Just as Moses led the children of Israel for forty years from the land of bondage into the promised land of freedom, so for forty ears Christian Science has led me into continually greater spiritual freedom. Through Mary Baker Eddy's revelation of divine Truth all may be delivered from the darkness of the carnal mind. My debt of gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for her textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," can be paid only in deepest humility and joyful service to God.
I turned unreservedly to Christian Science forty years ago because it seemed as though my affections and motives were valueless; "the God of my fathers" seemed to have proved impotent. As a last resort I sought the help of a Christian Science practitioner. I learned that it was not God who had proved impotent, but that it was belief in the false teachings about Him which had brought me to physical collapse. I had received kind and skillful medical attention, but the core of the difficulty remained. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p. 390), "It is our ignorance of God, the divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and the right understanding of Him restores harmony."
As a child in Sunday School I had been taught Christ Jesus' words (John 14:1), "Ye believe in God, believe also in me." I wondered what these words meant and how they could apply practically to me in meeting the problems of everyday living. The learned clergyman who instructed me when I later became a church member never made the answer clear. But Christian Science reveals God as Life eternal and man as the son of God. So I came to understand God as divine Principle, man as His son, and Jesus as the Way-shower. The great Master I could now believe in, and I desired to understand more of his teachings. With infant steps I could begin to follow his example in casting out devils of false belief, healing myself and helping others through an understanding of the Christ gained through my study of the Holy Bible as illumined by Mrs. Eddy's writings.
A relative had lent me a copy of Science and Health, but material sense had so darkened my thought through theology and physics that the text of this book was well-nigh incomprehensible to me. Therefore the most precious experience I ever had in Christian Science was the spiritual illumination which flooded my consciousness in those first days when Science was explained to me by the faithful practitioner to whom I turned for help. This was followed by an instantaneous healing of a stomach disorder.
For about five cars I had not touched the piano because of ill-health, and I believed that I should never do so again. Then I began to play all the difficult scores I had formerly played, and despite the intervening years, the right technique came as effortlessly as though I had been practicing daily at the piano. In the years which have followed, music has brought me great joy and inspiration, which I have been able to share with others.
Through the stuck of Mrs. Eddy's writings I have learned the deeper meaning of music, a meaning profound and yet simple. As defined in the Christian Science textbook (p. 213), "Music is the rhythm of head and heart." So the Christian Scientist may have harmony wherever he goes, for spiritualized thought combined with loving deeds is music of the highest order.
At one time, had it not been for the calmness and assurance which Christian Science gave me, I might have lost my hand because of blood poisoning. During that severe trial kind friends stood by me, and my children rallied to my aid. After the healing there was no memory of the poison, and I came to recognize better the dream nature of mortal existence which counterfeits man's existence as God's spiritual idea.
We are told in the textbook (p. 174), "Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for generations yet unborn." This truth has been fulfilled in my own experience. My children and also my grandchildren are now reaping the benefits of Christian Science by walking in ways of happiness and health.
Although in the forty years of my acquaintance with Christian Science I have sometimes known toil and unrest, my life has been lifted steadily higher. Today I have the great joy and privilege of serving the Cause of Christian Science in the city of Boston, Massachusetts.— Boston, Massachusetts.
