A few years ago I developed a very uncomfortable throat infection. I was unable to swallow any solid food and could take liquid only in small spoonfuls. I asked a Christian Science practitioner for treatment, and she came to visit me. She read to me from the Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly and then prayed for me silently.
After she left, I lay in bed battling with the intense discomfort. It was as if there was some resistance to the scientific facts of man's true relationship to God—including my present perfection and wholeness—which had been audibly and inaudibly declared and known. Outside, house martins were swooping past the window, and I had such a yearning, not only to be as free as they were, but to be really free of the belief that I was a suffering mortal trapped in disease and pain.
Quite suddenly I found myself repeating a hymn whose words were written by Mrs. Eddy (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 253):
