Probably up to the time I began...

Mildred B. Mills

Probably up to the time I began the study of Christian Science, no one had ever been so denunciatory in his feelings and statements about it as I had. However, after living close to two families who were students of Christian Science, I became increasingly aware of what this Science could accomplish, when properly applied. So, when my six-months-old son became ill with dysentery, and after fruitless attempts of medical doctors to heal the case, I turned for help to a Christian Science practitioner. The baby was healed in a few days, and I immediately procured a copy of the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and began to study.

Mrs. Eddy states on page 559 of Science and Health, "It will be indeed sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter." I found this very true. That first healing was sweet, but faults of disposition and so-called temperamental tendencies had to be eliminated from my consciousness, and long and grievous were some of the experiences I struggled through until I began, eventually, to "put off the old man."

Physical ailments began to disappear—rheumatism, from which I had suffered since childhood, was gone for months before I realized I had been healed. Constipation, tumors, sick headaches, corns, burns, and many other ailments were overcome—some quickly, some slowly, but all were healed when after earnest prayer and study, I was ready for the healing.

However, there came into my experience, as there does sooner or later to all who make the journey out of Egypt, the testing time, when I reached the Red Sea and had to make my decision, to go—either back to the bondage of Pharaoh and to the material senses or forward to freedom and spiritual healing. I became ill with goiter and a resultant heart condition, and I grew continually worse and worse, until I could not exert myself to any extent whatever. Finally the members of my family became so impatient with the struggle I was making that I was told to see a physician immediately. The report of his diagnosis was not a pleasant one, and I left his office fearful and discouraged. It was at night, and I recall that I drove for hours trying to decide what to do. There was to be a consultation of other doctors the next morning, and I knew that my decision had to be made before that time. I finally drove home and called the practitioner who had helped me before, and I remember distinctly her words, "You do not have to go back." Right then I realized that I could not go back—that the latent fear that perhaps Christian Science could not heal was only a Pharaoh trying to pull me back to slavery, and that the struggle that I had been having was only the manifestation of my own fear and indecision. I called the physician and canceled the appointment, and from that moment I began to improve, until in a few weeks I was completely healed.

During the past fourteen years that I have studied, other problems have arisen, but never has Christian Science failed. I have failed sometimes in my application of it, but as Mrs. Eddy states in Science and Health (p. 149), "If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life,—because you have not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine Science." If we learn by our mistakes, however, they can no longer be considered mistakes but only other landmarks in our journey.

I am deeply grateful for the help that Christian Science has been in the rearing of our children, for a home made harmonious, for the overcoming of lack, limitation, and debt, and for the healing of separation and grief. Class instruction, the results of which have been illimitable, was a rich experience. Words are indeed meager symbols of the gratitude I feel for Mary Baker Eddy and her inspired work.—(Mrs.) Mildred B. Mills, La Grande, Oregon.

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Testimony of Healing

Christian Science has been my...

June 27, 1942

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