FOR WELL OVER A YEAR, at times I would be in such intense pain in my lower chest that I felt as if I were losing consciousness. The first such attack occurred one night when the pain was so severe that I did pass out. In my discomfort, I must have awakened my husband, who became very fearful for my life. I have relied on the scientific prayer taught in Christian Science for about 70 years, so it was natural for me to do so again for healing. Although my husband does not consider himself a Christian Scientist, he has always been supportive of my practice of it.
When I regained consciousness shortly after, I managed to phone a Christian Science practitioner, who helped me at once to understand that as the reflection of God, Spirit, my true being was wholly spiritual and not composed of material organs that could malfunction or cause me pain. I had learned through Christian Science that God is the only cause, and being good, He does not cause pain, disease, or bodily malfunction. Although these conditions always appear real to the five physical senses, disease of any kind is never true about God's child. For this reason, I never felt I needed a medical diagnosis.
Gradually the pain subsided over the next few days. The attacks returned several times that year to a greater or lesser degree, but I never lost consciousness again. Each time I persisted in praying for myself from the same spiritual basis.
One such evening when the pain was intense, my husband, who attends church with me, opened the Christian Science Hymnal and started to read a hymn we had sung in church that morning:
We are hid with Christ forever
In the Father's holy plan.
In this pure eternal union
We behold the perfect man;
And we know that sin can never
Overthrow the sacred rod
Of dominion over evil:
We are hid with Christ in God
(Nellie B. Mace, No. 370).
As he read, I started to say the words with him, and when we came to the phrase "dominion over evil," I felt the power of the Christ—God's holy presence—and I knew that this Christ, described by Mrs. Eddy as "the true idea of God" (Science and Health, p. 54), gave me dominion over disease and pain. In seconds, the pain completely disappeared. I thanked my dear husband and said, "It's gone, let's go back to sleep." And we did.
One morning the total victory came. While traveling by train to the Christian Science Reading Room where I serve as librarian, the severe pain recurred. I wondered how I would make the half-mile walk to collect mail from our post office box and then to the Reading Room without passing out. Once again I prayed, knowing that God had given me dominion over all evil—over whatever He had not made. I felt that I was doing "my Father's business" (see Luke 2:49) that day and that in spite of the pain I didn't need to fear anything, because my Father, divine Love, would support me wherever I needed to go. And so I went forward.
When I arrived at the Reading Room, I felt that I was losing consciousness, so I quickly phoned my daughter and asked her to come over. Then I called a Christian Science practitioner, who said she would pray for me while I went to lie down on a pew in our adjoining church auditorium. I wasn't afraid, and the words of Hymn 144 came to mind. It begins, "In atmosphere of Love divine, / We live, and move, and breathe." I began to feel that I was in the presence of divine Love, and I knew that I lived in that Love—not in pain. With that acknowledgement, the feeling that I was fading into unconsciousness passed, and I quickly recovered, feeling alert and strong and without any pain.
I phoned my daughter, who was already on her way to the Reading Room, to tell her that I was well. Then I opened the Reading Room for business. My daughter had told me that my husband was already on his way over, and when he arrived I assured him that I was well and that I had just had a beautiful healing. He told me that I certainly looked all right. He felt comfortable enough to leave me and return home.
I phoned to thank the practitioner for her speedy healing prayers, and she shared with me this potent verse from the Bible that she had been praying with: "What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time" (Nah. 1:9). And so it has proved to be. I was never again subjected to painful attacks after that day.
How grateful I am to all of the Christian Science practitioners who help us to see the man and woman whom God created. And I'm so grateful also for having attended a Christian Science Sunday School to learn about the Science of Christianity—not just to have a better life, but to learn even a little about the universe of Spirit that this Science reveals to us.
CLEVELAND, QUEENSLAND AUSTRALIA
