Testimony of Healing October 19, 1974 Issue

When I first picked up the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy,...

Betty Diane Peters Collins

When I first picked up the textbook, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, a little more than eight years ago, I was having a great deal of pain in one of my teeth. I had been to the dentist and had the tooth filled, but the ache continued. When I returned some time later, he told me he could find no reason for the pain. The only thing I could do was take a drug each day.

After reading Science and Health for just a few weeks it became very clear to me that man is wholly spiritual, and with this thought came a healing of any need for medicine. In addition to what the dentist recommended, I had been taking seventeen pills every day for a multitude of ills. Several pills were to replace the functions of a gland that had been removed surgically about a year before. Doctors had told me that I would need this medication for the rest of my life. Through the reading of the textbook and treatment by a Christian Science practitioner I was not only freed from the need for medication but healed of the smoking habit, social drinking, and the tooth problem. My need was great, and I was on my way to proving that "divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need" (Science and Health, p. 494).

Three years ago another tooth that had been filled by a dentist before I became a student of Christian Science began giving me trouble. A statement from the textbook became my inspiration (p. 428): "The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man is, not shall be, perfect and immortal." I held a strong conviction that this statement could be proved in this problem of decaying teeth as naturally as in any other situation. So I chose to meet this false suggestion with Christian Science treatment only.