My first healing in Christian Science came through reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.
From earliest childhood I had suffered from anemia. There were also extreme nervousness and other debilitating ailments. As a child, I believed earnestly in prayer, for my mother had said that God is good and that He knows everything. But neither prayers nor the many medicines relieved me; instead, the suffering became more severe as I grew older.
I began to wonder and question whether there was a God. Every spare moment after school was spent at the public library, reading everything I could find about religions and commentaries on the Bible. I visited churches of different denominations, hoping to find answers to my questions about God. My father, who was a learned man, could not answer me satisfactorily. I prayed more earnestly, searching for truth; but discouragement amounted almost to despondency.
Then, in my teens, despairing as much over unanswered prayers as over the physical conditions, I found Science and Health in the library. At the time I knew nothing of Christian Science or of its churches or practitioners. It was with great joy then that I read in Science and Health (p. 2), "Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it tends to bring us into harmony with it." As I read, I kept thinking, This is true; this is real. From that moment I never again was conscious of the symptoms of disease. I knew I was healed and that the healing was a proof there is a God. Years later, when I had to have medical examinations for business and insurance purposes, I was told I was in perfect health.
I had worn glasses from the time I started to school. I was told I had structural defects of the eyes and would have to wear stronger and stronger lenses. But after studying Christian Science two years, with my new and joyous outlook my eyes were healed. I satisfactorily passed eye examinations for driving in two states, and I read the finest print without glasses.
After more than a year of studying Science and Health and rejoicing in having found the truth, I learned about a nearby branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and that there were Christian Science practitioners. Hoping to join the church soon, I obtained the Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy. When I came to the By-Law that says (Art. VIII, Sect. 24), "Testimony in regard to the healing of the sick is highly important," I thought, This means me! I had always been extremely shy, self-conscious, and afraid of people; and it took some months of study and prayer to overcome the false self-love, which I recognized was the reason for the self-consciousness. But finally I was able to testify without difficulty.
I can never be too grateful for the blessings my obedience to the Manual brought me. Mastery over the self-consciousness changed the entire course of my life. It enabled me to obtain and hold responsible and attractive positions before I was married and to serve the branch churches where I became a member in various capacities, including a term as First Reader, on the executive board, introducing lecturers, and teaching in the Sunday School.
Though at first there was great opposition on the part of my parents and family to my study of Christian Science, eventually two brothers, at periods of crises, turned to Christian Science for help and received it. Two sisters were healed of eczema, supposedly inherited and incurable. My sisters became students and members of the church; one of them had class instruction. My father became a devoted reader of The Christian Science Monitor. The financial circumstances of our entire family improved markedly within a year after I began my study of this Science.
Since my first healing I have experienced and witnessed other beautiful healings. Some came quickly; others took longer. Recently I was healed of extreme exhaustion. This was not a quick healing. I went to a nursing home for Christian Scientists near my home. With the treatment I received from a practitioner, and the loving care of the nurses and associates there, I was able to return to my home and duties at the end of three months.
I rejoice that it has been proved to me so many times that Science is indeed the Comforter which Christ Jesus promised should come (see John 14:16, 17), and to which Mrs. Eddy refers in Science and Health (p. 55): "In the words of St. John: 'He shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever. This Comforter I understand to be Divine Science."
Cleveland, Ohio
