Testimony of Healing March 27, 1943 Issue

Early in 1932, at a time in my...

Ralph L. Erlanson

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.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

Sometimes, when reading the...