While visiting a friend many years ago, I picked up the textbook, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, and read in the Glossary the definition of God (p. 587): "The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." This enlightened concept of God led me into the study of Christian Science, and since then I have used it to work out problems of various kinds.
One day I slipped and fell against the sharp edge of a table, cutting a gash between my eyes, and for a few moments I lapsed into unconsciousness. The continued ringing of the doorbell aroused me, and I was able to get on my feet and admit a relative. He helped me to care for the wound, which was bleeding profusely.
I refused his kind offer to remain with me, and upon his departure I sat down and began thinking along these lines: "What caused this accident? What error have I been harboring in my consciousness?"
It did not take me many minutes to realize that I was attempting to work from a material effect back to a material cause; whereas Mrs. Eddy tells us (Science and Health, p. 207): "There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no reality in aught which does not proceed from this great and only cause." I could see that God is the only cause and creator and that man is created in His image and likeness.
However, when I started to get to my feet, I became dizzy; my eyes began to twitch, and I could not focus them properly. A great sense of fear overwhelmed me, and I felt in need of help. By holding to the door and the furniture, I managed to reach the telephone and call a practitioner, who said she would take up the work immediately.
I lay down and fell asleep at once. When I awoke an hour later, the twitching had ceased, my vision was normal, and I was completely free from pain. It was demonstrated to me that "perfect love casteth out fear" (I John 4:18). In two days' time the gash between my eyes was entirely healed.
One Wednesday evening I was walking across the parking lot adjacent to our church. Suddenly a teen-age boy came from behind, and without uttering a word tore my bag from my arm and ran off into the darkness. I knew that our Father-Mother God never created a child capable of stealing, and I held to the thought that evil was no part of the boy's real selfhood as a son of God. Then I went on to church.
I was very grateful that I had not been harmed. However, I felt concerned regarding some valuable papers and keys in my bag which might be difficult to replace. Then my gaze rested upon this Bible passage on the front wall of the church (Matt. 6:8), "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him," and I felt calm and composed throughout the service.
After church a friend drove me home. I had not been in the house more than fifteen minutes when the police telephoned to inform me that they had apprehended the boy and that he had all the contents of my bag in his pockets. The purse itself, badly torn and water-soaked, was recovered the next day in the yard of a residence near the church. About three weeks later I received through the court a check for the full value of my purse.
My heartfelt gratitude goes out to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, who has restored the lost element of Christian healing for all mankind. It is my privilege to be a member of The Mother Church, to have the joy of serving in a branch church, and to have received class instruction— Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
