Testimony of Healing July 3, 1971 Issue

A healing I had in June, 1969, demonstrates beautifully the...

John Ernest Sweeney with contributions from Frances E. Sweeney

A healing I had in June, 1969, demonstrates beautifully the ready availability of Christian Science in emergencies. My wife and I were traveling from the East Coast to our home in the Midwest by car and stopped one afternoon for a soda. While in the restaurant, I became very nauseated and went to our car. On reaching the car, I was attacked by pain so severe that I could neither stand, sit, nor lie down in any comfort. The pain in my lower back was so excruciating that for some moments I seemed unable even to think. (Though no diagnosis was given, I believe it would have been called a kidney attack.) We were parked right at the busy sidewalk, and I was afraid that I would cry out and attract attention, so I got on the floor in the back of the car. Every few moments I would declare some spiritual truth that came to my thought, simple ones such as, "God is everywhere" or, "man is God's beloved child."

When my wife got to the car, she realized my need and drove to a quiet place in the rear parking lot, where I began praying in earnest. I said aloud (and loudly, too) every truth about God and man that I had learned in Christian Science, applying each statement of truth to my own situation. I have never prayed harder, I am sure. I prayed to see clearly that man has never been the victim of attack, never deserved attack, has never himself attacked anything, has no material body that can be attacked. I declared that 'attack is not a technique or action of God, who has nothing to attack, and that man is the perfect expression of God, and has no experience that God cannot have.

After some minutes of vigorous affirmations and denials such as these, my thinking became clearer and I was aware that my voice was surer and calmer, though there was no lessening of the pain. My reasoning became more logical and coherent, and I continued to pray, as did my wife. At one point, when I paused, she spoke to me of "God the Only Cause and Creator," which was the subject of the Christian Science Quarterly Lesson-Sermon that week. This opened up another whole line of reasoning for me to plunge into, and I did.

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