Testimony of Healing February 27, 1937 Issue

When Christian Science first came to me I had been in...

Esther Saville Davis

When Christian Science first came to me I had been in bed for many weeks under the doctor's care and was getting no better, but growing weaker and more discouraged. On the advice of a friend who had been healed under Christian Science treatment we engaged the services of a practitioner, who lovingly told us to read the textbook, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy. When I began to study this book I realized that Christ Jesus' promise of the Comforter had been fulfilled, and that the Science of Christianity had been revealed to Mrs. Eddy and given by her to mankind. Through the teachings of this book I discerned that my habits of wrong thinking had been the cause of my poor health, and that my healing was to be accomplished through mental regeneration, and not merely as a physical process. The desire came to learn how to be free from the self-imposed bondage of sickly and sinful thinking. The words of Christ Jesus, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," came to my thought, and I began to ask myself the questions: "What is Truth? How can I know the truth that will make me free?" The answer to these questions appeared when I read the statement on page 272 of Science and Health: "The spiritual sense of truth must be gained before Truth can be understood. This sense is assimilated only as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek."

Here was something I could understand, and I began to weigh my thoughts and acts according to this simple but searching standard. This took much time and attention at first, and I had many battles with pride, but I soon saw it was the right way because, as I strove to correct the negative qualities of deceitfulness, selfishness, hatred, and pride with the positive qualities of honesty, selfessness, love, and humility, my health steadily improved. In a short time, when any discord arose I could detect which of these four good qualities I had reversed in thought, speech, or deed and, having discerned the error, I learned to correct it immediately. Without realizing it I was beginning to grasp the meaning of spiritual anatomy, which Mrs. Eddy defines on page 462 of Science and Health as "mental self-knowledge," and concerning which she says, "This branch of study is indispensable to the excision of error."

In the former days of ill-health, mental inertia, and self-pity, I never seemed to have strength enough to do what I wanted to, but spent many hours in trying to rest up for some anticipated pleasure. When the glorious truth of Christian Science came to me, like blind Bartimaeus, whose sight Jesus restored, my eyes were opened. I knew that the old, ragged garments of self-love and self-righteousness must be cast off if I would follow the Christ, and in humility I began to experience the joy of living for others. In striving to find my own in another's good, I have found all the strength I need to live a normal, healthy, active life. Every case of illness and many other problems in the bringing up of our three children have been met through Christian Science, but the thing that I am most grateful for is the healing of grief when my husband suddenly passed on several years ago. I was away from home at the time, and when it was reported to me over the telephone I refused to accept it as a reality, for through Christian Science I had learned that there can be no separation in God's spiritual kingdom, where man lives and has his being. The hardest thing to meet was a sense of the loss of a beautiful companionship which had been perfect and unbroken for twenty-five years. This sense of loss was instantly healed, and a new understanding of spiritual companionship was gained through the study of this comforting passage from our beloved Leader's writings (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 204): "It is only by looking heavenward that mutual friendships such as ours can begin and never end. Over sea and over land, Christian Science unites its true followers in one Principle, divine Love, that sacred ave and essence of Soul which makes them one in Christ."—(Mrs.) Esther Saville Davis, Waban, Massachusetts.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I wish to add my...