Mary Baker Eddy says in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures''(p.3), "Action expresses more gratitude than speech." Words cannot express my deep gratitude to Christian Science for the many blessings I have received.
I was instantaneously healed of what the doctors called rheumatic fever and a severe rheumatic heart condition, which they pronounced incurable. This condition necessitated my staying in bed six months at a time, and it had recurred for two and a half years. A great hopelessness was felt by my whole family. However, one afternoon a woman called on my mother, and I overheard them talking in the living room. The conversation turned to Christian Science, and the woman said that she was a Christian Science practitioner. Upon hearing this, I asked to see her.
She told me that God loved me and that I did not have to be bound by what the doctors had said. She read to me from the Bible(I Chron. 28:20), "Be strong and of good courage, and do it: fear not, nor be dismayed: for the Lord God, even my God, will be with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee." She also read to me from Science and Health(p. 469): "Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle,— Life, Truth, and Love,—named God." After telling me to learn these quotations by heart, she gave me a treatment. Then she told me to get up and dress myself and leave the sickroom. She impressed me so strongly with the thought that I could lean on God without fear that I felt sure all was well. I arose from bed immediately, and in half an hour I was on horseback, enjoying normal pleasure for the first time in years. Within a month I went to work for an electrical appliance shop, delivering heavy stoves, refrigerators, and radios. I now work for a telephone company as a lineman and enjoy hiking many miles in the mountains through deep snow in the winter and under the hot sun in the summer with no ill effects.
For this healing I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to the practitioner who stood so strongly for Love at that time. For the many proofs of God's love and care that I have had since then, I shall always be grateful. I should also like to express gratitude for Christ Jesus, our Way-showcr, for Mrs. Eddy, our Leader, and for membership in The Mother Church and a Christian Science Society.— Garberville, California.
With deep gratitude for Christian Science and for the consecrated practitioner who came to us in our time of need, I verify the above-mentioned healing of my son. I too have experienced many healings in Science, some with the help of a loving practitioner and some through my own understanding. I am very grateful to Mrs. Eddy for giving us Christian Science, which has been a great blessing in our family of five. For membership in The Mother Church and a Christian Science Society, as well as for the privilege of serving in our Reading Room, I give thanks to God.
I am the father of the boy that was healed of rheumatic fever and a severe rheumatic heart, and I too wish to express my gratitude to God for this wonderful healing and to the loving practitioner who introduced us to our beautiful religion of love. I am grateful for membership in The Mother Church and for the privilege of ushering in the local Christian Science Society.
Someone has as said that it is better to light a small candle than to curse the darkness. Christian Science is the great light of the world, and as we live this Science and share its blessings we are each lighting a candle to help our fellow man.
I was led to turn to Christian Science for help when a friend of my husband told me of his son's being healed after doctors had said they could do no more for him. "A religion like that would be worth something," my husband said. At the time, I was suffering from a back ailment for which I had been going for treatment to doctors a long time, but which they said could never be cured. I was also suffering from anemia and chronic constipation, and I was nervous and very much underweight.
It came to me to try Christian Science, so I telephoned my husband's friend and asked if I could borrow something to read. I was lovingly offered a copy of the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and a Journal. I dressed and walked a few blocks to get them; then I called a practitioner, whose name I found in the Journal. She told me to read in the textbook pages 465 through 468 and said that she would be glad to help me.
I became so uplifted in thought that by evening I was busily at work and had dinner ready for my family. I continued to feel joyous and happy, and in ten days my family could see that there was a great change in me. The healing was complete, and it has remained permanent. This occurred about seven years ago. I am very grateful to God for all the blessings Christian Science has brought me and my family since then. Membership in The Mother Church and a branch church has given me a greater appreciation of our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, and of her revelation of the light of Truth. Class instruction has brought further unfoldment of good.
An experience which proved the ever-presence of God came when I was painting the inside of a clothes closet. It had no window, and there was just room enough for me and the stepladder. The house was old, and the knob on the inside of the door was missing. I knew this and was keeping the door ajar, but in climbing the ladder I inadvertently bumped the door, and it clicked shut. I tried to open it, but there was nothing to get hold of.
Although alone in the house, I had no sense of fear, but I knew that my husband would be worried and would not have a way to get home if I did not go for him in the car. There was no one within call, I kept declaring: "I am not alone; there is no place where God is not. He is all power and all presence, and He is with me now." I continued with my painting, but in a few minutes the electricity went off, and I was in inky blackness. As it would be hours before anyone was to come, and as I had tried unsuccessfully to open the latch with a bobby pin and a safety pin, I just sat down on the floor and turned my thought wholly to God.
A short time before, I had heard a Christian Science lecturer tell of a man who was accidentally locked in the hold of a ship and of his praying and listening for God's voice, after which he was led to take the right steps to free himself. As I sat waiting on God this man's experience came to my thought. In a little while the lights came on. I noticed a nail in the wall and was able to work it loose with my fingers. It was small and almost headless, but by holding it with a cloth I was able to grip it tightly enough to press it against the latch. I did this, and the door opened.
I know that it was the guiding power of God that kept me from being frightened and showed me how to free myself. I hope that my experiences may serve "to light a small candle" for others on the way from sense to Soul.— Marysville, Washington.
