Our beloved Leader tells us in Science and Health (p. 397): "When an accident happens, you think or exclaim, 'I am hurt!' Your thought is more powerful than your words, more powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real. Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be."

The logic of these words was proven to me in the following incident: It happened one Christmastime. I was doing some hurried shopping because I had to return home to keep a hairdressing appointment within the hour. At that time I was engaged in this line of work.

Coming down some stairs, I injured one foot. My husband, who accompanied me, came to help me, and as he did so he asked, "Are you hurt?"

I was about to answer in the affirmative, when I recalled the above passage; and so I replied, "No, I am not hurt!"

However, I had to be helped to the car because I found I could hardly stand on the foot. As we drove home I kept declaring that there are no accidents in Mind, and I proceeded, as the above statement advises, to "understand the reason why."

When I arrived home the suggestion came to telephone and cancel the appointment since I felt I would not be able to stand for any length of time. I began to reason with myself. If I had declared that I was not hurt, why was I canceling the appointment? If I did not understand what I said, why did I say it, and, if I understood what I said, why should I cancel the appointment? I subsequently kept the appointment, standing for over two hours.

By this time, my foot had become swollen and very, painful. My husband, who was not interested in Christian Science at the time, urged me to have medical attention. All that day I kept on knowing "the reason why": that because God, Spirit, is All-in-all there is no matter to ache, swell, be dislocated, or to incapacitate man, God's spiritual idea.

That evening my household went out shopping, and I was glad of the opportunity to be alone to do some more work in applying the truth as taught in Christian Science. However, the pain soon became more severe than ever, and with much effort I reached a bed and threw myself on it. I fell asleep, to be awakened by the sound of the family returning home. Oblivious of my foot I jumped up and hurried out to meet them. I was completely free. The following morning I went visiting in the countryside and walked up to the top of a high hill with not a trace of the injury remaining.

Truly, as Mrs. Eddy puts it (ibid., p. 353), "How can a Christian, having the stronger evidence of Truth which contradicts the evidence of error, think of the latter as real or true, either in the form of sickness or of sin?" This experience taught me the value of instant and persistent denial of error; this denial stifles it so that it cannot take root in our consciousness and must die for want of expression.

I am indeed grateful for the satisfaction I have found in the teachings of Christian Science, because it has answered my every question regarding God and man. I can want nothing more. Thank God for Mrs. Eddy and for every avenue which she has provided for this truth to reach mankind! For the blessed privilege of class instruction and the unfoldment it has brought to me, I am also truly grateful.— (Mrs.) Enid Bailey, Kingston, Jamaica, West Indies.