Filled with gratitude, I recognize the richly beneficent influence...

Werner Schüler with contributions from Ruth Schüler, Marjorie F. Kenyon

Filled with gratitude, I recognize the richly beneficent influence Christian Science has exerted on my life thus far. In 1952, I still suffered from the results of a war injury, which had led to what is called a fistular suppuration of the upper left thigh. This festering had already been diagnosed by one doctor as incurable; other doctors had attempted treatment without success. Thus I had put up with this condition, which I then regarded as inevitable, and had become used to applying the necessary dressing myself. I had completed my study and begun my profession as a teacher, and I paid this so-called incurable illness no more attention than I was forced to by circumstances.

Once as I was telling an older woman some of my personal affairs, I learned something from her about Christian Science for the first time in my life. What I learned made a deep impression upon me, for even at that time I was very much interested in religious questions. I welcomed the opportunity of learning more of Christian Science, although at the beginning of my studies I by no means believed it could have a healing effect on my physical condition. Only a little later on did I ask a Christian Science practitioner to take up prayerful work for me.

I visited the practitioner once a week for years and learned more about Christian Science from her each time. This was a beneficial time of inner transformation and enrichment. By contrast, the outward condition even worsened at first, and I know today that it was the process Mrs. Eddy names chemicalization (Science and Health, pp. 168, 169): "By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a material to a spiritual basis."

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