Article November 26, 1910 Issue

THANKSGIVING

ELIZABETH J. VAN ZELLER.

There are many reasons for thanksgiving, but the greatest that has come to us in this age is the answer to the question, "What is Truth?" i.e., What is God, and what is our true being? Until the wonderful revelation of Christian Science was given to the world through Mrs. Eddy in her book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," we were very uncertain as to what Truth, or the truth of being meant. Jesus said, "I and my Father are one;" and as the Father is Spirit, and He is our Father, our real being must be spiritual, as is so conclusively explained in Christian Science.

We each have a life-work to perform, and my chosen work was that of a professional nurse, to heal and to help the suffering, a calling which, during twenty-three years of service under medicine and surgery, gave me ample opportunity to meet with all phases of sickness. As a nurse I entered the sick-room prepared to notice every symptom which the human mind was believed to have discovered. Established theories of materia medica teach that according to symptoms the nature of the case is determined. Then we are told that the disease must last a certain length of time,—it must have so many days to develop and so many days to spend itself. The doctor looks for this, the nurse expects it, and the patient bows down before his sentence in fear and trembling. The loving, tender care of the doctor and nurse does much for the comfort of the patient, but their sympathy with an unreal and unnatural condition, which yet seems so real because of ignorance of the great fact that God is Life, the Principle of man's being, and that He made man in His own image and likeness (which is not sickness),—this kind of sympathy does much harm.

Understanding this fact, the Christian Scientist goes into the sick-room to help and to heal without fear. He knows, and makes his patient know, that God is Love, that God is the creator of all that is real; that man is the image and likeness of God, and that the real man partakes of the qualities of his creator and looks to the cause of all good. It may be true that not every case of disease is yet met, but in my experience of five years in the practice of Christian Science, which acknowledges God to be the only physician, and which was demonstrated by our great Master, Jesus the Christ, I have found the Christian Science treatment of disease infinitely superior to that of material medica methods. It brings about, as it were, a reunion between God and man, a spiritual consciousness which the world has not known since Jesus' time.

Send a comment to the editors

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit

THANKSGIVING

We'd love to hear from you!

Sign up for unlimited access