Although I often avail myself...

Amy Loper Lyle

Although I often avail myself of the opportunity of expressing gratitude in our Wednesday evening meetings, I have never given a written testimony. Recently the Scriptural injunction, "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse," brought to me a realization of the fact that I was withholding good from others who seek encouragement from printed testimonies.

A beautiful healing about which I have felt some hesitancy in speaking in our Wednesday meetings, was of a rectal condition pronounced chronic by a specialist of national reputation. Two operations had been performed, the second one confining me to a hospital for two weeks. I had grown to accept this inharmonious physical condition with a degree of resignation. Although I had been a student of Christian Science for many years, I had not become a member of our local church, promising myself that when the healing was accomplished, I would join the church.

At almost regular intervals I was confined to my bed with an oppressive feeling of discouragement and low vitality. During one of these times, self-pity almost overwhelmed me, and I desired to pass on, believing that to be the best solution of the many problems then confronting me.

One of the Bible references in the Lesson-Sermon for that week was from Isaiah: "O Lord, by these things men live, and in all these things is the life of my spirit: so wilt thou recover me, and make me to live. ... For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth." These words came clearly to my thought.

For the first time in many years I was willing to let go of a sense of human efficiency with which I had been trying to manage our daily affairs, and I turned unreservedly to God with the clear knowledge that of myself I could do nothing. Self-pity, self-condemnation, and many other false mesmerisms of personal sense fell away, and a great gratitude for the truths revealed to us in Christian Science flooded my consciousness. I had fought sleep, fearing that I should pass on during one of the sinking spells. Fear vanished, and I went to sleep, awakening in the morning to find that I had let go of the many physical difficulties which had enslaved me for so many years.

Quickly I recognized the error of my reasoning that church membership should be deferred until a complete physical healing had been accomplished. As soon as my gratitude was enlarged to the point that I longed to work for the Cause of Christian Science, and became a church member with that motive only, all the unfoldment of good which our family longed for became a part of our daily experience. We had an opportunity of proving that salary alone is not supply. During the "comfortable" years, before the so-called financial collapse, I had no desire for class instruction, believing that to be a step taken only by those desiring to become practitioners. After eighteen months of earnest work in the unfoldment of a business transaction, the very first money available, after obligations were met, was used for class instruction, which has proved to be the "pearl of great price."

Another outstanding healing was of a dislocated shoulder, the result of an automobile accident. No medical treatment was used, and a complete healing of the arm and shoulder was experienced within a few days.

I can never be grateful enough for our Leader and her unselfed life; for the gracious and loving practitioners, and for the manifold blessings which have been ours through our knowledge of Christian Science. My daily prayer is for the universal acceptance of this great truth, which alone will bring world peace.—(Mrs.) Amy Loper Lyle, Birmingham, Michigan.

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Testimony of Healing

My introduction to Christian Science...

January 23, 1943

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