Testimonies of Healing
Not gently, but forcibly, at times, the stubborn human will can be turned toward God's will in divine Science. For about four years I had suffered convulsive bouts with asthma, which came with greater frequency and severity.
I so well remember an experience in my life prior to school age. One warm summer day I was playing alone in the yard of our home.
Our old family Bible, tightly clasped shut and called the Book of Life, we regarded with ignorant awe. As a child what I saw of daily living seemed so complex and baffling that I often wondered why someone didn't find out what was in the Book of Life and learn a better way of living.
The Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, have been my constant companions for nearly forty years.
My left hand was partially crushed one day when a heavy car door was slammed shut on it. Mortal mind asked: "Well, what are you going to do now, you who have always turned to your mother or practitioners for your healings? Your mother is no longer here and there is no practitioner on the island.
Christian Science was presented to my family about four years after my father had passed on. I was ten years of age at that time.
The remarkable and sudden change in my affairs that occurred a number of years ago may be likened to that of the Bible story of the prodigal son given in the fifteenth chapter of Luke. I was a student of Christian Science for many years, a member of The Mother Church, and an active member of a Christian Science branch church, but I permitted a series of tragic circumstances, including failing health, to lead me away from this Science into the byways of materia medica and worldliness.
One summer morning my chauffeur and I went to a remote quarry with two trucks to pick up raw materials. At the quarry I had an accident and sustained head injuries.
It is with much gratitude that I look back on my youth and realize what understanding my parents exercised in not requiring me to follow either of their religious beliefs. I experienced a feeling of void, though, whenever I saw my friends attend their churches and Sunday Schools and I could not participate.
One cannot inherit the spiritual understanding of Christian Science from human parents, for it comes through individual growth. My mother was a Christian Scientist before I was born, but at the age of twenty I came under the influence of one whose religious views confused me and turned me away from Science.