"Let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy" (Ps. 5:11). Another psalm (89:16) intones the same paean of gratitude, "In thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted." These verses aptly express my state of mind when I look back over the sixteen years that have elapsed since I started studying Christian Science. The blessings are so numerous that they would take many, many pages to recount. There have been outstanding physical healings and, still more precious, a constant spiritualization of thought leading to an understanding of the ultimate companionship: God as one's dearest and closest friend.
In the mid-1970s I was asked by a Canadian organization to start a grassroots educational magazine. I agreed to take this project on and I spent a year working on the first mock issue. I was working in Africa when I had to chair an important two-day meeting. It was at this meeting that the decision about whether to cosponsor the magazine project would be made by those attending. Although I had not the slightest experience in journalism or publishing, I had joyfully accepted the challenge of setting up the magazine. During the year prior to bringing out the first mock issue, I had daily visualized the future magazine as expressing such Christly qualities as clarity, intelligence, integrity, simplicity, wisdom, humor, joy, beauty, hope, insight.
The day before the meeting I started having severe abdominal pains. I stayed the whole day in my hotel room, attempting to overcome the difficulty through prayer, but it did not yield. At four o'clock in the afternoon I sent a brief cable to a Christian Science practitioner friend in the United States. I asked her for prayerful help. At first the pains seemed to worsen, and around nine o'clock in the evening I was bent over with intense pain and sweating heavily, despite the air conditioning. My two colleagues wanted to call an ambulance, but I told them I would be all right. They were very upset. Then, around ten o'clock, the pain broke. I slept normally and was well enough to take part in the two-day meeting.
