Early in 1932, at a time in my life when the future looked hopeless because of a series of mistakes in my judgment and conduct which were followed by business reverses and a severe illness, a letter came offering us a cherished treasure, Christian Science. At an earlier date, when the writer of this letter was a neighbor and intimate friend, we had witnessed the constant progress of these friends and their improved conditions, which we were told were the results of their application of Christian Science of their affairs.

Now, when human ways and means offered no way out of my predicament, this letter, inspired and motivated by Love, God, awakened a hope that maybe Christian Science could do something for me. At my first opportunity I borrowed from a Reading Room, as was recommended, a copy of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. I started to read with an expectancy I had never before felt towards a book, and I shall never forget the joy, hope, and promise that flooded my consciousness when I read the opening statement from the Preface (p. vii): "To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings." The requirement was simple and the promise immediate. There is no doubt that I was looking for something to lean upon, and I seemed to recognize that "the sustaining infinite" was that something. Before completing the first chapter, on Prayer, I had experienced the beginning of those blessings promised in that first statement: hopelessness and despair had been replaced with a joyous expectancy of good.

After reading the textbook for about two weeks, I decided to go back into a former line of business, and signed a contract with a friend, who that very night was the first to greet me at the door of the church where I went to attend my first testimony meeting. I had not known he was interested in Christian Science, and he did not know of my newly awakened interest. I can never be grateful enough to this friend and his consecrated wife, who so lovingly took me in hand and helped me along the way at that time.

My first physical healing followed shortly, with the help of a practitioner. This healing was of chronic constipation. Shortly thereafter, the smoking habit was overcome. While I was reading Science and Health one evening and smoking my pipe, the thought occurred to me that it was not quite right to be smoking while reading the Christian Science textbook. I removed my pipe, and that was the last of that desire. I was free. Next came the overcoming of the gambling habit. This was a real struggle, but by going to the Reading Room daily at the time I had been accustomed to frequenting the pool hall, I finally was free of this false belief. Social drinking was also overcome in those first few months.

During the same period I was forced to prove daily that God supplies our every human need. When every human channel seemed closed and every argument of mortal mind was conclusive that supply was exhausted, it would appear in some form; not always as I thought it would, but it came. Healings continued—wonderful, beautiful healings, proving to us time and again that nothing is impossible to God. One of our children who had been left with rheumatism and heart trouble from an attack of scarlet fever a couple of years earlier was instantaneously healed in one treatment by a practitioner. This occurred in 1932. We had been told by the doctors that he could not participate in athletics, which he so much enjoyed. Today he plays basketball in high school and has been active in outdoor activities since his healing. Because of the early school record, when he entered high school he was given a very thorough examination to qualify him to take athletics, and was found entirely sound.

There have been so many marvelous experiences in the short ten years since Christian Science became a part of my life that it would take volumes to relate them all, many that the human mind would call miracles. Among these were healings of severe burns, results of accidents, colds, children's diseases, gallstones, and infections. Protection was experienced innumerable times: when errors presented themselves they were immediately destroyed by Truth before they could develop. I was beautifully sustained and healed when I had pneumonia. Even though for several days I seemed to be delirious, I never lost consciousness of Truth, to which I held determinedly.

I am grateful to the spiritually-minded practitioners who have helped whenever I have called and have stood by faithfully in time of trouble. I am grateful to God, and for His Son, Christ Jesus, who brought this light of demonstrable Truth to the world; for revealing to Mary Baker Eddy the Science of Life, and for the events that led me to be receptive and accept this Christ-teaching. I am grateful for the rare privileges I have enjoyed of serving this Cause in various capacities, every one of which has richly blessed me in proportion to my earnest effort to perform those duties to the glory of God. I have learned through many trials the impossibility of continuing in error in Christian Science. No matter how subtle the claims of error, if one continues working actively in Truth the error is finally uncovered and destroyed. But one must be active in Truth. I have found the most dangerous periods to guard against are the letdowns after a victory over error, when it seems so easy to let the light grow dim.

To close this testimony by just stating I am grateful for Christian Science seems hardly adequate. I know that God measures our gratitude in proportion as our lives express His divine nature.—Ralph L. Erlanson, Aurora, Illinois.