I became interested in Christian Science through a remarkable...

Clara Phelps

I became interested in Christian Science through a remarkable healing received by my husband's father, who had been severely injured by the explosion of a dynamite cap just before his sixtieth birthday. He was taken to a hospital in an unconscious condition. Doctors said he could not possibly survive because of extensive damage to the brain. Christian Science treatment was begun, and he was taken home where treatment went on and brought steady improvement. He was healed and was with us for many years after that experience.

About that time, supported by Christian Science treatment, I gave birth to our eldest son. It was a harmonious birth, free from all fear.

As a young girl I had been subject to severe headaches lasting several days and had exhausted all medical means of healing. I thought that there were three factors which brought on these headaches, and I carefully avoided them if possible. However, soon after our son's birth I had one of these attacks, which left me exhausted. My husband's brother, antagonistic to Christian Science, came to call and see the first grandchild in the family. When he asked me how I felt, I unwisely poured out my talc of suffering. He looked at me and asked, "What is the matter with your Christian Science?"

Deeply hurt, I stood there, having expected human sympathy and having received a rebuke instead. I asked myself, "Yes, what is the matter with Christian Science?" I had to admit it had been my failure to apply it. I made a vow that never again would I say or do anything that could bring any criticism of that precious revelation of Truth, God, given us in Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy. My thought went out in deep compassion to the one who had given me the rebuke out of his mistaken sense of what he thought Christian Science was. I did not realize until later that I had been healed. That was the last of the headaches. I can understand Mrs. Eddy's words in Science and Health (p. 192), "Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed love, receives directly the divine power." In one moment of unselfed love I received a lasting healing.

When our daughter was young, she suffered from a serious illness. She had Christian Science treatment for a year and a half. I was certain the practitioner had been doing good work, and I could not understand why healing had not come. After one severe attack I picked up my Bible in desperation. On the page at which it opened I read (I Thess. 5:21, 22): "Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. Abstain from all appearance of evil." I almost impatiently shoved the book aside and thought, "What else have I been trying to do?" Then the answer came, "But you haven't been abstaining from evil because you have been seeing the problem as real when actually it is only the appearance of evil." I immediately lost all fear for the child. She was completely healed.

I am very grateful that I have had the privilege of reading all our periodicals for many years. I am also grateful for the Lesson-Sermons established by Mrs. Eddy and made available in the Christian Science Quarterly. The lessons have given me a deep appreciation of and love for the Bible. I cannot close without giving thanks for the practitioners and friends who have helped me on the way to a more harmonious life.

(Mrs.) Clara Phelps, Tacoma, Washington

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The Bible Speaks to You

RADIO PROGRAM NO. 289 - Helping Youth Overcome Fear of the Unknown

October 21, 1967

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