Speaker: Our guests today are Mr. and Mrs. Paul Nelson, of Muskegon, Michigan. At one time it seemed as though sickness and discord might bring disaster to their home. But right then they made a discovery. They found the truth which Christ Jesus said would make men free. So they set to work to gain an understanding of this truth. It's been blessing their home ever since. We're going to let the Nelsons tell you their experience.

Mrs. Nelson: I'd had a lot of medical treatment for a very serious organic condition, but the trouble grew worse. Finally I was told that certain organs would have to be removed. Even then, there was no assurance I'd be any better. But before the doctors would operate, they insisted on special treatment to clear up an infection. This treatment seemed to aggravate the condition; and one night my body became very swollen, and I had a high fever. Toward morning, I was so ill that it really seemed the end was near. Our doctor said there was nothing more that he could do. My husband came into the room, and my sister was there. They stood there and looked at me. They didn't know what to do for me. They just didn't know where to turn next.

Mr. Nelson: We really didn't. But weeks before I'd prayed to be shown what to do when my wife first told me she'd have to have an operation. I'd been drinking heavily the night she told me; but in spite of that, I remember I went to bed and prayed to God to be led to do the right thing.

Mrs. Nelson: And God did show us the way. As I was lying there that morning, it came to me very clearly to try Christian Science. You see, as a child I had attended the church and lectures once in a while with an aunt. So then I told my husband I wanted help from a practitioner, and he said, "Virginia, if you want to try Christian Science, it's all right with me."

Mr. Nelson: So that's what we did. We called this aunt, and she began to pray for my wife immediately.

Mrs. Nelson: And within minutes I felt the power of God, the ever-presence of the healing Christ. The fever completely left me. The terrific pain was gone.

My aunt recommended that we ask a Christian Science practitioner to continue the treatment; so we did. We discarded all the medicines, and my sister began to read to me from the Bible and "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.

The second day I was able to get up and talk with the practitioner. She asked me to cleanse my thought of any resentment, hatred, or ill feeling. I did have a very deep feeling of resentment toward a relative who'd brought a lot of unhappiness into my life. But all this was healed, and I began to feel a great love for her.

In four days the swelling had disappeared except in my feet. That took a few more days. When our three children saw the big change in my condition, they wanted to attend the Christian Science Sunday School, and I was eager to go to church. The next Sunday they came running into my room to see if I could go, but my feet were still swollen.

But the following Sunday we were all able to go; the swelling was completely gone. It took a little longer for the internal condition to clear up. The practitioner continued to help me. She explained to me that man is not made up of material elements. Man is the likeness of God, infinite Spirit; therefore my real self is spiritual and perfect. In about eight months, I'd say, the healing was complete.

Mr. Nelson: While all this was going on, I was finding my life changed a good deal too. When we asked for Christian Science help, I decided that if we were going to rely on it, I wanted to know more about it. So I went over and had a talk with this aunt for about an hour. It seemed as if every sentence she spoke referred to God's perfect creation. The thought that impressed me was this: perfect God and perfect man. It became clear to me that man actually must be free from all discord, because he's made in the image and likeness of God.

When I left the house, I was practically in tears and very happy, because I knew that God was helping us. And I also realized another thing, that right then and there I'd been cured of the desire to drink, which had been quite a problem for me.

Later on, Christian Science helped me in many other ways, healing a leg condition, making better progress in my work, in fact, it's made everything different for the whole family.

Speaker: Thank you both so much for sharing those experiences with us today.

Friends, how good it is to know that we are never helpless when faced by any condition or circumstance, however severe it may seem to be. Why is this so? Because the healing power of God is always present, always available to us every moment. How can we be sure of this? We can be sure because Christ Jesus promised us in these well-known, well-loved words: "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Christian Science accepts the Bible teaching that God is good, that He is infinite divine Mind, or Spirit, and that God made man in His own image and likeness. Then it follows that man is actually spiritual and perfect now, free from anything unlike God.

But what of the mortal, material man that seems to suffer, to be sick and discordant? Surely this can only be a mistaken concept of God's man.

In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy shows how we can free ourselves from this wrong view of man. She writes (p. 191), "As mortals give up the delusion that there is more than one Mind, more than one God, man in God's likeness will appear, and this eternal man will include in that likeness no material element."

Now this is where the Nelsons' experience will be helpful to us, because it showed so clearly what they did, the steps they took to free themselves. Suppose we talk for a moment or two about those steps.

First, there was a humble reaching out to God for help and direction. Next, a deep desire to understand the true nature of God and man, which Christian Science teaches. In order to gain this understanding, they sought the aid of a Christian Science practitioner. They earnestly studied the Bible and Science and Health. They both began to see clearly that man in God's likeness is spiritual and perfect now. Then they made a sincere effort to put that understanding into practice in their daily lives. You'll remember Mrs. Nelson exchanged resentment and hatred for the Godlike qualities of compassion and love. They were literally knowing the truth, and the truth itself made them free, as Jesus promised it would.

We can know this very moment that humble prayer to God is always answered when this prayer is accompanied by a diligent effort to understand God aright. This will make it possible in our everyday lives to exchange wrong thinking and bad habits for pure, Godlike qualities. Then we are actively knowing the truth. And we shall see the proof in our own experience that this truth does make us free.

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 70 from the Christian Science Hymnal (God giveth light to all).