For several years I longed for a clearer understanding of God, and this desire has been fulfilled in the teachings of Christian Science.
There comes a time in the experience of every Christian Scientist when we must learn to stand alone with God. For me this time came early, when I was a young student of Christian Science. Our daughter, who was nine months old, was very ill with whooping cough and pneumonia. At the time I was visiting my parents, who were not interested in Christian Science. The remark was made that if I expected Christian Science to heal the child in that critical condition, I must expect it to raise the dead. I replied that nothing is impossible to God.
When the hour seemed darkest I turned to our Leader's hymn (Poems, p. 12):
"O'er waiting harpstrings of the mind
There sweeps a strain,
Low, sad, and sweet, whose measures bind
The power of pain,
"And wake a white-winged angel throng
Of thoughts, illumed
By faith, and breathed in raptured song,
With love perfumed."
When I had finished singing the entire hymn I looked at the child. To my great joy she recognized me. The bodily organs which had not functioned for six days again functioned normally, and she was able to eat, which she had not done in ten days. With the help of a faithful practitioner she was enjoying normal health in less than three weeks' time.
When we let the tender love of the Christ come into our hearts and govern our thinking, all fear, worry, and doubt disappear and joy, harmony, and peace abide. The members of my family felt this love expressed, for a few months later, when in need of healing, my stepfather asked for help in Christian Science. He was healed of blood poisoning in one foot, and he found the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, a source of great comfort for many years.
I was healed of tonsillitis in one treatment, and of neuralgia from which I suffered for several days. I could not lift my head off the pillow when the attack came, but I was healed completely through the study of our textbook. I was also healed of a severe nervous breakdown. My sister was told by a physician that my condition was hopeless. I was having help in Christian Science and in a year's time this condition was fully overcome, proving the promise in Psalms, "Bless the Lord, O my soul ... who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases."
About eight years ago I was healed of a cancerous condition of the skin. I cared for this condition myself, and when I had occasion to look at it I thanked God that I knew He could not make such an unlovely picture. I had help in Christian Science, and in a few months new skin formed. I again rejoiced for another proof of the power of God to heal.
Since taking up the study of Christian Science twenty-eight years ago I have never once doubted the ability of Truth to heal. Much that was wrong in my disposition had to be overcome, including self-will and selfishness. I find I usually have but to look within my own thinking when inharmony is apparent. While I am profoundly grateful for all the healings I have had in Christian Science, I believe I and even more grateful to God for the understanding this Science has given me that enables me to answer our Leader's question on page 462 of Science and Health, "Are thoughts divine or human?"
I am grateful for class instruction from a consecrated teacher, for membership in The Mother Church and in a branch church, for our lectures and periodicals, for all the good that is unfolding to me daily through our Lesson-Sermons, and for our dear Leader, Mrs. Eddy, whose tireless effort brought us the Christ Science, which is doing so much to heal the ills and sorrows of the world.— Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
