Testimony of Healing October 18, 1930 Issue

It is with much gratitude that I send the following testimony

Ethel C. Foord

It is with much gratitude that I send the following testimony. Before hearing of Christian Science I seemed to be without understanding of God or hope. The message of truth which afterwards helped me to find Christian Science seemed to come to me through the birds. I was always grateful to them; their songs were a great comfort; and watching them led me to find a power above and beyond that of the human. One day I saw a gardener clipping an old yew hedge, and in doing this he unintentionally cut down a bough which held a bird's nest full of small fledglings. This nest with its contents I found upon the lawn. The gardener seemed quite certain that nothing we could do would bring back the parent bird under such conditions. Then the question in my thought became still more persistent: Is there a power available when the helpless are in need of protection? Here, surely, was an opportunity to make a real test. I found another place for the nest, hoping that in spite of this move the mother bird might come at night to feed her young. Meanwhile, I felt that my own experience and that of the birds were much alike, for sorrow had disturbed my home as the gardener had this nest; and I was vainly trying to rebuild it. When evening came and the mother bird did not return, I fed the fledglings myself; then, having taken the possible human footsteps, I felt them for the night, the old question being repeated in my thought: Is there a power available to help those in need? The next morning the sun shone brightly, and I went very fearfully to the yew hedge (so much seemed to me to depend on the result of this test), and when, on looking through the branches, I saw the mother bird sitting contentedly on her nest, a great hope rose up and flooded my consciousness, and I prayed to the power that helped the bird that I might understand and know about it.

This prayer brought instant relief, and also a great long ing to help humanity; and in making plans to carry out this desire I met an old friend, who advised me to read "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. On reading the opening lines I knew at once that my prayer had been answered; that here was the truth I had so longed for—the truth about God, who could be understood by all. When I went to the Christian Science Reading Room to borrow this textbook I had not known that Christian Science healed the sick ; but since that time, with the help of a loving and patient practitioner, to whom I can never be grateful enough, many physical ills, much sorrow, and what seemed to me to be a separation from good, have been overcome; some of these healings were brought about quickly, others very slowly.

I may say that I owe all I have to the study and application of Christian Science. It helped me during a prolonged financial difficulty when a lawsuit deprived me of supply for some years; but by holding to the truth in a verse in Isaiah, "For the Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver, the Lord is our king; he will save us," a right judgment was given which satisfied all those interested. Christian Science is blessing me daily, and when I needed to find a home, this teaching showed me that man's real dwelling place is in Mind, in God, and that one can always stay with God's thoughts. When this spiritual understanding of home became clearer, and I saw that it was far more important to strive to dwell with good thoughts in my daily life than to look for a material home, and when this was sincerely put into practice to the best of my ability at the time, the home, also, was found. This proof of the Father's loving care enabled me to live among Christian Scientists and to become a member of a branch church and The Mother Church.

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