In the Bible we read, "Call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me" (Ps. 50:15). The truth of this promise has been proved to me in solving many quite different kinds of problems.
When we first became acquainted with Christian Science many years ago, we were living in the country, where we had all sorts of domestic animals. One day we noticed that our chickens had been afflicted with a much-feared plague. My wife came running and said, "You must quickly write a letter to the Christian Science practitioner for help." This I did. The man who took the letter promised to give it to the practitioner as soon as he arrived. But after he had gone twenty kilometers on horseback he forgot to deliver the letter and did not do so until fourteen days later. The practitioner was concerned when he saw the date, and when he visited us several weeks later he was glad when we told him we had not lost a single chicken after we decided to ask for Christian Science help. Then he told us what had happened with our letter, and that he had therefore been unable to pray for us. This incident showed us that our faith in relying wholly on the healing power of the Christ, Truth and Love, had brought about an immediate healing.
A neighbor who lived close by told a friend, "I can't understand what my neighbor does; I myself saw his chickens feeding by my dead ones that were killed by the plague—and they didn't die." But he knew that we had adopted a new religion, and so this incident aroused considerable respect for Christian Science in that place. Evil gossip had previously been very much in evidence, to the point where we had to constantly remind ourselves, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
