"Gratitude and love should abide in every heart each day of all the years" (Manual of The Mother Church by Mrs. Eddy,Art. XVII, Sect. 2). I am grateful for the wonderful privilege of having been reared in a Christian' Science home and for the opportunity of applying its teachings each day.
While I was still a senior in high school, my mother and I began to look forward to my attendance at college. Although we had no idea how this was to be financed, we kept our thinking open to God's goodness. We earnestly felt that a college education, like high school, was part of my school days and would be provided for at the right time. At first a plan was made for me to attend a school for the sons and daughters of Christian Scientists. But our human planning was uplifted by a statement made by my mother's teacher in Christian Science, who pointed out that God's plan is the only real plan and that His love will reveal it. We knew then that I could never be outside Principle, God, and we held to the promise from the words of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy (Science and Health, p. 507), "Spirit duly feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the fatherhood and motherhood of God."
Near the end of the high school term, I received from a local university a four-year scholarship, which included full payment for each semester's books. Several years later, during my study for a master's degree at another university, Love's provision was again proved to be abundant.
Throughout my college days, I experienced many instances of God's loving care, manifested in quick healings of colds, protection on automobile trips, adjustments in human relationships, and help throughout examinations. But the demonstration for which I am most grateful concerned my activity in a sorority.
Like many college freshmen, I wanted to enjoy the companionship of sorority sisters, but my association with these groups had revealed that the majority of the girls smoked and indulged in social drinking. Turning to God for guidance and knowing that God does not exclude His children from any good, I was led to study the citation in the Bible (John 17:15), "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil."
Soon I joined one group, of which a minority of the members smoked. Although there were no Christian Scientists in this organization, I had many happy experiences with these girls. Then about the middle of my sophomore year I realized that an unusual event had occurred: the small number of members who had smoked at our functions either had graduated or had left college, and there was not a member of the sorority who smoked.
Since this sorority was a chapter of a national organization, we had occasion at various times to entertain many guests from all parts of the country. These women were always amazed that this chapter was 100 per cent nonsmoking, because no other chapter in the United States had achieved anywhere near this percentage. This fact soon became a source of pride to my sorority, and from that time on, it was an unwritten rule to accept no new member who smoked or who drank. To me this was indeed proof of the power of divine Principle operating in human thought.
I should also like to express my gratitude for the Christian Science college organizations, for membership in The Mother Church, for class instruction, and for our revered Leader and her priceless gift to the world, Christian Science.— Boston, Massachusetts.
