I have been a student of Christian Science for a number...

Margaret Kephart

I have been a student of Christian Science for a number of years and have had some beautiful healings. With the help of practitioners I have been completely healed of tuberculosis, pneumonia, a nervous breakdown, and many minor ailments.

When it came to a business problem, I trusted only to material ways and means of working this out, with the result that I failed completely. With the passing on of my parents I was left with a mortgage, covering both their properties, some legacies to heirs, funeral expenses, and because of a change in the trend of fashion, a failing business. Further to complicate the situation, the attorneys holding the mortgage raised their rates of interest.

I felt compelled to seek a loan elsewhere, so transferred into a Building and Loan company, as their rates were represented to be cheaper than the one I was carrying. I then took up the profession of nursing, and for three years kept up the payments on the loan, and with the help of a brother and sister paid the funeral expenses. When nursing was not available I did baking, and raised turkeys and chickens; no task was too hard if I could only meet my obligations. Despite my efforts, however, my payments lapsed, and I awoke to the fact that the last loan had been misrepresented to me, and it would be impossible for me ever to pay it out.

I was advised by my attorney to try for a government loan on one property and a private loan on the other. I tried for a private loan from a number of parties, but was refused. I then went to the treasurer of the Christian Science Society of our little town and told her of my need. The chairman and the treasurer of the society went with me to get the government loan, and the business ability and tact of our chairman in helping me handle the situation enabled me eventually to get this loan; but when it came, the mortgagee refused to settle as had been agreed.

I stumbled blindly from the office of the closing attorney, crying out in my distress, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" To mortal sense, I indeed seemed forsaken, when, just as though someone had spoken to me, came these words: "God has not forsaken you; He never forsakes those who trust in Him and are obedient to Him." The practitioner who had helped me with the nervous breakdown had moved to a distant city, and I did not know any in the city I was in; but I felt I must have help, so I asked the telephone operator to put me in touch with one, and I went out to see her.

Never can I forget how lovingly she assured me that God governed my home and every home, that He protects, provides, and supports our homes with right ideas; that no beliefs of discord, hate, or lack could deprive me of what was rightfully mine; that real home expresses unity, permanence, peace. All these seemed lacking because I was holding these men in my thought as dishonest. I realized that I must reverse all I knew of the men holding these loans as erring mortals, and see them as God's perfect children.

I returned to my home with a sense of peace and a "priceless sense of the dear Father's loving-kindness" and protection (Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, p. 366). It took much work on my part as well as on the part of the practitioner to solve this problem, but the great burden of responsibility had been lifted. I thought less of the material side of my problem and tried to curb my resentment towards the men holding the loan, with the result that the mortgagee made a better offer of settlement than had previously been rejected. My brother again came to my aid, and the attorney who raised the rates of interest on the first loan helped me to finance the last one.

I am indeed most grateful for this demonstration. I am grateful for class instruction and for membership in The Mother Church, and trust that my experience may help someone else similarly situated.

(Miss) Margaret Kephart, Atlanta, Illinois.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

Christian Science was presented to me and help given...

November 13, 1937

Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit