Testimony of Healing September 20, 1941 Issue

Several years ago, when I was a student in college, I...

Gregory M. Abbott

Several years ago, when I was a student in college, I experienced what is called a nervous breakdown. I had grown up in Christian Science, and turned to it for help. For about a week conditions grew worse. I became weaker, and bodily functions stopped almost entirely.

At this time the way was opened for me to be admitted to the Christian Science Benevolent Association Sanatorium in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and treatment was taken up by a local practitioner. Although the aggravated physical symptoms did not yield at once, from the very moment I entered the building I felt an influx of spiritual light, and a measure of that "peace ... which passeth all understanding." I was carried in on a stretcher, too weak to walk. Four weeks later I was able to be up and about the buildings, going to the main dining room for my meals. General improvement was steady, and in all the years that have passed I have had no recurrence of this inharmonious condition.

A few years ago I found myself out of employment and at a very low financial ebb. One evening a Christian Science friend said to me that he thought I might find a way of being of service in a line of work for which my training and experience really fitted me, but of which I had not thought. I was led, step by step, to an interview in connection with just the sort of work I wanted to do. I was tried out for the job, and told I would be notified in a few days. Then, entirely unexpectedly, came a letter notifying me that a civil service position in a totally different line of work, and one in which I was not interested, was open to me. I must accept or reject it within two days. This was on a Tuesday. On Wednesday I was told by telephone that the first position was not yet definitely mine, and then I realized that I had been letting human will control my thinking. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 1), "Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds." I realized that I had not been trusting God enough. Thursday was the last day on which I could report for the civil service job, and I had to leave New York on a one o'clock train to reach there on time. I packed my bags to go, and at ten minutes past twelve telephoned to the company whose position I had sought. Their executive said, "I'll call you back in five minutes." He did, with the instruction to come to work the next day. I have been with this company ever since.

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