Christian Science has brought...

Joyce Beryl Payne

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE has brought many blessings into my life. I should like now to express my gratitude for a healing.

I was born prematurely and for twelve months was reared in an incubator, being taken out of it for feeding and bathing only. During this period a displacement in my leg became apparent which prevented me from walking until I was three and a half years old. There was a fear that walking would become more difficult as years passed by.

My parents had sought the advice of a number of doctors. An operation was performed, and it was followed by continual hospital visits until I was seven years old; but nothing could give lasting help. I thought the only thing for me to do to gain relief was to pass on; but when I was ten my parents were introduced to Christian Science, and I started to attend a Christian Science Sunday School.

A practitioner helped me to realize that even if I passed on, I would still have the belief in the reality of the condition to get rid of. It was clear that I must prove the truth regarding myself.

About eighteen years ago, I was led to visit a Christian Science House for rest and study, and a few days after my arrival I was taken to hear a Christian Science lecture. During the lecture it was clearly revealed to me that I was looking for something material to be healed; whereas God's child is always perfect. This thought stayed with me so strongly that during the night an adjustment in my leg took place, and I was healed.

The next day I went for a long walk, and I also went to church. Since then I have been active in my employment and in excellent health. I am deeply grateful for the help given by the practitioner over the years and for the care given me by the staff and nurses of the Christian Science House.

I should like to express my deep gratitude also for a further expression of freedom. As a result of my delicate condition as a child and the time I spent in hospital, I had had only three years' schooling. While I was attending Sunday School, which I did over a period of ten years, the other children in my classes showed me a great sense of love and helped me to feel at one with them in the class, although I could not take part with them when they were reading, because I was unable to read well enough.

When I left Sunday School because I had reached the age of twenty, I became more than ever aware of being out in the world and unable to read or spell adequately. I remember trying to read the Lesson-Sermon, which is given in the Christian Science Quarterly each week, and having to leave out the words in the Bible and in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy that I could not read.

I told a friend about this difficulty and the mental unhappiness it caused me. She read to me a passage from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy (p. 89): "Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, and the power of expressing them." I realized at once that man's true knowledge comes from God, divine intelligence, and that, as His reflection, I could prove this.

My friend said she would help me with my reading; so little by little this realization became more clear to me, and I found I could read. Later on, the fear of reading to others was overcome also, so much so that it is my privilege to serve as a Sunday School teacher in a branch church.

I have had many other proofs of the healing power of Christian Science. For a happy home and true companionship, I am deeply grateful, and for Christ Jesus, the Way-shower, and our Leader, Mrs. Eddy. I am also grateful for membership in The Mother Church and a branch church and the blessing of class instruction.—(Miss) Joyce Beryl Payne, Stockport, Cheshire, England.

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