I have always been grateful for my first healings in Christian Science, which were all instantaneous. I had always studied and loved the Bible. I had become an orphan at the age of twelve years, and since then the Bible had been my closest companion.
I was suffering from indigestion and stomach trouble and was being treated by one of the best medical specialists in this field in New York City. I was on a strict diet and taking much medicine.
One day, while walking with my sister, I toppled over in the street. My sister said, "I know little of Christian Science, but I have heard of their marvelous healings."
We were very near a public library. We stopped in to rest, and she found me a Christian Science Sentinel, the Christian Scientists' weekly publication. I didn't stop reading until I had read every word of it. I knew at once that I had found the Science of all the healings by Jesus recorded in the Bible. I read of similar healings that were being performed today in Christian Science.
My consciousness was flooded with a great light, which has never left me. I knew I had been instantly healed. I rushed home, threw out all my medicine, and ate a hearty dinner. It was instantly proved that I was healed, that I had found the truth. My food was so thoroughly digested that in a short time I was hungry again. I have been eating normally ever since without any sign of trouble.
Soon afterward I found the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. While reading it, I was healed of nose and throat troubles, headaches, and other ailments.
The healing which meant most to me was that of grief. My mother had passed on six years previously, and I was still grieving. From the study of the textbook I learned of the great motherhood of God, and on page 266 of the book I found this passage: "Would existence without personal friends be to you a blank? Then the time will come when you will be solitary, left without sympathy; but this seeming vacuum is already filled with divine Love." The truth that the seeming vacuum in my life was already filled with divine Love healed my grief completely.
From then on my whole life changed. I found and attended Christian Science churches and Reading Rooms wherever I traveled, which was in the United States, Canada, and Australia; and every undertaking proved successful.
I was a dramatic actress and a dancer. In one of my performances, while dancing, I dislocated one ankle. I was carried to a chair, and while others were looking at my foot, I was praying with "the scientific statement of being," found on page 468 of the textbook. The statement begins with these words: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." I was taken to my hotel, and I at once called a Christian Science practitioner. On retiring, I looked at my foot. A bone stuck out in a point; the foot was very swollen and black. I had a good night's sleep and in the morning found the bone back in place, the discoloring and swelling gone, and the foot completely healed. I went right back to the theater and danced that day.
Later on I married and left the stage. In our family we have had many healings. I wish to mention by name a few of the ailments healed: pneumonia, neuralgia, neuritis, skin disorders, fevers, colds, and so-called children's diseases. Lost articles, some quite valuable, have been recovered. Christian Science also heals sin. Bad behavior resulted in the complete breakdown of a member of the family. The behavior was corrected and health restored through prayer in Science.
Christian Science has been of great value and help to me in my branch church work. When problems have arisen, they have been quickly solved, and discord has been replaced by harmony—all this by studying more and gaining a greater sense of Love, following the Golden Rule, and expressing more gratitude for Mrs. Eddy, who gave us Christian Science and the Church of Christ, Scientist.
I am deeply grateful for church membership, class instruction, and for the selfless, consecrated practitioners, who help us in our journey "from sense to Soul" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 64).
Millbrae Highlands, California
