Testimony of Healing January 3, 1983 Issue

When I was three years old I attended a Christian Science Sunday...

ELSIE F. MARDEN

When I was three years old I attended a Christian Science Sunday School in the United Kingdom for about six months. Then our family moved, and we children attended the nearest church, which was of another denomination. As the years passed by, I felt God was with me and watching over me.

About thirty years later I was ill and waiting to go into hospital for an operation. One day when I felt especially bad, I visited the local pastor and asked for help. He shocked me by saying he could do nothing for me. He added, "You must go home and be patient and wait for the hospital authorities to send for you." I went home and cried because I thought God had turned me away.

Suddenly it occurred to me to get the book that had been in the cupboard since Mother had passed on—a "religious book" my sisters had called it at that time. The book was Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and I read it day after day. I began to understand that "God is love," just as the Bible tells us (I John 4:8). By the time I had read more than halfway through the book, although I did not understand all of what I had read, I had at least learned something about prayer. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, pp. 14-15): " 'When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly.'