Think of the powerful effect of a single glimpse of God! I experienced this power for myself when oh-so familiar (to me) words of great import that I'd heard every Sunday in church and memorized as a child came alive to me when I was in dire need, and healed me. These words are "the scientific statement of being." It can be found in a companion book to the Bible, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The statement reads: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual." Science and Health, p. 468.
I first learned the importance of this statement from my grandmother. As a public practitioner of Christian Science, she healed people through prayer. One day while visiting her, I saw her Science and Health open to the statement. "I know that by heart," I told her, and recited it for her. She said she was so glad I had memorized it because that way it would always be with me. If I ever found myself in an emergency, those words would come to me, and the realization of what they mean would save my life, Grandma said. I never forgot that, nor the conviction with which she said it. I could tell she spoke from experience.
After growing up, I loved reading my Bible and Science and Health. I turned to them naturally for every need—direction, employment, health, guidance in marriage and child rearing. Yet I found myself avoiding "the scientific statement of being." Whenever I did start mentally to recite it, it seemed just words to me. I was reciting it by rote. This was a ritual, not a realization. I never really pondered the words, never let their freshness speak to me. I was always too busy looking for something "new" to inspire me.
