Protection

EVE T. SANFORD

Each year since I began the study of Christian Science, I have experienced better health and more of joy and happiness, because I have steadily grown in my understanding of God and my relation to Him. Previous to this time I had not known for many years what it was to have one day free from some pain or ache, and worry and fear were my almost constant companions. I was not quickly healed, and it has taken much study and striving to eradicate wholly the many wrong habits of thought, but the comfort and peace of mind which I have attained are well worth any amount of work and striving, and I know that I have so far had but a glimpse of the joy that a fuller understanding of God as divine Principle brings.

Even a very slight perception of Christian Science brings to the student a measure of protection from all the shafts of error, as was proved to me in the first years of my study, when I went to live in the tropics of Central America, where I remained for two years and a half. During this time I learned the great value of our literature, thought it was about a month old when it reached me. My study of the Lesson-Sermon and the reading of the Sentinel and Journal enabled me to overcome every fear of climate and to realize that one can be as healthy in one country as another; as Mrs. Eddy has stated on page 120 of Science and Health, "Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind."

At one time, while living in Nicaragua, I was obliged to be alone for a period of eighty days, with no one to speak to except the half-breed Spaniards, Jamaica negroes and Indians, who were in our employ, as we were in the heart of the mining district; but during this time I clung unswervingly to the truths of Christian Science, and so realized the protection which even a slight understanding of Truth always brings. During many trying night hours the ninety-first psalm was a great comfort, especially the ninth and tenth verses. The morning after my solitude came to an end a large snake, supposed to be poisonous, was caught crawling down the wall of my sleeping room, and its nest was found a short distance from the house. Had this occurred while I was alone, it would have been difficult indeed for me to have slept there, and I knew then that I had been protected because of my faithful adherence to the teachings of Christian Science.

Very many are the proofs I have had of God's protecting care during the nine years of my study of Christian Science, and I know that it is exactly in proportion as we are obedient and come into harmony with God's laws that we realize the peace and joy that are our divine inheritance. Man has not and never can have any will apart from God, but it is the belief of having a will apart from God which leads mortals into nearly all the sorrow and suffering of their lives. Just in proportion as human will is subordinated to the divine do Christian Scientists radiate the health, happiness, and loving-kindness toward others that all true followers of Mrs. Eddy's teachings should reflect; for, as she stated on page 367 of Science and Health, "The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, sterotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love."

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