Many years ago, during a period of great mental and physical distress, a dear Christian Scientist came into my environment. Seeing my need, she told me of Christian Science. I had previously heard of it, but only in a negative way; and I had bought the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, but did not understand its language. Then there came to me a dear, loving student of Christian Science, who had practiced it and had seen the application of the Principle of its teaching heal the sick and comfort the sorrowing! I listened eagerly to her explanations, hungering to know this truth for myself. She said to me, "You are ready for Christian Science." I shall never forget the earnestness of those few words, nor the joy they gave me. I knew there was now within my reach that for which I had long sought.

I had endeavored for years to gain a satisfying sense of God. My early training had been such that I had been led to believe that God was made manifest to me in His punishment of me, but I had heard nothing about Him as Love. The former belief did appear to be a fact, and often I wondered what I had done to deserve such punishment. Of late I had prayed to see the manifestation of the truth about God; and I have always believed and declared that the presentment to me of Christian Science was an answer to my prayers.

I then began again to read Science and Health, and its meaning was no longer obscure. The joy of that reading and of the revelation of Truth contained within the pages of that wonderful book can never be told. The Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly, which I studied with the greatest avidity, enabled me gradually to grasp the spiritual meaning of the Bible. In the joy of what I was gaining I gave little heed to the body, and was rejoiced when I became conscious of freedom from a severe form of indigestion of many years' standing, and found myself eating all kinds of food, whereas heretofore my chief diet had been graham bread and hot water. During this period of reading and study I was also healed of chronic tonsillitis and bronchitis, which had been with me from childhood, and for which I had taken many remedies and also had undergone an operation. These, my first healings in Christian Science, occurred many years ago through my reading and study of the Christian Science textbook, as I have stated, and the troubles have never returned.

A testing time came, however; I was alone in my home with my two young children when the little girl of four years, always a delicate child, became alarmingly ill with severe pain and high fever. I went to the telephone to ask for help, but an electric storm had affected the telephone apparatus. For an instant, the situation appeared desperate; the suffering child, the severity of the storm, and the loneliness almost appalled me. I cried, "O God, what shall I do?" There came a sweet assurance of God's presence. I no longer felt afraid and helpless. I sat by the child's bedside; as the electrical storm had put out the lights I could not see to read, but passages from the Bible and Science and Health flowed into my thought, lifting me out of the seeming suffering into that state of consciousness where being is seen to be perfect and eternal. I do not know how long I sat thus, but long before daylight the little voice said, "Mamma, the pain is all gone." I felt that I was indeed on "holy ground," knowing that the same divine Principle by which our great Master, Christ Jesus, had healed the fever, as recorded in the eighth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, had healed my child. The truth learned in Christian Science had made principle available to me, and proved to me the truth of those well-known and beloved words on page 494 of our textbook, "Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need."

Since that helpful experience, down through the intervening years, there have been many instances of healing through the application of Christian Science, some of serious ills—eczema, pneumonia, appendicitis, ptomaine poisoning, and severe burns from an explosion of powder. Sick, nervous headaches, supposed to be inherited, had tortured me from childhood. This trouble was about the last to yield to Truth; but I have been free from this suffering also for more than three years.

Sorrow has been ameliorated and financial difficulties overcome by the application of the Christ, Truth. It would require many pages to tell of all the blessings that have come to me through Christian Science. I am very grateful to the practitioners who have so lovingly worked for me and helped me on the way. I am deeply grateful that I have been able to aid others in their trials. It is with sincere desire to help even as I have been helped by the testimonies of others that I offer my testimony. I am fully and conclusively assured that Christian Science reveals the infinite, ever present Truth, which forever has been, which was demonstrated by Christ Jesus, and which, finally, was rediscovered and revealed to this age through the pure spiritual thought of our honored and beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy.—(Mrs.)Gertrude Helen Cummings, Houston, Texas.