While helping a friend move a heavy picnic table, I injured my back. It was difficult to think clearly because of the excruciating pain, but my loving wife, a dedicated student of Christian Science, helped me pray. We maintained that "God created man in his own image" and "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good," as we read in the Bible. We also gave considerable thought to a passage in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy that states, "The Christlike understanding of scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Principle and idea,—perfect God and perfect man,—as the basis of thought and demonstration." I saw that certainly there could be no dislocation or discomfort in perfection.
Within a few days the pain disappeared, and I was able to stand upright and move normally. Occasionally the discomfort recurred, however, until I became fearful of lifting heavy objects. On one of these occasions, when I mentioned my discouragement, my wife reminded me of the statement from Science and Health "In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step, never a return to positions outgrown." This reminder eliminated my discouragement and fear, which resulted in prompt relief. That was over ten years ago, and the healing has been permanent.
One Friday many years before, when I was in grammar school, a friend and I were racing on our bicycles on a street in front of the school-house while many fellow-students watched. Suddenly a girl ran in front of me, and when I swerved to avoid hitting her, my front wheel struck the curb. I was thrown over the handlebars and I struck my head on the curb. This knocked me unconscious.
