I should like to express my gratitude for Christian Science, which...

Esther Skinner Carson

I should like to express my gratitude for Christian Science, which has completely transformed my entire experience. When just becoming interested in Christian Science, I attended a lecture on it; and the message of God's great love for man and of the perfection of being made a tremendous impression on me. I began to realize that God meets our every need.

The next day I met a friend, a Christian Science practitioner, and I told her how this lecture had opened my eyes to the good in store for each one of us who is ready to accept it and how it made me realize how little I had accepted, for I had felt I had "plenty of nothin' "—inadequate supply, few friends, and no real purpose in life. I remarked to my friend as I left her that I must get some cigarettes before I went home and that I would just give anything if I could stop smoking. I am grateful to say that was the last package of cigarettes I purchased! My awakening to the true nature of good healed me of the desire to smoke.

I should also like to tell of a remarkably quick healing of a sprained ankle I experienced about two years ago. Immediately after I hurt the ankle, these words from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy came to me (p. 424): "Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, since there is no room for imperfection in perfection."

As I sat still for a moment, I declared "the scientific statement of being" from Science and Health which reads in part (p. 468): "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." Then I called a Christian Science practitioner, told her what had happened, and asked her to help me realize the nothingness of the error and the perfect harmony of my real selfhood.

I felt I needed extra prayerful support, since the next morning I must be at my post as organist in a branch church. As I left the telephone, these lines from Hymn No. 2 in the Christian Science Hymnal filled my thought:

A glorious day is dawning,
And o'er the waking earth
The heralds of the morning
Are springing into birth.

The next morning I was able to wear a sandal-type shoe, and I played the organ with ease. On the third day I wore my usual shoes and was completely free. I believe the most important thing in the experience was the utter repudiation from my consciousness of the possibility of inharmony. Mrs. Eddy tells us in Science and Health (p. 392): "Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself harmoniously."

I am very grateful for class instruction and the yearly association meeting and for having had the privilege of serving as First Reader and as chairman of the executive board of a branch church. Membership in The Mother Church is one of the first blessings I received after becoming a student of Christian Science. It is a great privilege to be a member of The Mother Church, which is doing so much to lift the burdens of mankind.

(Mrs.) Esther Skinner Carson, Ottumwa, Iowa

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