Christian Science that had healed the child. Thereupon our visitor asked for help from a Christian Science practitioner and was healed in a very short time.
The other healing was that of another child, who was then only nine. She had a severe ear infection. As this did not seem to get better quickly, my husband made an appointment with an eminent ear specialist, who was to arrange an operation. We were having prayerful treatment at the time from a Christian Science practitioner. These Bible verses were pondered often— I Chronicles 29:11 and 13. Verse 11 begins, "Thine, O Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty." The result was a complete healing. The specialist could find nothing wrong with the ear.
I think with much gratitude of the wonderful help given me by this same practitioner when family opposition to Christian Science became very acute. I was wonderfully sustained and comforted in all this, and eventually the situation was completely reversed. In this as in other similar experiences I decided to let God guide me, and I fully acknowledge my debt to Christian Science for the wonderful working out of the problem.
The study of the Bible together with Science and Health, and of Mrs. Eddy's other writings, was and still is a source of help for which I cannot express enough gratitude.
Chichester, West Sussex, England
A couple of weeks before I was to enter law school, I was playing basketball with some friends. When I went up to make a hook shot, I felt something give way in my knee. Falling to the ground, I found I was in pain and unable to walk.
When I arrived home, my parents, who were not students of Christian Science, expressed a wonderful measure of love and trust by supporting my desire to rely on my newfound religion for healing. I prayed as best I knew how and read Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy constantly. After a week without much visible progress, I acceded to my parents' wishes that I be taken to a leading bone specialist in our city for diagnosis, hoping this might help to alleviate their fears. However, from the X rays the doctor diagnosed the problem to be torn cartilage or torn ligaments in the knee. He recommended surgery and the application of a cast for a minimum of six weeks. When I heard this verdict, my love for God welled up and I felt the courage to say I would continue to rely on Christian Science for this healing.
A few days later I was glad to leave for law school, where I could be free to work this problem out alone with God. It was difficult getting around on crutches while carrying a load of massive law texts. But I felt, since God does not afflict, it was inevitable that the healing would take place. I continued to pray for a deeper understanding of God, for growth in spiritual understanding sufficient for the need. I knew little about the method of treatment in Science or how a Christian Science practitioner might help me, but I was convinced that this teaching was the truth I had been seeking. I pondered Mrs. Eddy's statement (Science and Health, p. 574), "The very circumstance, which your suffering sense deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel entertained unawares." And I trusted that divine Love would not leave me helpless.
On Sunday morning two weeks after arriving, I awakened early to turn my thought once again in prayer to God. I listened to the Christian Science radio program on "Prayer," one of a series from The Mother Church. The inspiration I received released the marvelous healing power of the Christ in my consciousness. I felt impelled to get out of bed and walk. And I did! Slowly, sometimes falteringly, I walked. In thought I was leaning wholeheartedly on God, instead of regarding myself as a mortal with material crutches. I was learning firsthand what the Bible means when it says (Deut. 33:27), "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." Joyfully radiant with gratitude, I walked into the branch church that morning. As the members greeted me, there was a beautiful outpouring of love and gratitude to God for this wonderful healing. Members of the congregation rejoiced together in this further proof of Christian healing and of God's tender care for His children.
During the next week I actively trusted God with every step. The jostling in the crowded school halls and the inquiries of incredulous classmates were met with love. Day by day the strength of relying wholly on God, of walking with the Christ, was increased so that the next week I attended a party and energetically executed all the latest dance steps. When shortly I visited my parents, I was greeted with an amazed "It's a miracle!" They recognized this healing in Christian Science and rejoiced in my fitness and well-being. The healing was complete and has remained so these past ten years, enabling me to participate in many vigorous sports and activities.
Mrs. Eddy has written (Science and Health, p. 135), "The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law." How deeply grateful I am to Mrs. Eddy for discovering and founding this "Science of God's unchangeable law." She is truly our Leader as we follow her in the progressive understanding of God through Christian Science.
Wellesley, Massachusetts
Seven years ago I was taking large doses of tranquilizers prescribed by one of thirteen psychiatrists I had seen over a five-year period. It was then that I heard the words "Christian Science" for the first time. I was beginning to wonder if psychiatry, the time I had spent as a patient in private psychiatric hospitals, and tranquilizers were crutches, because I felt so depressed. I wondered if I'd ever be happy and find life satisfying.
An announcement in the local newspaper of a Christian Science lecture aroused my curiosity. I had no idea what Christian Science was. I attended the lecture and felt something good there, although I couldn't define it then. I know now that it was Love, God, that brought me there and attracted and held my attention.
The following week I attended another lecture, then started attending Christian Science church services regularly. After my first visit to a Sunday service, I threw away all the tranquilizers. I began to feel happy and satisfied, and I started to read the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly every day. There were questions, doubts, fears, as well as lessons to learn; but with the help of sincere students of this Science, I was able to rely on it completely to meet my every need. Exactly one year later I joined The Mother Church and a branch Church of Christ, Scientist.
When I first heard of Science, I wore glasses for reading and watching television and movies. I also had a very serious reading comprehension problem and understood very little of anything I read. I stopped wearing glasses and haven't worn them since. As I started reading Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, I began to enjoy reading for the first time in my life and to really understand what I read. The healing of both the reading difficulty and the eye defect came about solely through the spiritual understanding I gained from reading Science and Health.
I learned that by turning to God, not people, we experience permanent satisfaction. Before I started studying Christian Science, I really had no friends, nor did I see love and kindness anywhere. I realize now that I wasn't expressing love and kindness myself. By expressing love myself, I saw love in those around me and have felt love expressed toward me since then. I also learned that we never make friends by clinging to people. I was healed of clinging to one person or two, and this has resulted in many satisfying, precious friendships. These lessons taught me the practicality of Mrs. Eddy's words (Science and Health, p. 266): "Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love." It was in desperation, when I had no friends, that Love forced me to love correctly by acknowledging love in myself and others as God's expression.
The patience and understanding of new friends at church helped me appreciate God as I was led out of deep mental insecurity into the bright sunlight of Christian Science and a whole new life—one of complete mental soundness. I became more grateful each day for Christian Science, including the Lesson-Sermon and the periodicals.
A teacher of Christian Science accepted me for class instruction immediately when she knew I had already applied for membership in The Mother Church and a branch Church of Christ, Scientist. The privilege of having class instruction as a young student of Science has strengthened me spiritually in every way.
I now have a good teaching job in a fine school for children who are enrolled in the Christian Science Sunday School. I love my work and home. Teaching in the Sunday School itself is an experience I am especially grateful to enjoy. I appreciate more and more the infinite blessings of Christian Science. This religion has enabled me to express more love each day as I try more earnestly to live that love!
Los Angeles, California
