Testimony of Healing November 9, 1918 Issue

My early religious training was in the strictest orthodoxy...

Anna M. Cowan

My early religious training was in the strictest orthodoxy, but it never answered my questions about God, nor did it give me any assurance that I knew what God is. A keen sense of justice taught me that eternal punishment for sin which one did not know how to evade was not just; nor could I conceive of a just God accepting a deathbed repentance or eternally punishing one who had made mistakes although trying to be honest and just.

Christian Science at length came to my notice. I read the literature in a desultory way at first, but with a growing conviction that this was the correct interpretation of the Scriptures, and when confronted with a supposedly inherited hopeless invalidism, I began to study the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, to gain an understanding of God that would help me to bear this affliction, not believing that I could be healed. Learning about class instruction, I desired it above everything; but a long illness had left me in financial straits which made this seem an impossibility. I however kept it before me as the one thing to be attained, and although two years passed before the opportunity came, it has meant everything to me. The thorough teaching of the divine Principle of being gave me the spiritual understanding of God as immutable, impartial, unerring, infinite good, to be loved, adored, obeyed. Physical healing came as the Science of being was understood, and thought was educated "to a new and glorified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys," as Mrs. Eddy says on page 299 of Science and Health.

The year after I had class instruction we left Iowa for the far West. It seemed nothing short of a calamity to go where I could not attend the yearly association meetings, so necessary for my growth in Christian Science, which had become all to me. I not only lacked the means to make the trips but had a great dislike for railway travel. My new home was in a town where people wanted to know of Christian Science and came to me for help, so that more than ever I felt the need of the help the associations afford. The teaching had, however, emphasized and impressed me with our Leader's statement on page 456 of Science and Health, "Strict adherence to the divine Principle and rules of the scientific method has secured the only success of the students of Christian Science," and taught me to "cling steadfastly to God and His idea," as she counsels us on page 495. I knew God would open the way for me to have what would advance me in the knowledge of good, for "the Lord's hand is not shortened" and He furnishes all means to bring about all good. In the eleven years I have been away I have not missed one of the meetings. The good obtained from them has been above all effort made to attend, and through it I am learning how to help humanity to know the truth about God and man.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

In 1908 a Christian Scientist came to room in my home...