Testimony of Healing August 12, 1905 Issue

My heart goes out in thankfulness to God for the revelation...

F. B. Leaper

My heart goes out in thankfulness to God for the revelation of Truth as it is given to us in Science and Health, knowing by experience that it brings to us life, liberty, and love. In the proportion that we understand Christian Science do we indeed become the children of God, endowed with the wisdom and power which enable us to be masters of every situation. It is now about twelve years since I first heard of this Science, which was very distasteful to me at that time; but I soon saw some healing which I could neither deny nor forget, and after several years I began to read Science and Health. When I saw that it contradicted the evidence of the material senses I gave it up, because this was about all I had to go by at that time, yet it was very unsatisfactory. I tried hard in my material way to be good and kind, and when this did not meet with a response from personality, I felt greatly hurt. After repeated trails and failures, when I knew not which way to go, I became very skeptical and suspicious, while worldly success seemed too selfish to be worthy of any great effort. In this way I drifted on for several years more, and then I got to a town where there was a Christian Science service, which I attended, and the kind reception given me there, the happy, contented people who showed real interest in me, convinced me they had something I did not have, neither had I ever met anything just like it before. They seemed to have absolute faith in something, and their quiet, contented way, which was yet vigorous and active, brought to me a sense of peace. In this way I was led to study Christian Science for myself, and I got much help; still, when reading in the Bible of the great things done in former days, it seemed like a fairy tale, because I could not make its teaching applicable to my daily life and in my business. I did not understand that Life is spiritual, that all material seeming is false, and that it must be denied and overcome. We can read hardly a sentence in Science and Health without being told what to do, and that all our work is mental; that we need not fight with personality, but with our material sense of personality. These great truths I did not then understand, so Christian Science was laid aside and I drifted into materiality until utter darkness was my lot, not one ray of light shone on my path. Failure and ruin on every side seemed the inevitable. My earthly means failed, and my physical energies were not equal to the occasion. My condition could not have been worse, but this was the school master to bring me to Christ.

In this condition I again took up the study of Christian Science under the kind guidance of a faithful practitioner, and the spiritual understanding which has unfolded to my consciousness is unspeakable. I have learned by experience that divine Love never fails to meet our every need. I used to think that unless the divine light showed me the path in advance, I could not take the next step, and thus darkness came in, but I have since learned that this was error. What a revelation it is to know that evil, sickness, and death are not realities! I have been led out of darkness into light, from doubt and fear into freedom,—better health and purer morals,—and in this Science I find a rule for the solution of each problem in social and business experience. I can find no words to express my thankfulness to God, for the revelation of Christian Science through our Leader, Mrs. Eddy. It is indeed the manna which comes down from heaven and feeds a hungering world.

F. B. Leaper, Withee, Wis.

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