A Fellow I Know was, as a young boy, always curious about explosives. His dad, a chemist, had warned him repeatedly not to play with explosive devices. But one day, the boy went with some friends into the nearby woods to experiment with a small explosive they had just made. When it failed to explode, the youngster foolishly picked it up. While he was looking directly at it, it detonated and he was blinded.
His frightened friends led him home, and his mother immediately began to pray. The parents called a Christian Science practitioner, who readily agreed to help the family through prayer. In talking with the father, the practitioner also said something extraordinary: "There is no physical science!" Within just a few days, the boy's sight was fully restored with no evidence of injury. In later years, he went into military service, passing a medical examination with flying colors.
What was behind the practitioner's comment to the father? While I don't know if she was quoting from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, a passage from this book states: "There is no physical science, inasmuch as all truth proceeds from the divine Mind. Therefore truth is not human, and is not a law of matter, for matter is not a lawgiver." Science and Health, p. 1 27 It would be natural for a practitioner to turn her thought, and help the family turn their thoughts, to God, divine Mind, as the only lawgiver.
