When as a young girl I began...

Isabel Banford Barmore

When as a young girl I began the study of Christian Science I had no thought of physical healing, but only of learning the truth concerning God. I had been brought up by a religious mother and had attended an orthodox church, but on entering college I began to question the theology taught in that church. I had accepted it on faith, but the time had come when I needed a more logical concept of God and man. This need Christian Science began at once to supply. As I read Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy it seemed as if a shining light were emanating from its pages. This was, of course, the effect of the enlightenment taking place in my consciousness. I had begun to lay hold on the sense of dominion that derives from understanding one's selfhood as spiritual, the manifestation of Mind.

Since that time I have been healed in Christian Science whenever I have been in need of physical healing, but through the prophylactic power of Truth, to which Mrs. Eddy refers on page 369 of Science and Health, I have progressively enjoyed health and useful activity.

A member of my family was healed instantaneously of hemorrhoids, which a doctor had stated would necessitate an operation. When a little boy of five who was left in my care complained of earache and could not sleep because of pain I called his Sunday School teacher, who was a practitioner, and took him to the telephone so she could speak to him directly. A few moments afterward he fell asleep, and in the morning he was perfectly free, unusually happy and active. As I gave him his bath I noticed that there had been a discharge from his ear; and because the experience of the night before had faded completely from my thought, I remarked about the condition. He reminded me of what had happened, adding joyously that now he was entirely free.

After I had discovered and cast out of my thought as unreal an expression of malicious resentment directed at our family, an ugly red swelling on my eye disappeared almost at once. Another member of my family was healed through Christian Science of a badly bruised and swollen arm. These are only a very few of the wonderful works I have seen accomplished through purely spiritual means.

Far greater cause for rejoicing, of course, is my growth in spiritual grace. I have been delivered, with the help of practitioners and my own study, from fears, timidities, and anxieties. I was healed of grief in a most wonderful way and enabled to overcome what was called an extremely high-strung temperament.

Class instruction has been an invaluable aid. I have learned to depend on Mind, not on human effort and energy, to bring out harmony in my experience. I have also learned that true selfhood is all good and that therefore I need neither fear nor depend on anything material. For the understanding of Truth that Mrs. Eddy gained through her own purity and consecration and then gave to the world, I am deeply grateful; also for the Christian Science movement, which offers such unmistakable proof of the divine inspiration under which she worked.—(Mrs.) Isabel Banford Barmore, New York,

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