Testimony of Healing January 1, 1927 ISSUE

To relate my condition when I first experienced the...

Bessie Oliver Fink

To relate my condition when I first experienced the joy of Christian Science healing is like telling of some miserable dream, for I was groping around in the darkness of human beliefs, growing worse physically, mentally, and financially, knowing not what was right, but trying my best to do right. In the study of Christian Science I learned of the allness of God and the consequent nothingness of material existence.

My mother first told me of Christian Science, and often asked me to read the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. This I did. but I could not understand it. Now I can see how divine Love leads us to accept what will best advance us. My thought was finally awakened to Christian Science through the healing of my little daughter of appendicitis.

As I could not endure the thought of my tiny girl being operated upon, our only escape was through Christian Science. After the first treatment the practitioner repeated these words of a hymn:

"In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid;
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?"

I can never forget the beauty of the words and the peace they brought to our household. We all slept, for the first time in many nights, after that first treatment, firm in the conviction that God was able to care for that little child. The healing was not instantaneous, for not only the child but I needed healing; but after several days of patient, faithful, and loving work by the practitioner, the healing was complete.

After this beautiful healing I wanted to know what this wonderful Science of Christianity was, so I began the study of the Lesson-Sermon. The hitherto closed passages of the Bible and Science and Health were opened to my understanding. There was much to overcome in disposition and physical ailments.

One of the first passages I read in the Bible was from Matthew: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." As I grasped the truth, my physical ailments vanished—I hardly knew when. An organic trouble for which I had received medical treatment since the birth of my daughter, indigestion, headaches—all disappeared. Health, happiness, and plenty now exist where before were sickness, worry, and lack.

For over fifteen years this truth has guided me; never has it failed. I learned that "what God cannot do, man need not attempt" (Science and Health, p. 231 ). The words of another hymn were an inspiration:

"The trivial round, the common task,
Will furnish much we ought to ask;—
Room to deny ourselves, a road
To bring us daily nearer God."

So my trials and burdens became blessings, leading me nearer to God. In no other way could I have learned love and gratitude. By denying the flesh and knowing the allness of Spirit, strength was given me for hard tasks, which before I was not able to endure.

To be an active member of a Christian Science church is one of the opportunities our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, in her great wisdom, has provided for us; and through this channel I have received much help. I have been greatly blessed through obedience to the By-law in the Manual of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, which reads (pp. 44, 45 ), "God requires our whole heart, and He supplies within the wide channels of The Mother Church dutiful and sufficient occupation for all its members." Then came the beautiful experience of class instruction, which has helped to keep me "busy with divine Love" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 252 ), and given me true education, which is to know and understand the truth and how to live it.

For the Christian Science lectures and periodicals, I am most grateful. I am so grateful to the practitioner who patiently, faithfully, and lovingly gave me my start on the straight and narrow path in Christian Science; who taught me from the beginning that there was no turning back, or to left or right, but that I must press forward and I would wear the crown of victory.

I am grateful to God, the Giver of all good, for giving us Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, and for His Son, Jesus the Christ, our Way-shower, whom she followed.

(Mrs.) Bessie Oliver Fink, New York, New York.

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