Testimony of Healing September 10, 1921 Issue

To express adequately all that some understanding of...

Edith Bowers

To express adequately all that some understanding of Christian Science means to me is not possible in one brief testimony. It is my desire, however, to express through our periodicals some appreciation of the wonderful change that has come into my life through the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, together with her other writings.

Through the teachings of the denominational church and Sunday school with which I was formerly affiliated I learned much of the wrath of God but little of His love. In childhood a place named hell was very vividly portrayed to me as a place of punishment after death, with God as the judge who sentenced all wrongdoers to this place of torture. As I grew older I tried to solve the problem of life. It all impressed me as being very unfair. Why should one be born only to die? Of what use to study or of what use to do anything if death was the goal? If one lived an exceptionally good life there was the promise of a future heaven, but the greatest impulsion to be good was the fear of hell as the only alternative. I finally decided not to think too much about life because it was not worth while, for no matter how much I thought and studied I never arrived at anything definite. I did not allow myself to become melancholy, but I was subject to periods of great discouragement and was often unhappy. Nevertheless, there was the underlying thought that somehow things were not so bad after all and that God would not be too hard on His children. For a number of years I thought as little about religion and the deep things of life as possible, and only went to church as a matter of duty and because it was the respectable thing to do. How wonderful, then, was to me the teaching of Christian Science. What a revolution of thought, what a change of base! Here was a religion founded on logic and reasoning—a religion that told of God's wonderful love and goodness to His children, and not only told of it but showed one how to prove His goodness and love. I learned that the following words of Jesus were meant for us to-day as truly as for the disciples centuries ago: "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils." In the study of Christian Science we learn that it is the true understanding of God and of man's relation to Him which destroys the false sense of sin, sickness, and death.

I have been healed of many physical ills, and for the last eight years have had no recourse either to medicine or to medical aid. I have also been healed of excessive discouragement, of a hasty temper, and of resentment. It is impossible to be angry, resentful, or discouraged when one realizes that all space is filled with goodness, and that therefore the suppositional opposite of good, called evil, does not exist. Christian Science has entirely changed my outlook on life from one of anxiety and fear to a keen zest and joy in the fact that I live. It has taught me to love all mankind and to desire good, not for selfish ends but to glorify God. Mrs. Eddy has written on page 3 of Science and Health: "Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech." That my life may be a continuous expression of gratitude is my earnest and sincere prayer.

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