Living here at Baltasound, Shetland Islands, I have for...

Arthur J. Brown

Living here at Baltasound, Shetland Islands, I have for a long time felt that I had neglected a real duty in not giving my testimony. It would require a whole issue to contain one half of my experiences of the redemptive power of Christian Science, and on that account I intend to be very brief; for I never could convey adequately an idea of my need, or how it has been met.

To see a dear young wife and child laid in one grave without a warning, when I was outside of Christian Science, is an experience I might have been the last to come through and survive; but to look into the face of the risen Christ, six months later, and to realize that our heavenly Father was not a party to the terrible things which seemed to exist, this left no room for mortal argument.

Christian Science came to me through an article in a newspaper just when I was about to break down through sorrow and suffering, and I was so prepared and receptive that it became meat and drink to me. I could recite whole passages from Science and Health after one reading. If I remember rightly, the first thought that arrested me was contained in a statement in one of the printed lectures to the effect that although God seems far away to us when we are in the grip of discouragement, actually He is not. The tide had turned, and doubtless I slept better that night. When I awoke at half past two o'clock that June morning, every nerve in my body had yielded to the action of Truth, and I realized that a transformation had taken place in my consciousness which only spiritual law could explain. I had not then read the textbook, nor been reconciled to the theology of Christian Science, but in studying the literature I found that what seemed to me a unique experience had been encircling the globe during the last fifty years. The chief impression I seemed to have all those first months was that I was living as if the dear Master was still in the flesh, and that I might see him any time during the day.

As regards physical healing, Christian Science has been more of a preventive with me, although people who have not seen me since then would hardly know me now. I have never had a cold since I have known the truth, and many old enemies have disappeared. With three young children I have had many beautiful demonstrations. Let no one be mistaken as to the healing of Christian Science. It is the spiritual uplift that counts. I used to think I should shun a healing religion because it might make me comfortable in the flesh and rob me of spirituality; but in Christian Science we soon learn that it is the Spirit that giveth life, the flesh "profiteth nothing"—which is equivalent to saying that to infinite Spirit all is Spirit, there is no flesh left to profit. For me to speak of gratitude seems as unnecessary as it is impossible. The only concept of it I can hold for myself is gained when I think of what the past few years would have been to me without this revelation. When the thought comes to me, I am overwhelmed with awe, and pray that I may be increasingly conscious of my high calling.

To those struggling through the preliminary stages, as I have had and have yet to do, I would say: Do not be discouraged by the absoluteness of this Science. If it were not for the absoluteness of this teaching it would have passed into history, a forgotten theory. It is what man is, not what he shall be. With God all things are complete; whatever improvement comes to mortals comes through unfoldment—the putting off of the mortal, through Truth destroying error.—Arthur J. Brown, Baltasound, Shetland Islands, Scotland.

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Testimony of Healing

Simply to say that I am grateful for...

January 4, 1919

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