In one of her hymns Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, asks this poignant question (Poems, p. 75): "Felt ye the power of the Word?" One who has felt this power knows that God is alive, present, and powerful.

When I was a child of eight, I felt this "power of the Word." One evening I became very ill with what was called spasmodic croup and was choking to death. My father, who was not a Christian Scientist, was trying vainly to get in touch with one of the two doctors in our small town. My mother asked his permission to call an aunt who was a Christian Science practitioner. Realizing that something must be done quickly, he gave his consent. I can remember my mother going to the telephone just before I became unconscious. When I regained consciousness, I knew that I was well. I had felt "the power of the Word." At that moment the doctor, our neighbor and friend, walked in. I told him I was well, but he would not believe me, thinking I was too young to know what I was saying. But I was well, and I knew it.

As a young teen-ager, I began to question our minister and other adults about doctrinal beliefs, such as those regarding heaven, hell, and immortality, but no one could answer to my satisfaction. When we were visiting my aunt, the Christian Scientist, I questioned her. The answers she gave were clear, logical, and sensible. When she told me that Christian Science healed, I remembered the experience when I was eight years old, and I needed no convincing. I had already felt "the power of the Word." At that young age I began an earnest study of Christian Science.

A more recent healing took place a few years ago. I was healed of being hard of hearing. I began to notice that it was necessary for me to sit near the front of the church to hear the service. I also noticed that I had difficulty hearing a normal conversation. Although I was praying about this condition, it grew worse. One day the doorbell rang. When I went to the door, I found that I could not hear one word that the salesman was saying. I closed the door and said aloud, "Nothing can keep me from hearing the voice of God."

From that moment on I spent many hours studying the Bible and our textbook. Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy. After this intensive study had gone on for some time, our young son ran to me one evening and whispered something in my ear. I answered him, and he ran out to play. At that moment my husband and I looked at each other, realizing that my hearing was normal, Great was our joy at this healing.

When our son was in nursery school, he sustained an injury to his eye. The iris of the eye appeared to be disfigured. I was so fearful that I cried all the way home from the school, but in my distress I said over and over (Ps. 73:1), "Truly God is good to Israel." When I arrived home, I laid the child on the bed and called a member of the family who was a Christian Science practitioner. Through my sobs I told her the condition of the eye. She quickly spoke of the restoring power of divine Love. She told me to cover his eye and that she would do immediate prayerful work.

In about thirty minutes our son came bounding into the room, ready to play. He said, "Mommy, this bandage bothers me. I'm going to take it off." About an hour later when I was lifting him into his high chair, I looked at his eye and rejoiced to see that it was completely normal. What humble gratitude filled my heart for the power of God's Word as revealed to us in Christian Science!

During years of living all over the world as an Army wife, I have had many healings, blessings, and a joy that cannot be described. I am grateful to God for His Son, Christ Jesus, for Christian Science, and for Mrs. Eddy.

(Mrs.) Marguerite Bennett Dews, Fort Worth, Texas

I should like to add my quota of gratitude for what the discovery of Christian Science by Mrs. Eddy has meant to me.

In 1923, when training as a medical nurse, I strained my back; but in spite of many types of medical treatment given me by the kind doctors with whom I worked, I was not without pain for twenty-three years. For the most part, it was bearable; but from time to time I had to lie in bed. It was finally diagnosed as arthritis in a pelvic joint.

Some years later I became a student of Christian Science, and from time to time when the pain was severe, I turned to Christian Science practitioners for treatment. I realize now that each treatment so lovingly given helped toward the final healing; but the condition persisted. Finally I made up my mind that I would continue to have this treatment until I did get my freedom.

For three months this prayerful work went on during which time my thought was constantly directed toward my sonship with God and the physical condition was rarely discussed. One night I knew that self-condemnation was holding up this healing, but the cause of this condemnation had kept me from voicing it to the practitioners. That night I just turned to God and asked Him to be my practitioner. In the morning I found myself able to relate this miserable lie to the human practitioner, and in as short a time as it took me to tell, he had pricked the balloon, which wasn't even anything to be ashamed of! During the next four days it seemed as though I literally saw pain disappear. Nearly twenty years have passed, and I have remained completely free.

My gratitude, not only for this healing but also for the regeneration of character that has taken place, is unbounded and causes my heart to overflow with thanks for Christ Jesus and for Mrs. Eddy. This gratitude also includes those fellow Christian Scientists who have helped me along the road, including my family and the teacher who gave me class instruction and so faithfully carried out Mrs. Eddy's in junction in the Christian Science textbook, "Let your loving care and counsel support all their feeble footsteps, until your students tread firmly in the straight and narrow way" (Science and Health, p. 454).

(Mrs.) Helen Audrey Walker
Guildford, Surrey, England

I have learned many lessons through the study and application of Christian Science and would like to express my gratitude for them through the periodicals.

As a child I overcame many fears and frustrations by turning wholeheartedly to God, my Father-Mother, in prayer. The Bible and Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy were inspiring textbooks with which to work when problems of relationships, illness, or supply needed to be resolved. Many times when sickness presented itself, inspiration and healing came through reading the testimonies in The Christian Science Journal or the Christian Science Sentinel.

Protection and right direction were experienced during World War II and the Korean campaign, when my husband was sent overseas.

After the birth of on, of our daughters, a tumor appeared on her head. We realized that this was an opportunity to prove the allness of God and the nothingness of matter. We were confident that absolute reliance on God through prayer would heal it. It was so prominent that even when she had a bonnet on, people would ask what it was. I resolved not to try to explain away matter but said frankly, "It is nothing!"

We knew there was nothing in the child's thought to be healed, so we searched our own thinking in line with Mrs. Eddy's statement in Science and Health (p. 412). "If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needs to be met mainly through the parent's thought, silently or audibly on the aforesaid basis of Christian Science." She also tells us (ibid., p. 63): "In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beautiful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor does he pass through material conditions prior to reaching intelligence."

A Christian Science practitioner gave the child treatment. Support from workers in the Infants' Room in our branch church was consistent with Christian Science and showed their expectancy of spiritual healing. We held to the statement (ibid., p. 346), "The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we need to understand that error is nothing, and that its nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in order to prove the somethingness—yea, the allness—of Truth." The healing was accomplished through persistent effort and holding to the truth, and it has been permanent. Our daughter's skin became clear, and no sign of the tumor remained. This occurred fourteen years ago.

Christian Science has been a real staff upon which to lean in the rearing of our family. Happy friendships and right activities have been the natural outcome of reliance on God.

Pneumonia, earaches, so-called children's diseases, small facial growths, and warts have been healed and eradicated through steadfastness in the truth we are taught in Christian Science. Through reliance upon Christian Science, dysentery was healed when we were traveling in a foreign country. Ivy poisoning, which had caused much fear, yielded to Christian Science treatment.

This testimony would not be complete without expressing my gratitude for the Christian Science Sunday School, where I was taught to study and apply Christian Science.

I am grateful for class teaching and for membership in The Mother Church and a branch church. The opportunities to serve have been varied, and all have brought rich rewards. My appreciation of Mrs. Eddy grows daily. Her spirituality and love in bringing Christian Science to the world are a blessing to us all.

(Mrs.) Leah H. Ellington, Darien, Connecticut