As a child I never knew anything of God and never went...

Andrée Finqueneisel

As a child I never knew anything of God and never went to church. At the age of fifteen I was all alone in Paris, working to support myself and helping to pay the bills of doctors and druggists for both my father and my mother, who had been sent to the country to recover their health. However, despite all drugs, changes of climate, and consultations with specialists, whom I begged on my knees to save my parents, they both passed on, as did one of my two brothers, and there was a strong desire in me that I might join them.

I then heard of Christian Science, which told me of a God of goodness; and this appealed to me, as I always felt very keenly the difference between good and evil. Shortly afterward an aunt in Vancouver, British Columbia, offered me a home, which was accepted, as I dreaded to live alone; but for the next two years I was still unhappy, mourning my people and wishing to be sick and die. My wish seemed about to be fulfilled, for the doctor who was consulted by the family said that one of my lungs was seriously affected, that I must be sent right away to a sanitarium, and that I could never work again.

While I was at the sanitarium a Christian Science practitioner worked daily for me and wrote letters which were a great help for a time, but at the end of two months, as I had been gradually getting worse, I was taken back to Vancouver to the home of some Christian Scientists, where the practitioner came almost daily to see me. From the first day I improved steadily. Though I sometimes got impatient, never once did I have any doubt of eventually being well, because as the practitioner would answer my questions about God and explain the way to Him in the light of Christian Science, I felt a new desire to live and try to follow as much as I knew the narrow and straight way. I ceased to think of myself as alone in the world, and learned that it was my right as God's child to be well and happy, and that nothing but wrong thoughts or actions could make me suffer. I learned to be thankful for all small blessings, and soon experienced bigger ones. I saw that since God is Life, without beginning or end, there is in reality no death, and that when I was crying for those I could not see, it was more through selfishness than for themselves. In three months I was declared perfectly well by the same doctor who had sent me to the sanitarium.

For four years I have been teaching without missing a day, speaking sometimes six or seven hours continuously. My voice, which had entirely gone, is now stronger than ever, and I am able to sing up to high B. The doctor had said that Vancourver was the worst climate I could live in, but nevertheless it was in this city that perfect health came, and I have lived in this province ever since. My heart is full of joy, and I thank God daily for my health, my friends, my work, my happiness; in a word, for Christian Science.

Twice, when every one around me was speaking of hard times, I proved that God looks after those who are willing to trust in Him. Once I went to a city where I did not know any one, but soon had all the pupils I needed; and when two years later it seemed right for me to return to Vancouver, I again in a short time, but only through entire reliance on God, got all my day's work. If it had not been for Christian Science I could never have accepted and kept a position as a teacher in a big boys' college, where I was the only woman teacher, but from the start I was able to maintain perfect order and good work.

For two years now my brother has been at his post in the French army. He also reads "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, translating word for word from English to French, and striving to get the right meaning. He spends his few moments' rest daily in studying the Lesson. Each of his letters tells of how thankful he feels for the proofs he receives of God's protection. Neither he nor I could speak a word of English when we took up the study of our text-book. I learned this language through the study of our literature, which is now my daily food. For the help it is to me I can never be grateful enough.

Andrée Finqueneisel, Vancouver, British Columbia.

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