I first heard of Christian Science...

Margaret Half-Winter-berger

I first heard of Christian Science when I was seventeen and my mother asked me to read to her from The Herald of Christian Science (French Edition). Although t was very ill with a painful intestinal trouble, I was not ready at that time to turn to Christian Science for healing. I continued my search for health in matter, and it was distressing. Operations, rest in a sanatorium, diets, drugs, homeopathy, electrical treatment—these were the remedies I tried.

Finally, when the doctor advised me to be brave because I would never get over my trouble, I read the Bible, hoping to find comfort, it was then that a friend spoke to me again of Christian Science. I asked for all the information she could give me, and upon learning that one could engage a practitioner, I asked one to come to me. I told her of my distressing physical condition and said that Christian Science was my last hope.

The practitioner lovingly told me some truths of God and of man created in His image and likeness, without sickness or any unfortunate experience, but divinely loved and sustained. On leaving she left me the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. I read the chapter on Prayer; then, holding the book to my heart, I declared: "Here is God's answer to me. This is what f have been looking for. I have found Truth." Three days afterward my condition greatly improved, and a short time later I threw away all my medicine. About three years of persistent effort were required to complete the healing, but I was helped patiently and lovingly to my freedom, I have never had a recurrence of the illness since then.

Thereafter everything concerning Christian Science interested me greatly. I hastened to learn about the life of Mrs. Eddy, that great woman who rid her consciousness of all worldliness in order to perceive the allness of God and to give to the world the Science of the Christ, which had been hidden by centuries of materiality.

I was healed instantly of very serious burns on my hand. A deep cut on my index finger closed and stopped bleeding when I declared "the scientific statement of being" (ibid., p. 468). In a skiing accident my right ankle was twisted under the left ski. I was almost fainting from pain when the thought came to me to resist the suggestion of breakage. My son, at that time a pupil in the Christian Science Sunday School, called out behind me, "There is no evil." He was able to free me from my painful position. There was no broken ankle. To the surprise of my friends, who had expected to carry me, I was able to get up and walk. No swelling of the ankle resulted, nor was there any other bad effect.

The study of what constitutes real substance has blessed me abundantly. Christian Science has brought me a priceless sense of Truth, Life, and Love, and it has been evidenced in true friendship and a happy home. Class instruction has been a great blessing to me. I am grateful to be a member of The Mother Church, to serve in a branch church, and to seek my daily spiritual food in the Bible and the works of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, supplemented by the other authorized literature. In the words of the Psalmist (Ps. 40:5), "Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."— (Mrs.) Margaret Half-Winter-berger, Lausanne, Switzerland.

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