Testimonials

TESTIMONIES OF HEALING As you study Christian Science you find you no longer have to rely on others for healing and regeneration, for this Science removes the mysticism surrounding spiritual healing, and makes it possible for you to do your own prayerful healing work. Millions of Christian Scientists over the past century have relied on this Science alone to meet their every need. Their accounts of healing given here show how you can understand and practice spiritual using a form of prayer that is scientific, based on the spiritual laws underlying Christ Jesus’ healing works. Such healing is not blind faith, but divine revelation taking place in individual consciousness. These testimonies are from people of all walks of life, who in their extremity turned to God for help and found it. Their experiences are not unique. There are on record thousands of testimonies to prove that the truth found in Christian Science is more powerful and effective than any other means for meeting today’s challenges. The following testimonies, taken from Christian Science publications, offer proof that the miracles of Jesus' time are possible today. You too can experience healing results from the study of Christian Science, for spiritual healing is readily available to anyone earnestly seeking it in Christian Science. The following testimonies are taken from a number of sources. The last hundred pages of Science and Health have testimonies from those who were healed of incurable diseases through reading this book. The following two testimonies are from this chapter entitled “Fruitage”: Healed of Consumption and Asthma: It is a pleasure to acknowledge the great benefits which have come to me through Christian Science. It is nearly ten years since I began the investigation of the subject by borrowing a copy of Science and Health. I had become a hopeless sufferer from asthma, the disease being so aggravated at times as to make breathing almost impossible. I was also a victim of that dread disease, consumption. It was hereditary, nearly all my family on both sides having passed away with it. I took up Christian Science very much as a drowning man catches at a straw. However, I was much interested as soon as I began to understand it; and having read the book nearly all my waking hours for a few weeks, I became so much better and so convinced of its truth, that myself and wife destroyed all the medicines in the home, and have never since used any remedy except Christian Science. I continued to study and to put into practice the teaching as best I knew, and was restored to health within a few months. Prior to my investigation of Christian Science I had been from boyhood an outspoken infidel, had read that class of literature extensively, and had no desire for anything of a religious nature, the orthodox teaching never having appealed to me as a rational exposition of an all-wise God. I now have no more doubt of the truth of the teaching of the great Way-shower, Jesus of Nazareth, than I doubt the correctness of the basic law of mathematics or music. I have no doubt whatever that Christian Science saved me from the grave, and thus proved a most practicable and efficient help in time of greatest need. However great my physical suffering has been, I can but feel glad that through it the door of consciousness was opened to let in the light of Truth. Thus I have progressed a little way in the knowledge of God, good, as revealed in Christian Science. C. B., Webb City, Missouri A Testimony from Scotland: I came to Christian Science purely for physical healing. I was very ill and unhappy; very cynical and disbelieving in regard to what I heard of God and religion. I tried to live my life in my own way and put religion aside. I was a great believer in fate and in will-power, and thought to put them in the place of God, with the consequence that I was led to do many rash and foolish things. I am now thankful to say that my outlook on life is entirely changed; I have proved God's wisdom and goodness so often that I am willing and thankful to know my future is in His hands and that all things must work out for the best. I have found a God whom I can love and worship with my whole heart, and I now read my Bible with interest and understanding. I was healed of very bad rheumatism simply by reading Science and Health. I had tried many medicines, also massage, with no result and the doctors told me that I would always suffer from this disease, as it was inherited, and also because I had rheumatic fever when a child. I suffered day and night, and nothing relieved me until Science proved to me the falseness of this belief by removing it. I gave up all the medicines I was taking and have never touched any since, and that is more than two years ago. Before this I had often tried to do without medicine that I had taken every day for ten years, but was always ill and had to return to it, until I found out that the one Mind is the only medicine, and then I was freed from the suffering. I had also suffered constantly from bilious attacks, colds, and a weak chest and had been warned not to be out in wet weather, etc., but now, I am glad to say, I am quite free from all those material laws and go out in all sorts of weather. R. D. F., Edinburgh, Scotland * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A second book by Mrs. Eddy, entitled “Miscellaneous Writings,” has seventy pages of letters written to her expressing heart-felt gratitude for the healings that came from reading Science and Health. The first testimony tells how the writer not only healed himself, but others who asked him to pray for them: I am glad to tell how I was healed. Beliefs of consumption, dyspepsia, neuralgia, piles, tobacco, and bad language held me in bondage for many years. Doctors that were consulted did nothing to relieve me, and I constantly grew worse. Nearly two years ago a lady told me that if I would read a book called “Science and Health” I would be healed. I told her I would “go into it for all it is worth,” and I have found that it is worth all. I got the book. And read day and night. I saw that it must be true, and believed that what I could not then understand would be made clear later. After some days’ reading I was affected with drowsiness, followed by vomiting. This lasted several hours; when I fell into a sleep and awoke healed. The good I have received, and that I have been able to do in healing others, has all come from Science and Health. I have received some instructions from teachers; but they did me more harm than good: I asked for bread, but they gave me a stone. I held to what I could understand of Science and Health; and the truth does not forsake me, but enables me to heal others. Last February, I was called to treat a child that the M.D.’s said was dying from lung fever; after about the third treatment the child got up and ran about, completely healed. Another child was brought to me, with rupture; the second treatment, the truss was thrown away. An aged lady was healed of heart disease and chills, in one treatment. These cases brought me many more, that were also healed. The husband of a lady in the State Lunatic Asylum asked me to treat her; she had been for two years and a half in the asylum, and though taken home in this time once or twice, she had had to be taken back. After two weeks of absent treatment, the husband visited her, and the doctor reported great improvement during the preceding two weeks. At the end of another two weeks I went with the husband to the asylum, and the doctor told us she was well enough to go home. The husband asked the doctor how it was that she improved so rapidly, and he said he could not account for it. We said nothing about the Christian Science treatment, and took the lady home. This was about a year ago, and she has remained perfectly well. Many cases as striking as this can be referred to in this town, as evidence that Truth is the healer of sickness as well as of sin. - J.B.H. Another testifier writes of overcoming the symptoms of old age: About three years ago I was near death’s door with various troubles; also, was seventy years old. I had a desire to know something of Christian Science. I procured the textbook, and studied it with the desire to know the truth. At first all was dark; but light began slowly to come, and at the end of three months I found my physical claims all gone and my eyesight restored. At the end of three months more, I had gained thirty-five pounds in weight. I had been an infidel, and the change from that came more slowly; but now I know my Redeemer lives, and I am able by divine grace to make very convincing demonstrations. J.S., Rudd, Iowa Another testifier writes of a life of pain and invalidism overcome: I was sick for a number of years with what some of the most skillful physicians pronounced an incurable disease. The more I tried to get help, the the worse I became, until a life of pain and helplessness seemed unavoidable. Two years ago I heard of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, began reading it and trying to live up to its teachings. At first, my beliefs were so strong I made but little progress; but gradually my disease gave way, and finally disappeared, and today I am a well woman. I cannot express the gratitude I feel for what the light shining through the teachings of that book did for me. (Mrs.) Emily T. Howe, Norway, Maine * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * In 1883 Mrs. Eddy started The Christian Science Journal, and testimonies of healing were included in every issue. The Christian Science Sentinel also included testimonies of healing. Over the years these periodicals have recorded thousands upon thousands of verified testimonies as proof of the healing power of Christian Science. Many of these testimonies tell how the person turned to a Christian Science practitioner for help. Mrs. Eddy not only healed those who came to her for help, but she taught her students how to heal others through prayer alone. As a result, during the early years of the Church, there were many deeply dedicated Christian Science practitioners engaged in the healing work. But during the last thirty years, as these dedicated workers have passed on, there have been few who have had the dedication and spiritual understanding to replace them. But as practitioners have slowly faded from the scene, something new and more practical has come about. Originally the instruction needed to be successful in healing was taught only to selected members of the Church. But it is now freely available through the literature found in The Bookmark. These writings supplement Mrs. Eddy’s writings. They teach you how to do your own healing work, and how to heal others. The following testimonies were taken mainly from the Christian Science periodicals published over the past hundred years. They have been selected to show that Christian Science is not confined to the healing of sickness and disease, but it can meet every challenge we. These testimonies are from many different people with many difficult challenges. They illustrate the breath and scope of spiritual healing and how it can be used for all our needs. The following healing from The Christian Science Journal, tells how a life of hopelessness and despair became one of health and happiness: For many years life had been full of disappointment and loss, and one night over four years ago, things seemed to have reached a climax. In a state of utter hopelessness and with a deep yearning for something beyond and above my past experience, I went out into the garden alone. The night was black, but its blackness suited my mood as I wandered to and fro and pondered the monotony and misery of my daily life. My life seemed a failure. Domestic troubles and business worries, together with the feeling that something within me was craving for expression combined to harass me beyond endurance. I was lonely, disappointed, forsaken, cast down, and utterly broken; without a friend and without a home. A variety of circumstances seemed to have contributed to the condition in which I found myself. Some were the result of my own recklessness and folly, and some were apparently outside my control. However that might be, here I was a comparatively young man, at the end of my tether and longing to pass out of this miserable mockery of existence into the oblivion which at that time I believed death to be. I cried aloud, in the poignancy of my grief, that if God really was, I might be led to find Him. The world had wounded me and I was in dire distress, humbled, and longing for rest and peace. Presently it seemed that a kind of soft silence stole upon my thought, and I was soothed and comforted. I could not explain it then, even to myself, but somehow I felt that things were going to be different. My prayer was answered! The following night I heard, for the first time, of Christian Science and bought a copy of "Science and Health." The opening sentence of the "Preface" illuminated my outlook upon the future, and I felt instinctively that through this book I was about to learn the way out of the wilderness where hearts are broken and joy is dead, into the paths of happiness and peace. I went away to a neighboring town, where I could read without fear of interruption, and read the book from cover to cover. It would be impossible to describe the wonder and awe that I experienced as "line upon line" and "precept upon precept" quenched my thirsting thought; but I knew I would be healed physically, morally, and mentally. It was so. In a week or two I was freed entirely of habits of drinking and smoking to excess, habits which had been as chains about my neck for many years, and which I had over and over again done my utmost to break through the power of my will, but without avail. In a week or two more I had been healed of varicose veins which were so bad that a doctor told me I must wear a bandage for the rest of my life. But above all, I was healed of a mental unrest which amounted to a positive torture, and which only those can understand who have discovered the dust and ashes of a trust apart from God. Today I am full of happiness and exalted purpose, and all that I know by way of heavenly rest and peace has come to me solely and entirely through a careful and conscientious study of "Science and Health." It is only to be expected that I would be profoundly grateful to Mrs. Eddy. I am! The stupendous achievement of discovering and protecting the outgoings of Christian Science naturally and necessarily compels the love and gratitude of its beneficiaries as well as the wonder and respect of all thinking persons. There are many thousands of men and women scatted abroad in the great commercial cities of the world who are stricken as I was, and from whose lives all happiness has been remorselessly squeezed by a merciless competition and fierce toil, who have been misled and deceived by false ideals and meaningless endeavors. To all such it is my prayer that this testimony may be divinely directed, and that its meaning may be crystallized for them into one little word, "Hope!" Knowing that the night of blackness and ignorance is far spent, I would conclude by saying with a well-known English statesman of the last generation, "Methinks I see, beyond the hill-tops of time, the dawning of a better and a brighter day for the country and the people that I love so well." Wm. Pitfield, Manchester, England The Christian Science Journal, 1912 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The next experience tells of overcoming severe lack through prayer: At one time I found myself penniless in a strange city. I'd gone with a group of sales people I'd made connection with. But we'd only been there a day when these men began talking about leaving town without paying the hotel bill. I couldn't go along with anything like that, so I separated myself from them. But I was penniless, so I went to the manager, and told him I didn't have the means to pay the bill, but that I would have. Then I went to the Christian Science Reading Room to study and pray. I knew this was the only way I could possibly solve the problem. As I prayed for direction and guidance, the thought came very strongly to give. But I thought, "I don't have anything to give." That happened several times as I sat there and prayed. Finally the thought of service began to come to me. Well, I turned that over in my mind until I finally saw how I could be of service. At one time I'd sold a piece of equipment used by hotels, restaurants, and stores - a meat slicing machine. It consisted of over a thousand parts and I knew everyone of them. In fact, I had a set of servicing tools right in my car. These machines were in common use everywhere, but merchants were required to ship them back to the factory for repairs. So here was my answer. I decided to make some calls and offer to service these machines. And I was received with open arms. Between three and five that afternoon, I'd lined up enough work for two weeks. And for two years after that I made a living in this way, covering six states. A. M., Chicago, Illinois * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This healing was for a baby who was not expected to live: Some years ago my first baby was born with water on the brain, and the bones on the top of the head were closed. The doctor said that the child could not possibly live more than two weeks. He called in another doctor and the verdict was the same. The child was removed to a private hospital, where the spine was to be punctured to remove some of the water and relieve the pressure on the brain, but with no hope of healing the child. The evening before the operation my sister came to me, and, although I knew nothing about Christian Science, she at once let a Christian Science practitioner know of the child’s hopeless condition. When the doctors arrived the next morning to perform the operation they found the nurses in a great state of excitement, for during the night the child had been perfectly healed. During the three months that followed the child lost all trace of malnutrition and the bones on the top of the head separated in a normal way. The Doctor could not believe it possible, so I took the baby for him to see. He said that I must have a remarkable child, as he had never seen or heard of a recovery from a similar condition. Some time afterwards the child’s photograph took the prize for the most beautiful child-study in Australia. (Mrs.) Gladys Field Subiaco, Western Australia Christian Science Sentinel, November 21, 1931 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A man in South Africa tells how Christian Science blessed everyone on his ranch, including the animals: At the time of which I write, we were sheep-farming about fifty miles from Bloemfontein, in the Orange Free State, and had to meet many difficulties, among which were stock diseases, drought, and the locust pest. My sister, seeing the effect of Christian Science on me, also became an earnest student, and from then on we began to use the little understanding we had to meet our difficulties. During two periods of drought our stock were kept alive by the realization of God’s power to maintain His ideas. Some neighbors lost many sheep, even though they moved their flocks to what seemed better pasture, while our flocks remained on our farms. We ceased to dose our sheep as a preventative against disease, and our loses were negligible as compared to the death rate on neighboring farms, where continued dosing was practiced. Sheep, horses, and cattle treated in Christian Science recovered from diseases that, from a material point of view, were considered fatal. Further, we were privileged to witness a most convincing proof of the power of Truth to heal even those who have no understanding of divine Principle. A native, who for months had complained of severe pain, was sent to a doctor, who diagnosed his malady as a severe case of sciatica, which could be cured only by a three months’ course of injections. The case was completely healed by Christian Science in a week. In due course other native servants asked for help, and later, when we sold our farms, all the natives living on them had ceased to use medicine. When I look back on the past seven years with its trials and triumphs for Truth, I can only say with the Psalmist, “Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgements are a great deep: O Lord, thou preservest man and beast.” Hubert T. Back Rosebank, Cape Province, South Africa Christian Science Sentinel, August 8, 1931 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This testimony tells of the overcoming of addiction of alcohol and tobacco: When I first heard of Christian Science I had been a confirmed drunkard and smoker for nearly twenty years; and incredible as it may seem, I had not been sober for two years. I had often tried to conquer the craving for strong drink, but had failed utterly, and had become such a slave to it that I almost lived on it, taking very little else. Fear that I might sometime be unable to obtain drink had frequently caused me to hide bottles of beer in the ash can. My habits had reduced me to a physical wreck, but even this was only part of my misery. For years our home had been a habitation of discord. My husband was a drunkard, and had frequently caused me serious injuries when under the influence of drink. Finally he found it impossible to live with me, and left me, saying he would never return. This caused me to be pennyless, and at the time of which I write my only possessions were a pot of beer and the rags in which I was clad. My bed, furniture, and clothing had been sold or pawned to buy drink. The house in which I lived was empty, and although it was winter time, I had neither food nor fire. My relatives and neighbors shunned me; and my loneliness and misery were such that I had tried to end my life, but this had been prevented. That was my condition when a lady, who I afterwards found was a Christian Science practitioner, knocked at my door to make some inquiry. She did not know me, and knew nothing of my plight, but at once saw that I was ill; and her comforting remarks caused me to tell her my tale of woe, which I concluded by saying that no one cared for me. My visitor instantly replied: “But God cares for you, and I care for you. God is your Father and Mother, and He loves you just as He loves us all. He supplies all your needs, and gives you health and happiness.” At that moment all craving for drink left me, and I was healed physically and morally. I was conscious of a sense of love and peace and hope that I had never known before. The lady asked if I would pour out the pot of beer; and I immediately did so, having no desire for it. She then purchased a supply of food and clothing for me, and left me until the following day, when my husband returned home. He told me that on the previous day, when about to enter a beer house, he felt that he could not go in, and found that all desire of drink had left him, and he suddenly longed to return home. He was astonished to find me changed into a happy woman, healed of all my sickness as well as of the drink and tobacco habits. Neither of us has ever touched drink from that day to this, and it is now six and a half years since we were healed. Though my husband was twenty miles away, he was healed at the same time and as quickly as I myself, and his character was also instantly reformed. I am now a well woman leading a normal and happy life. My husband, relatives, and friends are all restored to me, and our home is now one of peace, harmony, and love. (Mrs.) Sarah Ellen Walker Todmorden, Yorkshire, England Christian Science Sentinel March 24, 1928 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Given only a short time to live, this man turned to Christian Science and was healed: Since I was healed of consumption simply by reading the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, without ever seeing or speaking to a practitioner, it is my great hope that this testimony will encourage those who seem unable to get help from others to realize that through the study of the textbook alone they can get their freedom from sickness and sin. Over twenty years ago I was a physical and mental wreck. I was suffering from consumption. On the advice of a medical specialist I went to live in sanatoriums in England and in Switzerland in search for health, but I did not improve. Being a soldier, at the end of one year I had to go before a medical board who would decide whether I should remain in the army or be retired. The specialist in Switzerland under whose care I was, gave me no hope. His verdict was that I must leave the army, and that if I lived in the open air I might exist for two or three years. Six weeks before I was due to go before the medical board, a friend lent me Science and Health, and asked me to read it. I knew nothing about Christian Science, but I did not read much of this book before I realized that it was something I had been searching for all my life, namely a reasonable and logical Christianity. As I read, I began to understand something of what the Bible means, something of what Jesus means, something of his teachings and of his works, and this filled me with a peace and joy which I had never known before. I was so absorbed and interested in this book that I ceased to think about my body or the disease. I had found a God whom I could understand. My one desire was to know more about this God, and I could scarcely stop reading Science and Health day or night. At the end of six weeks, just before my medical board examination, I went to see the medical specialist who had originally sent me to live in sanatoriums. To his amazement and mine, he could find nothing wrong with me. I had been healed simply by reading the book, and as proof of that healing, I was passed by the medical board, returned to duty, and within a few years went to the war in France and remained there from 1914 to 1918 without being wounded, sick, or sorry. My healing was a wonderful experience, because I realized that if God could heal anything at all, then obviously God could heal everything. If the realization of the truth about God and man could heal an individual, then this same truth could heal the relations between capitol and labor, could some the problems of supply and unemployment, and all the troubles, both national and international with which the world is confronted today; and finally I realized that the brotherhood of man, which I had always regarded as a pious hope, was and is a practical proposition. General Spencer E. Hollond London, England Christian Science Sentinel, January 30, 1937 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * An athiest tells how he found God and was healed of a painful back injury: It seemed to me many things in the world were so very wrong. It was my firm conviction that if there was a God, He had made a real mess of creation, and left man ill-equipped to put things right. I’d been affiliated with two or three faiths at different times but being dissatisfied, I began to study philosophies. But that didn’t satisfy me either. I found that in order to accept the conclusions of these philosophies, you first had to accept the premises. And the premises were by definition just hypotheses and suppositions. No matter how far you followed them, there was no point where you could stop and say - this is it, this is the truth. It just wasn’t there. I was impressed by the rigorous standard of logic I encountered, but there was no reason to accept the conclusions of these philosophies as being any more valid than the assumptions. And the assumptions about God, if nothing else, seemed a bit confused. At the same time, I wondered why Christianity, as I knew it then, wasn’t explained with the same kind of faultless quality of reasoning. I became an atheist, and I thought if I could find nothing more satisfactory than atheism, at least I wanted to be a good one. So for ten years I studied and thought in that direction. My wife had always been a Christian Scientist. Of course, I didn’t really accept her views - in fact, I always argued with her about it. But I saw several good healings through Christian Science, right in my own family, and I had to admit there was something there - something I needed very much. So I set myself seriously to the task of trying to understand Christian Science. Christian truths are beautiful in their simplicity, but I was still arguing on the side of matter. To me matter was substance and basis to all life. You see, I’d spent many years studying it, weighing it, measuring it, considering its uses, limitations, handicaps. It seemed much more real to me than God, about whom I knew little or nothing. At first I couldn’t accept Christian Science. I remember one day, while driving a farm tractor, I was thinking about a statement in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy writes, “There is no life, truth, intelligence nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” That seemed impossible to accept, when the sun was blazing down, the transmission case was burning my feet, a choking dust was boiling up from the plows, and the exhaust was roaring in my ears. Then there was another thing that struck me as utterly impossible - the Bible statement that man was made in the image and likeness of God. How in the name of logic, I wondered, could each individual in the diverse multitude of humanity be the image and likeness of the one alone God? Well. It was soon after this I had a healing myself through Christian Science treatment. That’s when my thinking began to change completely. It was a crippling back condition. As a young lad, I had fallen about twenty feet from a tree when a limb had broken off. I’d injured some of the vertebrae in my back and had trouble with it ever since, including sometimes extreme pain. One day I was driving a heavily loaded truck, and the pain became so bad I had to ease the stuck to the side of the road and stop. After some time I managed to get home and into bed. Then I agreed my wife should call a Christian Science practitioner. The practitioner came to the house. One of the things he discussed was how much God loved me. He spoke with such deep conviction that I found myself really believing that there was at least that possibility. On about the second or third day, after a little nap, I woke up with a very warm sense of light. It was a wonderful inward glow of light and love. Apparently it was that my consciousness was opening up to the real presence and meaning of divine Love. But anyway, I knew right then that I was healed. And I was healed. Never again did I feel any pain from this back. Actually, though, the physical healing wasn’t the most important part of it. The really important thing to me was this. I now was satisfied there is a God, a very loving God, and that I could turn to Him again and again, in perfect trust, no matter what the problem might be. I had to come to firm grips with this business of matter. I had to move my thinking over into an area where I could recognize God, divine Mind, as the starting point. I had to see that Spirit, God, is All, completely supreme, as Christian Science teaches. Therefore that matter is an illusion, or false concept, is actually unreal. Steeped in materialism as I was, this was a long distance to travel. And it wasn’t easy. But I studying it, weighing it, measuring it, considering its uses, limitations, handicaps. It seemed much more real to me than God, about whom I knew little or nothing. At first I couldn’t accept Christian Science. I remember one day, while driving a farm tractor, I was thinking about a statement in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy writes, “There is no life, truth, intelligence nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” That seemed impossible to accept, when the sun was blazing down, the transmission case was burning my feet, a choking dust was boiling up from the plows, and the exhaust was roaring in my ears. Then there was another thing that struck me as utterly impossible - the Bible statement that man was made in the image and likeness of God. How in the name of logic, I wondered, could each individual in the diverse multitude of humanity be the image and likeness of the one alone God? Well. It was soon after this I had a healing myself through Christian Science treatment. That’s when my thinking began to change completely. It was a crippling back condition. As a young lad, I had fallen about twenty feet from a tree when a limb had broken off. I’d injured some of the vertebrae in my back and had trouble with it ever since, including sometimes extreme pain. One day I was driving a heavily loaded truck, and the pain became so bad I had to ease the stuck to the side of the road and stop. After some time I managed to get home and into bed. Then I agreed my wife should call a Christian Science practitioner. The practitioner came to the house. One of the things he discussed was how much God loved me. He spoke with such deep conviction that I found myself really believing that there was at least that possibility. On about the second or third day, after a little nap, I woke up with a very warm sense of light. It was a wonderful inward glow of light and love. Apparently it was that my consciousness was opening up to the real presence and meaning of divine Love. But anyway, I knew right then that I was healed. And I was healed. Never again did I feel any pain from this back. Actually, though, the physical healing wasn’t the most important part of it. The really important thing to me was this. I now was satisfied there is a God, a very loving God, and that I could turn to Him again and again, in perfect trust, no matter what the problem might be. I had to come to firm grips with this business of matter. I had to move my thinking over into an area where I could recognize God, divine Mind, as the starting point. I had to see that Spirit, God, is All, completely supreme, as Christian Science teaches. Therefore that matter is an illusion, or false concept, is actually unreal. Steeped in materialism as I was, this was a long distance to travel. And it wasn’t easy. But I studying it, weighing it, measuring it, considering its uses, limitations, handicaps. It seemed much more real to me than God, about whom I knew little or nothing. At first I couldn’t accept Christian Science. I remember one day, while driving a farm tractor, I was thinking about a statement in Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy writes, “There is no life, truth, intelligence nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all.” That seemed impossible to accept, when the sun was blazing down, the transmission case was burning my feet, a choking dust was boiling up from the plows, and the exhaust was roaring in my ears. Then there was another thing that struck me as utterly impossible - the Bible statement that man was made in the image and likeness of God. How in the name of logic, I wondered, could each individual in the diverse multitude of humanity be the image and likeness of the one alone God? Well. It was soon after this I had a healing myself through Christian Science treatment. That’s when my thinking began to change completely. It was a crippling back condition. As a young lad, I had fallen about twenty feet from a tree when a limb had broken off. I’d injured some of the vertebrae in my back and had trouble with it ever since, including sometimes extreme pain. One day I was driving a heavily loaded truck, and the pain became so bad I had to ease the stuck to the side of the road and stop. After some time I managed to get home and into bed. Then I agreed my wife should call a Christian Science practitioner. The practitioner came to the house. One of the things he discussed was how much God loved me. He spoke with such deep conviction that I found myself really believing that there was at least that possibility. On about the second or third day, after a little nap, I woke up with a very warm sense of light. It was a wonderful inward glow of light and love. Apparently it was that my consciousness was opening up to the real presence and meaning of divine Love. But anyway, I knew right then that I was healed. And I was healed. Never again did I feel any pain from this back. Actually, though, the physical healing wasn’t the most important part of it. The really important thing to me was this. I now was satisfied there is a God, a very loving God, and that I could turn to Him again and again, in perfect trust, no matter what the problem might be. I had to come to firm grips with this business of matter. I had to move my thinking over into an area where I could recognize God, divine Mind, as the starting point. I had to see that Spirit, God, is All, completely supreme, as Christian Science teaches. Therefore that matter is an illusion, or false concept, is actually unreal. Steeped in materialism as I was, this was a long distance to travel. And it wasn’t easy. But I could see that there isn’t an experience we have that is outside of our thinking. To accept matter into our thinking as real is to surrender our thinking to material limitations, material impositions and laws. So to break away from material concepts is not only a perfectly intelligent but legitimate thing to do. It’s not only the honest and good thing to do, but ultimately we are virtually forced to it because the propositions of matter lead to such ultimate dissatisfaction that we just throw up our hands and give them up as being utterly useless. I saw that when we accept into our thinking the real import of God’s infinitude, God’s ever-presence - and consequently when I recognize that I am the expression of God’s selfhood and have no other identity - this rules out materialistic thinking and the discords it imposes on the physical body. If man is made in the likeness of God, as the Bible says, then he can only express divine intelligence and wisdom - in fact all the spiritual qualities of God. In other words, the image of God must be a spiritual idea and not a mortal, material being. This was certainly a very new concept for me and there isn’t a part of my life that hasn’t been blessed. The pessimism and confusion disappeared. I was led to be a useful and interesting career, as an electronic scientist doing systems engineering work for the Government. Above all, I’m grateful to have found a completely satisfying answer to my search for God. Cleo N. Lawrence, Rome, New York From the Radio/TV series, “How Christian Science Heals.” * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * The following experience proves that there is no place where God’s voice is not heard. He answers us in our extreme need: On a bitterly cold day of the winter of 1943, a shipfitter at New England’s largest shipyard was installing “swash lids” on the fuel tanks of a large combat vessel. This necessitated his getting inside the tank through the “escape hole,” because the “swash lids” open downward into the tanks. He had first to bolt each lid in place with thirty-six bolts, and then weld the hinge, on which the lid swung, to the interior of the tank and to the lid. He was so numb with cold when he reached the last tank that only with great difficulty could he place enough bolts to hold the lid. Then he discovered that somewhere he had dropped the wrench to tighten the bolts. He decided to tighten them as much as he could with his fingers, and then weld the hinge on. When the welding was finished he found that the bolts he had put on with his fingers would not come out. The welding had caused a distortion of the steel, which had added a strain somewhere, and he was a prisoner by his own hand. The first scientific thought that came to him was that God is the preserver of man. He never let go of that one fact. When Satan whispered, “You’re alone and no help will come,” he knew that God was infinite, ever-present, and that therefore he was not alone. Again the whisper came: “It’s four degrees above zero and it’s now Saturday noon. If you don’t get out by three o’clock, you will be here until seven o’clock Monday morning. Do you think you’ll survive?” Then the truth came to his consciousness: “God is your Life; you cannot die.” Fear of imprisonment sought to gain control over him; but he thanked God that he knew the counter facts of every lie. All the while he was striving to twist the bolts out with his fingers, working at one, then at another, to find one he could move. It finally came to him that he must stop his human efforts and trust wholly in God. It required an actual physical effort to take his hands away from the bolts and to put them down in his lap. Then he spoke to God. He said, “God, I’m listening.” The change was wonderful. A sentence from an article, “God’s Law of Adjustment,” came to him. It was, “If a man were drowning in mid-ocean with apparently no human help at hand, there is a law of God which, when rightly appealed to, would bring about his rescue.” With this thought came certainty of God’s nearness, a positive assurance of deliverance. He waited and heard the direction, “Take out the pin in the hinge.” He removed the pin from the hinge, dropped his hands into his lap, and waited. Again the voice came: “Take out the bolt at the left.” He grasped and twisted it until it came free. He continued removing one bolt after another until only one remained that he could not move. Again he dropped his hands to his lap and waited. The angel voice said, “Pull down on the lid.” The lid bent as he pulled with all his strength so the hole was partly open. The impulse came to try to wedge his way through. But the right thought came in time: “Don’t try that; you will get caught part way and be unable to go ahead or back. Pull down again.” This time there was more than the strength of muscles. The threads were stripped from the bolt, and the lid crashed into his lap. He was free! Then he sat back in the tank and silently praised God. Man, the idea of Spirit, dwells eternally in the safety and security of divine Love, unknown to and unconscious of evil. He is not at the mercy of accident, weapon, or explosive. Those who understand this and steadfastly lean on God, can stand fast in the knowledge that though the material senses may testify to insecurity, danger, and war, there is nothing real but God and His perfect creation, nothing actu¬ally going on but the activity of good, God’s harmonious government of man and the universe. They have God’s assurance, “Behold, there is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock.” * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * This last healing tells of the freedom gained from long and severe addiction to drugs: Before I became a student of Christian Science I was one of the most miserable women living. I spent a great part of my time planning a way to end my life. I tried several different kinds of drugs, but none of them did the work they were expected to do, so I was at last forced to turn to God for relief. I earnestly prayed to Him to change my life. In less than one month Christian Science was presented to me as a study that would make me happy. I took up the earnest study of it at once; and from the first, life became buoyant with hope. The chief reason I wanted to die was my incessant craving for drugs, which was brought on when very young through a doctor's prescription at a time of severe illness. I had been in some of the best sanitariums in the state of Texas for the cure of the drug habit and would get relief for a short time; but that awful craving would come back and I would again fall its victim. I can never tell the torture I underwent in these places, each time coming out barely alive; but Christian Science, through God's infinite mercy, rescued me. I was healed of this loathsome habit in less than ten days, through the daily study of the Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly and constant reading of our textbook "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. At the same time I was healed of an internal trouble. The doctor declared I would not be able to stand on my feet another day without an operation. For these two healings, and many, many others, I am deeply grateful; but the greatest blessing of all is to know God aright. I am proving His all-presence and all-power every day; and I now know that He is my Life. There are no words to express my real gratitude for Christian Science. I shall have to express it in works. Margaret Smith, Fort Worth, Texas The Christian Science Journal, 1925 These few testimonies have been selected from the vast number that are on record, most of them as impressive and inspiring as the few given here. Healing is a way of life for dedicated Christian Scientists, and they can often tell of many healings they have experienced through their own study of this Science. If you are near a local Christian Science Reading Room, you can look in the bound volumes of The Christian Science Journal and the Christian Science Sentinel for the testimonies included in each issue. These bound volumes date back to the late 1800’s, and also include many fine articles on Christian Science. You can also purchase Science and Health and Mrs. Eddy's other published writings at any Christian Science Reading Room.