Testimony of Healing December 22, 1906 Issue

It is over seven years since I began the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"...

Mary Cameron

It is over seven years since I began the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. I had been brought up by good Christian parents, in so far as the old belief of orthodoxy is concerned. They held very fixed views indeed of God and the devil; heaven and hell; with the accompanying thoughts of eternal punishment for all who were not good enough to enter heaven at death. They believed that for such there was no possible escape from eternal torment. I had many years of ever-increasing anxiety and torment (or hell enough here for me), during which time I read and enquired of clergy and doctors, as well as of many good church people, how I might find comfort and peace and know that I was fit to enter heaven. How did they know they were saved? To such questions they invariably replied, "The future is a great mystery; we cannot solve it here." To me this was chaos and darkness, and I was tossed about in many storms by great waves of error,—waves of sickness, doubt of everything, a fear of death and dread of the devil. For seventeen years this was the only answer, All is a mystery, which cannot be solved here.

Christian Science found me sick in mind and body. My first release was on learning that there is no personal devil, that devil or evil, according to the Scriptures, meant wrong thoughts and the mistakes of the fleshly mind. I then reasoned that it was all between God and myself. The fright about the devil being gone, I myself seemed let loose, so to speak, and God not so many impassable miles away, as before, but ever-present. I learned that He is always the same unchangeable Love, and naturally, while the human sense was being healed the body forgot to complain. For a long time it seemed as though it would be impossible for doubt or ailment of any kind to recur again, but for the encouragement of beginners I must say here that these often confronted me, and many times the thought would come, You cannot be quite sure that this is all true; how can you prove it? and the valley would seem dark indeed. Then more earnest searching and prayer were needed, and in those' lonely moments our Father's tender, loving hand was guiding me to prove those very things by indisputable demonstrations; hence my strength and encouragement to proceed all along those years. How many perfect realizations of God's presence, in the healing of sickness and the reclaiming of sinners, have been granted, even to me, until not a shadow of doubt remains as to the truth of Christian Science. It only remains for me to live ever close to God. What cannot Christian Science do?

At the end of the year 1904 I had to meet what seemed a very great financial crisis. Years ago I would have joined in the panic and been ill from worry, as indeed I had been for less, before the time of trouble arrived. One tenant after another got into difficulties, thus reducing my income to far less than my necessary expenditure. Then no check for three months, and upon this my banker wrote, demanding payment of an over-draft which had been allowed on account of long drought. To my request for longer time in which to pay, he expressed regret that it could not be given. Besides this, taxes, etc., became due. Oh, how truly thankful and deeply grateful I felt, through it all, for the positive sustaining influence of divine Love. I worked steadily on in the line of the Lord's Prayer, as spiritually interpreted in Science and Health, together with lines 11 and 12 of page 254,—realizing that each day's work had to be done for God, and grace was needed to perform that work to His praise; that there was no time to waste in worrying over troubles a fortnight off. Then came the text, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, ... and all these things shall be added;" and so they were, for on the day that each payment was due, the money was there to meet it. No doing of mine—I could do nothing but the Science work at hand, and wait. At the end of the month all debts were paid, and I had nothing to meet but divine Love. There was no lack! Twice during the time the old sense of worry got so far as to say, "What if you cannot meet the debt?" I just said, in the strength of Truth, "It is ten days yet till that answer is needed;" and the error was silenced.

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