Christian Science was presented to my family about four years after my father had passed on. I was ten years of age at that time. There was no Church of Christ, Scientist, nearby where we could attend services, and our progress in Science was slow. Eighteen years later my husband and I had the privilege of attending our first Christian Science church service.
I am grateful to our Father-Mother God for His Son, Christ Jesus; for the promised Comforter, Christian Science, which is the final and complete revelation of the healing Truth; for our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, the revelator of Truth to this age; for every avenue through which the truth is reaching mankind; for membership in The Mother Church and a branch church; for class instruction and the annual association meeting; for past and present opportunities to serve the Cause in many capacities; and for the consecrated practitioners.
Through my own prayerful work I have been healed of fear of storms, severe sprains, broken bones, blood poisoning in my foot, and of grief when loved ones passed on. I was also healed of self-consciousness, of pinkeye in two days, and of mumps in three days.
I am grateful for the spiritual understanding of home. It is an indestructible spiritual concept; and as the child of God, the spiritual idea of Mind, man is at home in Mind at all times. Man's real home is heaven, harmony.
In 1957 my husband and I joined a group in another city. We were to depart with them the next day en route to the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church. The next afternoon, just as the chartered bus was ready to depart, we received a long-distance telephone call, stating that our seven houses and seventy-eight other houses had been destroyed by a cyclone.
From a mortal mind viewpoint it seemed that we should return home. But we took a firm stand on the truth that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble" (Ps. 46:1). We stood as did Elijah on the mount of exalted thought, from which we could see that God does not send disasters of any kind (see I Kings 19:11, 12) and that we can only experience what we admit into our consciousness; that we must refuse to accept any sense of loss, for in Mind the destruction had never really happened; that we were in our rightful place; and that actually there could be nothing but good going on everywhere. Prayerful work which we had done before leaving home was not in vain, for in all that destruction, which seemed so real to those who were in it, there were no fatalities and very few injuries.
Our prayers so completely liberated the thought of those who were taking care of our affairs that when I called that night from our hotel in another state and asked if they thought we should return, they said it was not necessary, that everything had already been stored, and that we should go on and have a good vacation.
I was never more conscious of God's presence, and there was no time for self-pity and tears. I knew that I must not look back to the delusion that matter is substance, but must know that error, whether it is an illusion of disease, earthquake, or storm, is a false suggestion and cannot really be localized and that I must never think of any place in the whole world as being the center for any specific form of error. Words are inadequate to express what I really visualized and understood. The power of Truth gave us the courage and spiritual strength whereby to obey divine direction, which is always, "Forward."
Eight days after our return home, we drove around in this city where we now live for about fifteen minutes before a Wednesday evening testimony meeting. We were divinely directed to a new brick home almost finished, and it was for sale. We contacted the contractor the next day; he gave us three days to make our final decision, but we went back the next afternoon and closed the deal. Our clear concept of home as established in Mind eliminated a time-consuming ordeal of spending days looking for a house; we only needed to select one. We moved just seven weeks and two days after our return home.
Nothing but good has come to us through this experience. True compensation far exceeds materiality. We are still enjoying the fruitage of our prayers, are near our church work, and God's infinite care and provision continue to be manifested more fully. There are many more detailed facets of this healing, and we gain new inspiration each time we review them. I can humbly say, "What wondrous things God hath wrought!"
Plainview, Texas
I gratefully verify my wife's testimony. Everything took place just as she has stated. I too received much inspiration while attending the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church. I have enjoyed the blessings of Christian Science ever since my marriage, even though I did not begin studying it until nine years later.
Our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes in Science and Health (p. 14), "Become conscious for a single moment that Life and intelligence are purely spiritual,— neither in nor of matter,—and the body will then utter no complaints." This statement was proved to me many years ago when our niece and I were healed of smallpox, which we had at the same time.
We were obedient to the legal requirements. We looked on this experience as being in school, and we tried to learn well each day's lesson in Christian Science. One evening my wife was singing Hymn No. 341 in the Christian Science Hymnal. The first verse of the hymn reads,
They who seek the throne of grace,
Find that throne in every place:
If we live a life of prayer,
God is present everywhere.
I am grateful for the prayerful work of the consecrated practitioner who gave me treatment, for membership in The Mother Church and a branch church, and for the privilege of serving in the latter.
