Testimony of Healing August 7, 1978 Issue

My mother was a Christian Scientist before I was born, and I...

Louise Avery Child

My mother was a Christian Scientist before I was born, and I attended a Christian Science Sunday School as a child. I rejoice now in that wonderful background; but for a number of years in early adulthood I turned away from this Science. I had entered a profession in which, despite my faithful service and hard work, the pressures proved to be intolerable. The result was a complete nervous and emotional breakdown. I left home and job and went to the Green Mountains to be with relatives. They were very kind but were unable to help me. Nor could the doctor or the psychiatrist whom I consulted help me.

Finally I wrote a Christian Science practitioner who had taught a friend of mine in Sunday School. She agreed to pray for me, and my healing began. It was a very slow healing, for I had many erroneous concepts to unlearn. I sent for the Bible, Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and the Christian Science Quarterly and began to read the Bible Lesson every day. My sufferings, which had tempted me to commit suicide, began to recede with the prayerful treatment, and as the practitioner's wonderful letters, full of the truths of scientific being, arrived every few days to encourage me. My replies to those letters, she told me, showed constant spiritual growth.

When at last I returned to the city, my outlook and life pattern changed completely. I attended and joined a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, participated in its activities, and had Christian Science class instruction. Also I entered a profession in which I was able to help others through social service and education. The years that followed were rich with friendships, and new opportunities opened up a breadth of undreamed-of possibilities. Our beloved Leader writes in Science and Health (p. 128): "A knowledge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher realms."

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