THE BIBLE IN MY LIFE December 3, 2007 Issue

HEALING FOR EVERYONE

CHARLES FERRIS

My Earliest and Most Vivid recollection of the Bible, apart from its stories, which I mostly enjoyed, is of learning the Ten Commandments by heart as a child. I well recall several occasions when as punishment for misbehavior I was required to write them out in their entirety.

At one time, when I was six or seven years old, I was talking with a neighbor who said she had a toothache. So I told her I would pray for her by saying the Ten Commandments, and I was sure she would be healed. She was Jewish, so I'm fairly certain she would have been familiar with that segment in the Bible book of Exodus. With youthful zeal and innocence, I prayed the way I'd been taught at home and in Sunday School, and I wasn't really surprised when our neighbor later reported to my mother that her toothache had gone away.

That healing was a great encouragement to me, especially when I became more fully engaged in a study of the teachings of Christian Science. What was especially fascinating for me was that the more I explored the deep truths contained in the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the more I discovered how firmly Mary Baker Eddy's insights were grounded in the Bible.