How does one describe the actual experience of God's healing presence? What words can accurately convey that profound moment when pain and suffering, fear and hopelessness, melt away? Here's one example from Psalms: "The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow. Then called I upon the name of the Lord; O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. ...For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling." Ps. 116:3,4,8.
Many contributors to the various writings that make up the Bible well understood the value of recording accounts of individual salvation, physical healing, and deliverance from evil. The Gospels, telling of Christ Jesus' life and works, are prime examples. In our contemporary practice of scientific Christian healing, it is important that we too understand the value of sharing the record of this work. Reports of healings are central to this magazine as well as to the Christian Science Sentinel and The Herald of Christian Science.
Those familiar with the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, are often moved by the healings described in the final chapter, "Fruitage." Here, Mary Baker Eddy, the author of this book, selected a number of testimonies illustrating the application of the healing truths taught in the previous chapters of the book. The individuals who submitted these accounts had struggled with painful and incurable diseases, distressing emotional and psychological troubles, and a host of other problems.
