On this program Gerald A. Berling of Gallon, Ohio, told of his own experience, as follows:

I am from England, but actually my story goes back to Belgium. I was living there in 1914 with my parents at the time of the First World War. We lost our home to the invading armies and had to return to England, where I volunteered for overseas service in the British Army. At that time I had a deep faith in God, but only a hazy understanding of Him. To this faith in God and the power of prayer I attributed several miraculous escapes from death under enemy fire. In the years following World War I, I frequently pondered these experiences.

Then I came to the United States and went into business. The feeling of dissatisfaction and unrest about religion continued. Then one day I happened to discuss my religious quandary with a business acquaintance. He gave me such a dear, logical, and practical definition of God that I asked him about his religion. He told me that he was a Christian Scientist. So through this friend I attended my first Christian Science service—a Wednesday testimony meeting. The healings that I heard described by people from all walks of life impressed me a great deal. Very soon after, I bought a copy of Mary Baker Eddy's book "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and began to study it and find out just what this religion was about.

This study produced a tremendous impact upon me. It's hard to describe, but it left me with the firm conviction that at last I had found the truth about God and man which I had been searching for over such a long period of time.

But the main thing I would like to tell about is a healing I experienced through the study of Christian Science some years later. Almost as long as I can remember, I suffered from a severe type of hay fever and asthma. Summer and fall was a period of almost continuous misery. Before taking up the study of Christian Science, I had medical treatment in several countries and found some temporary relief, but never a cure.

Now I began to realize that what I needed was a clearer understanding of God, good, as the only cause. As I continued to study and pray over a considerable period of time, the false belief in man as a material being separate from God gave place little by little to a measure of understanding that God is Life and that, as His spiritual image and likeness, man expresses God's perfect being. When the next hay fever season arrived, I was aware that I had no more difficulty or discomfort. I was completely healed. This was in 1941. As a matter of fact, almost every summer thereafter I have had occasion to assist in harvesting hay in the field and stacking it in the barn on a farm which I own. I have done all of this without the slightest discomfort or evidence of the disease which had been with me for so many years.

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 144 from the Christian Science Hymnal.

The commentary was as follows:

That Inspiring hymn you just heard, friends, puts in a nutshell the spiritual truth by which Christian Science heals discords of every name and nature. It tells us that man lives, moves, and breathes in the atmosphere of divine Love—in fact, that God is with us everywhere—that

Now when we think about these spiritual truths and learn what they really mean, we realize that God's law gives man dominion over all physical laws which would induce disease. This includes positive immunity from the so-called law that, for some individuals, certain types of substances like the pollen of plants or flowers may cause inflammation of the glands, sneezing, or hay fever. What a wonderful promise of freedom this is for those who believe they are allergic to certain forms of matter! This belief is refuted by the joyous words of the Psalmist, "Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them."

Is not this a promise that if we love God's law, we are freed from discord? In line with this promise, Christian Science shows—and proves, as our guest did—that we don't have to resign ourselves to being subject to such ailments as hay fever or asthma, arising from the season, climate, or atmosphere.

Now let's see just how Christian Science approaches such problems. This healing religion shows that diseases, whether organic or functional, are mental in their nature, and that the remedy is spiritual, not material. Fundamentally, all human ailments are the outcome of the belief that man is material in origin and nature, and that he is at the mercy of laws of matter. In other words, what is needed to bring freedom is not a change in atmosphere, food, or season, but a change in thinking. Also the understanding that the true nature and selfhood of man, God's image and likeness, is spiritual and not material. God alone governs man. Disease has no place in God's true, spiritual creation, and finds no support whatever in God's law.

In correcting human thought according to Christian Science, we start our reasoning with the facts concerning God. God is Spirit, the only true substance, the only real cause or creator. He made nothing unlike Himself. How could God, divine Love, create anything harmful to man? The inevitable conclusion is that in reality there is no material substance that can inflame man, irritate him, restrict his activity, or undermine his being. There is no discord in the atmosphere of divine Love. Man actually lives in this atmosphere, the presence of God, and is immune to all discord and disease.

Now perhaps you are wondering' how this applies to the sufferer. By holding these truths steadfastly in thought, we challenge and heal disease by spiritual means alone. Throughout the Christian Science textbook. "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, you will find such helpful statements as these (p. 392): "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously. When the condition is present which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them." And later on she adds (p. 393): "Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God's government."

On this basis, friends, you can prove that you are really governed by God, and that nothing can injure you. Your functions and your true being express the harmony of God's control. When these spiritual truths are understood, they operate as a law of healing in your affairs. The result is you do not experience difficulty in breathing, nor do you experience congestion, constriction, irritation, or any upset condition. God made man free, and God's law of divine Love upholds and maintains that freedom. In the healing atmosphere of divine Love there is only the action of good.

Claim this God-given freedom and health as your own, just as our guest did. In proportion as you hold firmly to the facts of God's harmonious government, you will see practical evidence in your own experience of your God-given dominion. Thus you may prove that there is nothing harmful in the atmosphere of divine Love.