Testimony of Healing December 5, 1953 Issue

My introduction to Christian Science...

Eleanor Frances Pickmere

My introduction to Christian Science came in 1907. Someone asked me: "Haven't you heard that the Principle of Jesus' healings has been discovered? Haven't you heard of Mary Baker Eddy?" I had not. So when an early edition of her precious textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," was handed to me I read it eagerly.

Circumstances had intensified my long search for Truth and my dissatisfaction with theological doctrines. I had sadly concluded that the simple religion of the Gospels was lost, smothered by creeds, dogmas, and ritual. I had nothing left but a conviction of the existence of a higher power and a desire to live by the Sermon on the Mount.

When I read in Science and Health that God is perfect Mind, incapable of knowing evil, much less of sending it, I was satisfied, realizing that it was impossible for mankind to have a higher concept of God. Next I learned that the mission of Christ Jesus was to teach us to be at one with that Mind. This replaced many years of distress at the thought of vicarious punishment, which had seemed to me both unjust and cruel. How restful it was to lay down my own will and listen for God's guiding voice, and how the world changed for me! Previously I had wished that I had a stronger will, but now I saw that the many frustrations I had suffered had been due to my serving mere human will. My first reading of the textbook brought such a vivid sense of God's presence that I glimpsed the unreality of matter.

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