Two Years Ago a woman who underwent a thyroid operation urged me to see a doctor, as my neck seemed swollen. Since the situation did not bother me, I forgot about it until last year when several more people commented on it. My fear grew when abnormalities on my tongue appeared. I was eating the same amount of food, but whatever I ate seemed tasteless. I felt the need to understand and demonstrate the truth that would set me free and bring peace. I found this statement in Science and Health: "To reduce inflammation, dissolve a tumor, or cure organic disease, I have found divine Truth more potent than all lower remedies. And why not, since Mind, God, is the source and condition of all existence?" (pp. 180-181).
My ten-year-old son loves Sunday School, and when at a fearful moment I asked him what assurance he could give me that I do not have to worry, he replied that God was with me, and He would never allow any bad things to happen to me. After my conversation with him, I felt released. I perceived that what God knows about each of us is our absolute perfection, as it is written in the Bible: "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity" (Hab. 1:13). I researched what tongue means in the Bible and in the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. What I found was about the "new tongue," and how its spiritual significance relates to spiritual sense, which is "a conscious, constant capacity to understand God" (Science and Health, p. 209). I learned the superiority of faith by works over faith by words.
Fear was destroyed, and my tongue was normal. But my neck was still swollen. The more I was challenged, though, the more I realized that in reality this was not a physical battle, but it was an opportunity for spiritual advancement —a cleansing period, a purification of thought that in return manifests the qualities of God. As the Bible says: "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil .... If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land" (Isa. 1:16, 19).
