Testimony of Healing September 4, 1978 Issue

I started reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by...

Anna A. Bower

I started reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy mainly to please my mother, and was given a Sentinel that seemed to be speaking directly to me! I read and reread the Sentinel for days and then turned to Science and Health with keener anticipation and found it answered my many questions about God and my relationship to Him. God was revealed to me as Father-Mother, a power and presence in which I could completely trust. As I read Science and Health I glimpsed that I needed nothing else in this world but God's love and my trust in Him. Although I had at that time no thought of physical healing, my desire to trust God alone led to my giving up material aids for a longstanding physical disorder. This condition was aggravated through pregnancy. I had accepted medical theory with regard to the condition. But through my study of Science and Health I was completely freed and have never had a return of this condition. That was over twenty-five years ago.

We were living in an oil field camp and were active participants in the social and sporting facilities available. I had to face the fact that what I was learning as a student of Christian Science did not agree with the belief that alcohol was necessary for a happy time, a sort of social lubricant. After some deep searching, I arrived at the conclusion that, since the beliefs underlying the use of alcohol were responsible for so much human tragedy, I could not align myself with it. What alcohol symbolized had no place in God's creation, in which everything He beheld was good. Consequently I discovered that I wanted no part of it. I did not feel deprived of anything. I continued to use wine in cooking until realizing some years later that I could not in any way support the industry. Even though we lived in a community of close social contact, my decision to abstain never brought forth any comment other than one of respect.

At the time of my introduction to Christian Science, we had four children, with a fifth due in a few months time. The responsibility of raising five children weighed very heavily on me, and I often wondered how my husband and I would manage to guide them into responsible and useful lives. It seemed a formidable task! Christian Science was the clear and obvious answer. I remember saying to my husband, "If we give them nothing else but Christian Science, we will have given them everything." He agreed to their being enrolled in the Sunday School and drove us to church, an hour's drive from our home. His willingness to do this convinced me that there need be no opposition to good. I never entertained the slightest fear that my husband would object to our children's attending a Christian Science Sunday School, and there was no opposition, but a beautiful demonstration of divine Mind in action.

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