Testimony of Healing July 21, 1945 Issue

In "Miscellaneous Writings"...

Edmund James Pryor

In "Miscellaneous Writings" Mrs. Eddy says (p. 250), "I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it and noble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results." Some years ago I was greatly helped by the statement, "I make strong demands on love," when, after I had been suddenly stricken with a malignant tropical disease, it was imperative that every bit of understanding I had should be mustered and clung to. I was well off the beaten tracks when blackwater fever began to manifest itself, and I decided that it would be wise to come in to the nearest settlement, over a hundred miles away, by a rough motor track through the bush. Arriving there, I was rushed by special train to the hospital, where the doctor told me that they would leave me warm and quiet to fight it out on the basis of spiritual thinking.

It proved to be a case of Mind, God overruling the false claims of matter. At first it appeared that recovery would be speedy, but a relapse occurred during convalescence. For many hours I clung to the first verse of the twenty-third Psalm, using the seven synonyms for God, as given in the Glossary of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, in arguing against the claim of death. At the point where I thought that the last of my strength was leaving me, I sensed resentment in my thinking. "Why should I," ran the undesired argument going on inside me, "a member of The Mother Church and a faithful student of Christian Science, be here? Why am I cut off from help, from the contact I need with another Christian Scientist? Is it fair?"

At this point I turned to God as a confident and well-loved child will turn to an understanding parent. I asked for a message—something simple to comfort me in the valley of the shadow. Then I managed to lift my Bible onto my bed, thrust a finger between the pages, and read the verse I found there. I had not known that the passage existed. It was this (I Sam. 22:23): "Abide thou with me, fear not: for he that seeketh my life seeketh thy life: but with me thou shalt be in safeguard."

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