I was introduced to Christian Science...

Viviane Armand with contributions from Alain Armand

[Original in French]

I was introduced to Christian Science several years ago by neighbors, who have since become friends, to whom I am very grateful. Who, indeed, ever shared with me a more beautiful gift?

The first time I read Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy, I stopped smoking and bought, again through my friends, a copy of of the Bible. During these years of study my family has been benefited so many times from divine support that I am able to give many testimonies of situations and troubles which God has turned into His praise and into joy. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 516); "God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in goodness, which impart their own peace and permanence. Love, redolent with unselfishness, bathes all in beauty and light."

I shall ever be grateful for the Christian Science practitioner, who has shown devotion and patience, and has gently helped me to correct my view, continually reminding me, with tenderness, of the divine All-presence. Each time we talked I felt this presence of divine Love, which never fails.

During that first winter, however, when I saw our little girl confined to bed with fever and convulsions, I was not able to resist my fear and called a doctor. It was only at the end of three weeks, when I was asked to hospitalize the child, that I reacted vehemently, refusing this injustice of illness. I turned once again to God, realizing my folly. The doctor was dismissed at that time. As soon as I had spoken for a few minutes on the telephone with the practitioner, I regained my calmness, and, through prayer in Christian Science, within a few days our daughter had regained her health and joy of living.

Several months later it was I who was prostrated by a fever during the night, and in spite of my prayers there was no change. When my husband returned from work and saw the situation, he took Science and Health and started to read aloud to me; then he decided to call the practitioner. I was up before my husband had come back from telephoning, to the astonishment of my mother-in-law, who had arrived during all this.

In the evening we listened to hymns on a record, and we were struck by Mrs. Eddy's words, revealing Life divine, the presence with us: "O gentle presence, peace, and joy and power" (Christian Science Hymnal, No. 207). And the angel's message of Christ's presence: " 'Lo, I am with you alway,' — watch and pray." For the first time I felt we were all united and protected in Christ, Truth. Nothing could change this state of things, this divine reality that we have from God, when we follow in the "narrow way" mapped out by Christ Jesus, as Mrs. Eddy followed him in her healing work.

(Mrs.) Viviane Armand
Ecully, France

I wish to confirm what my wife says about our daughter's and her own healings. I thank God for Mrs. Eddy, and for the book Science and Health, which helps us to find a new sense of life, to see the world in the better light that has been thrown upon the Scriptures, and to solve all material problems. We have such a sense of well-being when we pray and recognize God, our Maker.

Alain Armand

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