Christian Science has been my religion and my only medicine for many years. When I was a small child, my father, whom I loved dearly, disappeared very suddenly, never to return. This was a grievous problem to me in my growing-up days, and this grief was not healed until I found Christian Science.
After college I became a schoolteacher, and it was my custom every morning to read to the children from the Bible. I was so impressed by Christ Jesus' life of service and his great healing works that I questioned myself, "Why are we not fulfilling the Master's promises that we, too, can do these healing works?" I knew nothing of Christian Science, but my aunt had received a very fine healing and had become a devoted student of this religion. I asked her about these promises in the Bible and she at once sent to me Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. After reading a few pages, I knew I had found my answer, for I was healed of a physical disorder I had endured from childhood.
After marriage, we lived in a small town where I joined a Christian Science Society; and in 1912 I became a member of The Mother Church. Later, it was necessary for me to care for a sister who was ill with tuberculosis. This required strenuous work and long hours without rest. After this experience, I became ill with this same disease.
My husband and mother were so alarmed that they insisted on my going to my brother's home for a period of rest. My brother was a doctor, and they hoped he might help me. I knew I would receive my healing in Christian Science and would never consent to medical help. I was given loving consideration while in my brother's home, and I had quiet time for study and prayer. However, one day he asked me to let him give me a physical examination, with a promise of no medical treatment. I agreed to go the next day, feeling that it might satisfy the family.
That night I prayed earnestly. I was so eager to exemplify Christ in my life and healing. I knew that there could be no penalty for loving service in caring for my sister—only joy and gratitude. God's law of love, divine justice, rules out such an injustice. Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health (p. 384): "God never punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, cold, heat, contagion." The physical symptoms seemed unchanged, but before morning I felt the calm, peace, joy, and assurance of God's law of love, and I knew I was healed!
When my brother made the examination, he said my left lung had been badly infected but it had healed over. In a very short time I was completely free from every symptom of the disease. The following year I gave birth to a daughter under Christian Science treatment, a very harmonious experience.
Since this healing there have been continuous blessings these many years. One instance which proved the ever-presence of the healing Christ occurred while I was serving as a Reader in a Church of Christ, Scientist. One Saturday morning I was ill with an acute attack of influenza and I had also lost my voice. Through maintaining the fact that there is only one law, the law of God, of divine justice governing man, which rules out all injustice, all imposition on man, I was able to establish in my thought the spiritual sense of health. Immediately all pain and fever left. Sunday morning I was completely free and fulfilled my duties as Second Reader.
The following testifies to a more recent healing. Early one morning a member of my family came to my bedroom and found me unconscious. She was unable to arouse me, and it appeared I was passing on. A Christian Science practitioner was called to treat me. There was no immediate response and I remained in this state for several hours. But through the prayer of the practitioner and the firm adherence to Truth of those who were with me, I was awakened and by the next afternoon was able to be about my normal activity. There has been no recurrence of this trouble in any way. The only recollection I have of this experience was the thought that I must get up, and yet I seemed unable to move. I feel that this healing exemplifies Mrs. Eddy's words (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, pp. 149-150): "Remember, thou canst be brought into no condition, be it ever so severe, where Love has not been before thee and where its tender lesson is not awaiting thee." This glorious victory remains a continuous inspiration and reminder of Love's healing power in my thought and life. "What cannot God do?" (Science and Health, p. 135.)The ever-present Christ is always adequate.
With the eager desire to share this truth, I have found the joy and satisfaction of helping others.
Christian Science restored to me the true sense of fatherhood, which I now realize can never be lost. Today I can say with David (Ps. 16:6): "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage."
Tulsa, Oklahoma
