About twenty-five years ago, when I was quite new in Christian Science, I traveled to a distant village with our son, who at that time was seven years old. One night, just before retiring, our son fell one story down the steps from the first floor. There appeared to be a fracture of the right lower arm. Immediately I turned in thought to God and declared out loud, "There is no accident in the divine kingdom; therefore, there is no fracture, and hence there is no pain." I then asked the child to recite with me the Lord's Prayer (see Matt. 6:9-13) and "the scientific statement of being" from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy (p. 468), which he had learned in the Christian Science Sunday School. After repeating these truths, our son became quiet in about ten minutes. I recalled these words from the Bible (Isa. 41: 10): "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Denying the belief of accident, I affirmed that matter has no intelligence to feel pain, and that the real man abides in perfect safety in God. These truths brought results, for soon the pain began to abate.
As there was no Christian Science practitioner available where we were, our son and I returned to our residence in Bombay. We took a night journey by train lasting several hours. This gave me a good opportunity to read that week's Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly on the subject "God the Preserver of Man." Throughout the journey, as I read from Science and Health, I noticed this had a salutary effect on the child—for he slept during the entire trip.
When we reached home, my husband and I took our son to a Christian Science practitioner for treatment. The practitioner lovingly pointed out several passages from the Bible and Science and Health, including this one (Science and Health, p. 427): "Man is the same after as before a bone is broken or the body guillotined." And from page 423: "Bones have only the substance of thought which forms them." She also shared this passage from Isaiah (40:4): "Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain." She asked us to ponder these passages, and we did.
