Testimony of Healing January 9, 1943 Issue

It is twenty years since Christian Science...

Clara Hays

It is twenty years since Christian Science first came into my life. I had been searching for Truth all my life. The daughter of a consecrated Christian clergyman, I cannot remember the time when the Christ was not the center of my affections and training, and for this I am inexpressibly grateful. But always there was the question in my mind, why does not God answer prayer? Finally, in a great university, I met so much doubt and disbelief in the existence of God that I prayed almost in desperation that if there were a God I would find Him. My prayer was answered very quickly, although it took me two years to admit that Christian Science was the answer. During these two years my work led me into towns where I found lodging in four different homes, each of which was a Christian Science home in which the family life and individual characters were so beautiful that I marveled, although I was not willing to give Christian Science the credit, and kept on searching for God. Every time I went to my Bible for help during this time it opened at the words, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Finally I went to Peking, China, where I roomed with a family who had one other roomer. I had not talked to her more than half an hour before I said, "You are a Christian Scientist," and with the words I knew that Christian Science was the answer to my prayer, and that my loving heavenly Father had been offering it to me again and again until I was ready to accept it. With the acceptance of Christian Science came a radiance of happiness which I had never dreamed was possible, and which proved to me the truth of Jesus' words, "The kingdom of God is within you."

During the four years I was in Peking, where the fear of disease was prevalent, Christian Science overcame every symptom which presented itself. The first serious trouble was that of dysentery, which was overcome entirely through reliance on our dear Leader's statement that the Lord's Prayer "covers all human needs" (Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, p. 16). Over and over again I repeated the Lord's Prayer, sometimes with and sometimes without its spiritual interpretation from the Christian Science textbook, and I always received strength to carry on. In the four months it took to realize complete freedom, I did not miss a single day's work or break an engagement of any kind.

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