Article August 4, 1973 Issue

What It Means to Study

BETTY REISS

Some years ago a Christian Science practitioner, in response to my appeal for help in overcoming the smoking habit, wrote, "Study these citations." She enclosed in her letter a list of citations from Mrs. Eddy's writings.

An enthusiastic beginner, I had already raced through all of Mrs. Eddy's writings. But I looked up the recommended citations, said to myself disappointedly, "Oh, I've already read these," and set the list aside. My healing did not come until later.

When I was able to have a personal visit with the practitioner who was helping me, I humbly asked, "Do you think I will ever be healed? Can Christian Science heal this habit?" She pointed to a sentence in Science and Health and, looking at me earnestly, replied slowly, "I have taken a sentence like this one, and I have held it in consciousness, day and night, for as long as three or four months, until it ceased to be merely words in a book and became part of my very being."

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

God: Father and Mother