At eight years of age I had a so-called children's disease

Ilsi Spier Schönleben

At eight years of age I had a so-called children's disease. Following a recurrence I was completely deaf. With material help I improved. At that time I knew nothing of Christian Science. My first contact with this marvelous Science occurred some years later, when I married. My husband was already acquainted with Christian Science. Together, we began attending the services of a group of Christian Scientists. Wanting to know more of this healing religion, I obtained the Bible and a copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. I began reading them and soon became interested in studying the Bible Lesson in the Christian Science Quarterly. When the deafness reappeared for several months, I asked a Christian Science practitioner for prayerful treatment. Among other things she kindly told me my thought needed to be changed to the truth of my spiritual being. I was unable to understand this at the time. I thought of going to a doctor. But when I got there, the inspiration came to me, "What am I doing here if 'my refuge and my fortress' is God, in whom I trust?" (Ps. 91:2.) I did not have the medical consultation; but instead I went to the testimony meeting of the Christian Science group. During the meeting a woman testified that her son, who had had a serious hereditary disorder, freed himself from it when he corrected his thought by accepting the truth that God does not know sickness and that God made man is His likeness. This Christian Science healing, which she releated, awakened me to a better understanding of the law of God, and from that time on I could hear and have remained completely healed of the deafness.

When my son was born, I had no difficulty whatever and understood the truth of Mrs. Eddy's statement in Science and Health (p. 463), "To attend properly the birth of the new child, or divine idea, you should so detach mortal thought from its material conceptions, that the birth will be natural and safe." Further in the same paragraph she says, "When this new birth takes place, the Christian Science infant is born of the Spirit, born of God, and can cause the mother no more suffering."

Last fall our son, who is a pupil in the Christian Science Sunday School, caught an old nail in his foot when he was going barefoot. He didn't pay much attention to it. He told me what had happened, but I was not alert to do specific prayerful work for him until at night when the boy was unable to sleep. His foot had become swollen and it hurt. The next day he couldn't walk because of pain. My husband and I were greatly afraid; although I was reading to our son and praying for him, and the boy was praying, too, the condition appeared to be getting steadily worse.

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At eight years of age I had a so-called children's disease

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