Testimony of Healing March 5, 1977 Issue

Christian Science saved me from the life of inactivity threatened...

Dean Alfred Sempert

Christian Science saved me from the life of inactivity threatened as a result of a complication of physical disorders. It was during World War II, while I was a patient in an Army hospital, that I was introduced to Christian Science. I had been hospitalized while serving as a combat engineer with the United States Army in Europe.

My condition was diagnosed as critical; I'd been suffering from yellow jaundice, pneumonia, pleurisy, and there were indications of tuberculosis. I was told it would be necessary for me to be in bed and inactive for several years. It was also predicted I would never again be able to drive a car or participate in any athletics. Since early boyhood I had been very active in this area, and I looked forward to continued participation. This information, along with the fear I had felt since I had been in combat, left me very depressed.

It was at this point that a Christian Science Wartime Minister found me. A relative, who strongly recommended Christian Science, had been given permission to arrange the visit. The Minister's first comment to me was bold and forthright in its truth: "It is not necessary for you to be in a hospital bed." This was in direct contradiction to the many statements I'd been hearing for several months. During his visits over the following months he would lovingly but firmly challenge my thought about myself; and he always left me with the positive assurance that my freedom from disease could be won. He also left me copies of the Bible and Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. I would awaken early in the morning and read Science and Health under the bed sheets before the others in the ward were awake. Mrs. Eddy's references to mortals' ignorance of their real state of being especially caused me concern. She says (Science and Health, pp. 560–561), "Ignorance of the divine idea betrays at once a greater ignorance of the divine Principle of the idea—ignorance of Truth and Love." But I gradually realized this was true.

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