Testimony of Healing March 12, 1949 Issue

Christian Science brings lifetime of good health

James R. M. Butler

It is over fifty years since my mother became interested in Christian Science through the healing of a sister. As the wife of a prominent clergyman holding a high academic post, she needed courage to adopt a new religion then hardly known in England and to break with medical practices. But having become convinced of the truth of Christian Science, she stood her ground. Later she became a practitioner. My brothers and I were thus brought up in a Christian Science atmosphere from an early age, but no pressure was put on us to embrace the views of either of our parents. From boyhood, however, though there was much in Christian Science which I did not understand, I realized that it contained something of supreme value which I had not found elsewhere, and I felt no desire to adopt any other system of religion or healing.

I have never had any spectacular physical healing; there has been no need, since I have enjoyed constant good health as long as I can remember. But I am grateful to Christian Science for help in innumerable, ways throughout my school and college days, in the Army during both the wars, and in my university work. During the twenty years between the wars I do not remember one occasion when I was unable through ill-health to give one of my regular lectures. For a good many years, however, I was not an active Christian Scientist and was content to rely largely on my mother's understanding and on the help she gave me. Finding some points in Christian Science difficult, I halted between two opinions and preferred not to commit myself, forgetting that one cannot cross a stream by hovering on the bank.

Eventually something occurred which gave me a jolt, and it became clear to me that if I wanted to understand more about Christian Science, I must practice it to the full extent of what I did understand and accept. I had certainly found it more satisfying than anything else, and I did not really doubt that it held the key; I must no longer be reluctant to acknowledge that I had yielded to the touch of Truth (see Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, p. 450). Accordingly I joined first a branch church and soon afterwards The Mother Church and felt great advantage from doing so. A little later came the exhilarating experience of class instruction from a teacher who enabled me to see more than ever before the grandeur and infinite range of Christian Science and the need to apply it to every circumstance. Later on I was present at the start of a Christian Science Organization at my university. This was nearly twenty years ago, and I can record what a great and beneficial part it has played in the careers of successive generations of students. I have also enjoyed the privilege of service in a branch church.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Testimony of Healing

Truth destroys fear for loved one's safety