Testimony of Healing September 1, 1973 Issue

For about a year there was a small fleshy growth on the end of...

Thelma Mortimer Garland

For about a year there was a small fleshy growth on the end of my nose. It didn't seem too noticeable, and I hadn't thought about it very much. However, shortly before Christmas that year, it began growing larger and I felt self-conscious when greeting people.

One day a friend invited me to a garden club meeting to make Christmas decorations. That morning, as I powdered my face, I became alarmed by the increased growth and telephoned a practitioner for help in Christian Science. She so calmed my fears that I determined to go to the meeting and forget self in being gay, loving, happy, and interested in everybody I met. I thoroughly enjoyed that occasion.

However, further study was necessary to meet the condition. My attention was arrested by the line from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy (p. 68): "Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion." But what did "accretion" mean? Among the definitions of it in my big dictionary I found these words: "the matter added." What stood out to me were the words "matter added." Interpreting them to meet my own need, I saw that any belief in matter would have to be an addition to God's work, since He made man in His likeness—wholly spiritual. The Bible says, "I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it" (Eccl. 3:14).