A few years ago I became aware of a blemish on my back

James Lee Phillips

A few years ago I became aware of a blemish on my back. The condition enlarged considerably and I knew it must be healed. Fear of the difficulty and the fact that it was hidden from view had made me reluctant to pray consistently. I knew that in Christian Science this reluctance is known to be a phase of animal magnetism, the name for error—the deluding suggestion of a power apart from God.

I began to earnestly study the Bible, and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, in order to understand and apply the truth of my relationship to God as His perfect reflection and manifestation. I could feel improvement in my thought—a growing realization of the nothingness of this condition, but the physical evidence remained.

One evening the thought came to squarely face the claim the condition represented. I recall saying to myself that there is a healing answer in Christian Science for every mortal claim to a power opposed to God's law, because this Science of Christ is God's law.

With a deep breath I faced the claim, called it by name, and saw it as an argument of debilitation, decay, destruction, death. I did not dwell on this picture. Instead, with calmness I turned my thought to God and asked for the answer. Immediately, gently, and with great assurance came the statement in Science and Health (p. 507 ), "Creation is ever appearing, and must ever continue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source." I did not know that I knew this statement by heart, although I had read it many times. But there it was, the answer, the checkmate to error's claim of dominion—God, good, All-in-all, constantly revealing His divine healing nature.

I studied every aspect of this statement and saw that it canceled out completely each of the arguments I had faced. It was so clear that no two such contradictory actions as error and truth could be going on at the same time and in the same place, especially when one was such a resounding proclamation of God's presence.

The difficulty flared up a few days later, but I knew that my treatment was striking the mark, for I had studied what Mrs. Eddy says about chemicalization (Science and Health, p. 401 ): "What I term chemicalization is the upheaval produced when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal belief." I persisted with my prayer in this line without anxiety.

Within two weeks all evidence of this claim washed away down my shower drain. The skin where this blemish had been for over two years was without scar, new and fresh. This healing occurred in June 1975 and has been complete.

I most humbly express my deep gratitude to God for the Way-shower, Christ Jesus, who lived the life that revealed unmistakably the truth that frees, and for Mrs. Eddy, the Discoverer, Founder, and Leader of Christian Science, whose obedience and selfless devotion to God's leadings enabled her to write in a book this truth for the benefit of all mankind.

James Lee Phillips
Arlington, Virginia

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