Speaker: One of the greatest fears that beset mankind is that one wears out as he grows older. Yet isn't it natural to expect that as one grows through experience and knowledge, his life will be fuller and richer? Our guest today, Mrs. Dorothea Skriver Thomas, of Omaha, Nebraska, met and overcame through prayer the challenge that eyesight must be expected to wear out with advancing years. We'd like you to tell us about it, Mrs. Thomas.

Mrs. Thomas: About thirteen years ago I began to be troubled with poor eyesight. My profession at that time was giving courses for adults, and in this work it was necessary for me to read from eight to ten books a month. I had always enjoyed reading and had had good eyesight, but now I read with a great deal of discomfort. This increased until I was faced with giving up my profession or resorting to glasses. However, from earliest childhood' I had relied upon Christian Science for healing every ill. My father was healed of tuberculosis after he had been told he could never recover, and my mother was healed of a severe heart condition through her study of Christian Science. I had had few serious ailments. We understood that Christian Science is a preventive as well as a curative Science.

Although I had seen many proofs of the healing power of Christian Science, my concern was so directed toward my profession and the desire to continue in it that I consulted a well-known oculist who made a careful examination. He told me there was nothing wrong that a pair of good glasses wouldn't help. He said: "Mrs. Thomas, you've passed forty. Don't fight it. Just remember that you are coming into those advancing years where we must expect this sort of difficulty."

He gave me a prescription for lenses and sent me to an optician to have it filled. But I did not go ahead and get the glasses. The phrase the doctor used—advancing years—awakened me. I saw that if these really were advancing years, then I should be advancing in every direction. Actually, I should see better than ever. So instead of going to the optician, I went home, resolved to look up what the Bible and the Christian Science textbook [Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy] had to say about sight, progress, and advancing years. I decided that if I could read but five minutes at a time without pain, then those five minutes would be devoted to earnest, consecrated study of these two books.

I remember that I reviewed the account of Moses in the Bible—that he was one hundred and twenty years old, yet his sight was not dim, nor his natural force abated—and I reasoned that if this was true of Moses, it could be proved true today, for God's law of perfection and harmony never changes. In Science and Health I read (p. 248), "Men and women of riper years and larger lessons ought to ripen into health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness or gloom."

I saw that what needed to be corrected was my unconscious acceptance of the world-wide belief in years and age, the belief that man is a material being who advances to a peak of maturity and then declines. I needed to annul in my own thinking the possible effects of this generally mistaken belief and to stand with conviction on the eternal, spiritual fact that God is the same yesterday and today and forever, and therefore so is man, made in God's image and likeness, as the Bible says.

I was healed through this prayerful work, although I never knew the exact moment when the healing-took place. I just began reading-more and more, and one night I was asked to read a passage from the Bible to a friend. When I finished, she commented on my being able to read such fine print without using glasses. I hadn't even noticed that it was fine print. There had been no discomfort at all; so I knew then that I was completely free from impaired vision. Today I read extensively, drive my car, have no trouble using the telephone book or anything else, and all without the use of glasses and all without any discomfort or strain whatsoever.

Speaker: Thank you so much, Mrs. Thomas. Your experience is encouraging, and it's a helpful one for us to consider.

Friends, down through the ages, scientific discoveries have resulted in startling changes in world thought. To mention two that are familiar to everyone: at one time it was generally accepted that the world was flat and also that the sun revolved around the earth. Enlightened thought has completely reversed those beliefs. Today many are finding that the generally accepted beliefs concerning age are equally false and that they too can be reversed.

Our guest refused to accept the world-wide belief that failing eyesight is a penalty of advancing years. As a student of Christian Science, she made a consecrated study of the great truths in the Bible and in Science and Health to strengthen and support her understanding of man's eternal, spiritual selfhood as the child of God. Now no one could possibly think of God as becoming aged or decrepit, for the Bible declares that He is eternal, unchanging Love, infinite good. Then it's logical, isn't it, to assume that He couldn't possibly create anything unlike Himself?

The man of God's creating, therefore, which is your true selfhood and mine, is good. Man's true faculties are spiritual understanding, perception, discernment. These qualities are eternal; they can never wear out; and they are safe because they exist in God. They belong to spiritual man forever. How comforting it is to have the assurance which the Bible gives that "God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good"! And to have the further assurance of His unchanging perfection in this verse from the Bible: "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever; nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it."

Isn't it clear, then, that we needn't be afraid of or apprehensive about the effect of passing years? In reality they can only bring continual unfolding of good, unimpaired faculties.

It was such prayerful reasoning that brought healing to our guest, and it can do the same for each one of us. You see, true prayer, as taught in Christian Science, is the unwavering acceptance of God as omnipotent good. On this basis we can completely deny or reject whatever is unlike God, good. Such prayer doesn't ignore discord, but it does enable us to see through its pretense of being a power apart from God which can hurt or harm man's true nature. But as St. Paul says, we need to "pray without ceasing"; in other words, to be constantly and joyously aware that God has placed no limits on man's endless capacities for expressing Him.

The wisdom of such prayer is shown in this passage from Science and Health, where Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 246): "Except for the error of measuring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, and holiness."

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 186 from the Christian Science Hymnal (Mighty God, the First, the Last).