Testimony of Healing February 15, 1982 Issue

The other night while watching a news program, I saw a segment...

EVELYN RUTH WELLS

The other night while watching a news program, I saw a segment on a problem called agoraphobia. It brought to mind a wonderful healing I had experienced. Several years ago I would feel ill, faint, and very fearful whenever I was in a public place—in a supermarket checkout line, a restaurant, church, and so forth. The problem was never named because it was never medically diagnosed, but what was described on the television program as agoraphobia was what I apparently had.

I became aware of this problem one Sunday while I was teaching a class of young boys in a Christian Science Sunday School. (I had been a student of Christian Science a few years, had had class instruction in Science, and was filled with gratitude for this new way of life.) All of a sudden I felt extremely weak. The thought came to me, "What would you do if you fainted? Everyone would see you. The children would be upset." I caught the attention of the Sunday School superintendent and walked out.

The next week I worked diligently with the Bible Lesson from the Christian Science Quarterly, notes taken during class instruction, and references from the Concordances to the Bible and to Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy. The following Saturday I visited a Christian Science practitioner. She comforted me by sharing this line from page 380 of Science and Health: "Truth is always the victor." Also, she called my attention to the following words in Mrs. Eddy's book Miscellaneous Writings (p. 355): "To strike out right and left against the mist, never clears the vision; but to lift your head above it, is a sovereign panacea." The truth of these statements began to unfold in my thought.