"The 'still, small voice' of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean to the globe's remotest bound." So writes Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health (p. 559). Because this "scientific thought" found its way to a remote rural community, around the turn of the century, three generations of my family have been spiritually blessed. It reached my mother when she was a young woman suffering from a medically diagnosed heart ailment, with no hope for her recovery. At this point, a relative who was a member of the medical profession recommended that my mother try Christian Science; she had heard it healed. In desperation my mother did this willingly. In spite of much opposition from members of her family, she clung steadfastly to her new hope, and a healing resulted. Later she joined The Mother Church and a branch church and did much to alleviate suffering and to share her newfound joy.
I was raised as a Christian Scientist. During my teen years and early womanhood I was not always a working Christian Scientist, but studied haphazardly. However, the seed had been sown and later, through much tribulation resulting from a complex human relationship problem, the seed began to spring up and bear fruit as I reached out to God's love in times of overwhelming stress.
Although I was a member of The Mother Church and a branch church, the hour came when it was necessary for me to decide whether I was really willing to turn wholeheartedly to God and apply the teachings of Christian Science or to continue the treadmill of mortal existence. I chose the former. Truly, I can say with the Psalmist (Ps. 40:2), "He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings." Spiritual progress began, and gradual transformation in my daily affairs was evidenced. Class instruction in Christian Science soon followed.
