I feel very fortunate to have been brought up in a Christian Science home. Although I drifted away from Science several times in my youth, all through adulthood I have had many healings as a result of practicing it, and none has been more appreciated than the one I relate here.
A few years ago, and entirely through an excessive workload, I began to feel under a lot of pressure. The colleague I worked with was concerned and ventured one day that we had to do something about this, or I was going to have serious health problems! His words, which were more explicit, shocked me and often rang in my ears. Although I made a conscientious effort to put them out of my thoughts, I found it difficult.
Very soon after that, I became partially deaf in my left ear, and I concluded it would pass. It didn’t. It got worse.
Later I began to feel pressure in the left side of my head, accompanied by other symptoms that alarmed me. I was now completely deaf in my left ear and was in considerable discomfort for all of the waking day. At this point, overwhelming fear set in. Whilst I had had many healings in my life and had seen many healings for my family, this was the first one I thought might be life-threatening. I prayed to know exactly how I was going to accomplish this healing.
Supported by my wife, I began to study the chapter “Christian Science Practice” in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. On page 390 she urges, “When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science.” She goes on to say: “Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin.” I did this as vigorously as possible.
However, when there seemed to be no improvement, I decided to ask a Christian Science practitioner to help me through prayer. The immediate comfort of her calm, loving response to my tale of woe on the phone, and her utter confidence that this picture of disease was a lie and we would “sort it” (find healing through reliance on God), to me demonstrated the Christ-spirit exemplified by Christ Jesus.
The seeming reality of disease—and “my” dis-ease—began to be truly relegated to nothingness. I began to realize the fundamental mortal lie about God and His creation being material that had led me to believe I had fallen from the truth.
Finally one evening in the bath, at about midnight, I read these words from an article called “Undisturbed” first published in the Christian Science Sentinel: “Peace of mind is a pearl of great price that is not to be forfeited under the pressure of aggressive sense testimony” (March 26, 1955).
I thought carefully about that statement. I was familiar with Mrs. Eddy’s definition of Mind as “the only I, or Us; …” in Science and Health (p. 591). I worked with nothing but this definition that night. I was quite suddenly totally aware of what I was as a spiritual idea—the reflection of that divine Mind. I was conscious only of my true selfhood as spiritual, and I recognized all else—all the physical symptoms and fear—as unreal.
Before I got out of that bath I knew the healing was complete. I was able to go into the bedroom and say to my wife, “I am healed.”
With much gratitude, I continued to affirm my perfection with simple and short statements of truth from the Bible and from our textbook, Science and Health, and within a few days all the physical ailments were indeed gone. Within a week I felt completely well.
My wife and I are truly grateful for this clear-cut healing, and for the Christian Science practitioner who had such a calm and loving response to my calls for help. However, the significant spiritual growth we both experienced meant even more to me than the physical healing.
Martyn Kelham
Highworth, Wiltshire, England
