Testimony of Healing December 4, 1978 Issue

Before I became a student of Christian Science, about three...

Della Neumann Spencer

Before I became a student of Christian Science, about three years ago, I knew it was wrong to hate, but I did. I knew it was wrong to criticize others, but I did. Self-righteousness, self-love, self-justification, envy, jealousy, revenge—I accepted these as part of man's real identity. The world seemed full of sin, disease, and death—not a very pretty picture—and I questioned the validity of my own thinking.

Then I met a Christian Scientist. This individual expressed qualities I was searching for. I began daily to study the Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly. I began to understand God, and man made in His likeness. Human relationships were becoming more harmonious for me. All desire for tobacco and alcohol completely left me; chronic headaches were becoming less frequent.

Through my study and application of Christian Science I have been completely healed of a severe chronic back condition from which I had suffered for many years. At one time earlier I had been confined to bed for several weeks. Any bodily movement caused me extreme pain. The healing came about one day after I offered to mow a friend's yard. The grass was too long to be mowed and first needed to be chopped with a sickle. After working for several hours in the hot sun, I began to feel very tired. I noticed that my hands had blisters on them, but I continued to work. I kept thinking of Mrs. Eddy's statement in Science and Health (p. 385): "Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untoward conditions, if without sin, can be experienced without suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself." I was able to finish the work without any more weariness; and the blisters on my hands had completely disappeared, although my hands were never protected by gloves.