In the year 1919 I found Christian Science

Albert Doepkens

In the year 1919 I found Christian Science. Shortly afterwards I was healed of stomach trouble of long standing by reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy and applying what I understood of the truth about God and man. Many are the healing benefits and protection my family has enjoyed through the practice of Christian Science since that time.

I should like to mention one instance of God's protection which occurred in the spring of 1945. At that time I was employed in a shipyard. One morning I was among a gang of men boarding a ship in the near-by harbor. In order to get aboard we had to walk on a narrow plank connecting the pier with the ship's rope ladder, which was fastened to the railing of the main deck of the ship and hung down the side of the ship. I had tied a string to my lunch box and hung it over one of my shoulders so that I could have both hands free. My partner walked ahead of me, and while he climbed the ladder I stood on the plank waiting for him to get aboard.

Suddenly the plank dropped away from under my feet and I fell into the water, which was about twenty-five or thirty feet deep. I did not get alarmed or frightened. The fact that I could not swim did not come into my thought. A very calm and secure feeling came over me, so that I had no sense of danger. I found myself in the deep water, not struggling but standing upright with no foothold or other support. The water reached to my neck. My head had not been under the water, although the drop to the water was about six feet. A wave I came along, splashed over my head and took my cap along. When the wave had gone I found myself in the same standing position as before, quiet and calm, with arms and legs relaxed. I remained in this position until men on the pier let a rope down to me. I took it calmly with a firm hand and was pulled up on the pier. My lunch box was still hanging over my shoulder.

Then men gathered around me and wanted to know if I could swim. I told them, Not at all. Then they wanted to know what held me up in the water. I told them there was nothing in the water to hold me up, but I was just standing in the water. They shook their heads. They just could not understand it. Others said they had never seen anybody act as calm and quiet in grave danger as I did.

I knew very well what saved me. Every morning before we eat breakfast and go to work my family and I read the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly, to get our spiritual food for the day. And it was this spiritual support, or understanding, that sustained me in the water. I am very grateful to God for leading me to Christian Science, which is surely "the true bread from heaven" (John 6:32). —Albert Doepkens, Davidsonville, Maryland.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

Christian Science first came into...

October 11, 1947

Contents

We'd love to hear from you!

Easily submit your testimonies, articles, and poems online.

Submit