I shall always be grateful for the wonderful way God led me step by step to Christian Science. Dissatisfied with the teaching of the religion I had been brought up in, I began to search as a teenager for a religion that would be logical and practical. Often I prayed, "Father, show me the way." He did.

At the end of the Second World War, I lived in a part of the world where we were suddenly surrounded by seemingly fierce-looking and, as I imagined, gruesome, revengeful enemies. To avoid the roads, where these soldiers drove along in tanks and cars, we walked across fields, full of fear. It was spring. From a cloudless blue sky the sun bathed the earth in light and warmth, shining equally on friend and foe. In a flash I realized that as the sun knew nothing of the turmoil human beings had created for themselves, so God knew nothing of it. Startled, I stopped. "God is Spirit—His children are spiritual, eternally living together in harmony." It was as if someone had spoken these words to me. I felt a deep sense of love for everyone, and no fear at all remained. No harm came to me or my companions on our way home, although we had to pass roadblocks put up by the victors.

Some months later I became ill with contagious jaundice. A doctor whom we consulted prescribed medicine. When I saw the big bottle containing a thick white fluid, I said to my mother, "I shan't take this; it looks like plaster of paris. I shall rely on God. The Bible shows that God healed many people. If that is true, He will heal me too." And so it was. Each time when a pain started I would say, "No, that's not right. God is good. He doesn't want me to suffer." It wasn't an instantaneous healing, but gradually the pain vanished and I was well again.

The third glimpse of Truth came two years later, when my aunt was severely ill. Her physician had given me a note to take to the hospital. It said an ambulance had to be sent at once and an operation would be performed immediately after her arrival in hospital. He urged me to run. On my way I met an acquaintance. She stopped me, and I told her quickly of my aunt's condition. I started to dash off, when she said, "Do you believe in God?" Startled, I replied, "Yes!" "Well, God never made your aunt ill. He doesn't know about this. God is Spirit, and God is Love. We, His children, are really spiritual and perfect in His love all the time. If you understand this and hold on to it, your aunt will be well when you get home." Her words might have differed a little from this I write, but this is the meaning they conveyed to me. She told me that she was a Christian Scientist, and I promised, "If this is true that you tell me, we all—my mother, my aunt, and I—will come to your church."

I had heard of Christian Science before, and liked the Christian Science Hymnal someone had shown me. But I had been too busy at that time to delve deeper. I had to cross a bridge on the way to the hospital. Again the sun was shining from a cloudless blue sky. My earlier first glimpse, "God is Spirit," flashed to my thought; then the second spiritual insight I had had to trust in God to heal me of jaundice. "That's it!" I knew with conviction the supremacy of God and felt His love. A burden dropped from my shoulders. I understood something of the truth of God and Man. I looked at the doctor's note in my hand, tore it in pieces, and threw them into the river, convinced my aunt was well.

When I arrived home, my aunt was much better. Something had come away naturally, my mother said. A short time after, when my aunt consulted another doctor, he said that nothing was wrong with her. She never had the operation the other physician had said she needed urgently. A fortnight later we all three went to our first Christian Science service and took up the study of Christian Science.

Mary Baker Eddy writes in Science and Health with key to the Scriptures (p. 410): "The Apostle John says: 'There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casteth out fear.... He that feareth is not made perfect in Love.' Here is a definite and inspired proclamation of Christian Science." Love cast out fear in my first glimpse of Truth.

In the same book Mrs. Eddy states (p. 167), "Only through radical reliance on Truth can scientific healing power be realized," and (p. 243), "Truth, Life, and Love are a law of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because they declare nothing except God." These are to me a clear explanation of my second experience, when I saw God would heal me and I refused the medicine. All three statements explain the healing of my aunt, from my view of her recovery.

My deep desire is that anyone searching for truth might find encouragement by reading my testimony, and pray without ceasing as I did, "Father, show me the way."

The revealed truth of divine Science is the Comforter promised by Christ Jesus. It needs to be understood and practiced. Christian Science shows how this can be done. It's more than a religion in the conventional sense. It's a logical, practical way of life.

(Miss) Clara Liselotte Arnold
St. Leonards on Sea, East Sussex, England