Testimony of Healing August 5, 1985 Issue

It was in the summer of 1920, while I was on a ten-day hiking...

CARL C. DORTMUND

It was in the summer of 1920, while I was on a ten-day hiking and mountain-climbing trip in the Canadian Rockies, that I first learned of Christian Science and had my first healing.

Before the start of our hike each morning, I noticed that five of the party gathered in front of one tent and read from some books. One day I asked one of them what they were reading. He told me that it was the weekly Bible Lesson outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly composed of citations from the Bible and from a book called Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy. He also invited me to join them. I did one morning—out of curiosity—and became interested in what I heard.

Near the end of the ten days, I ran out of cigarettes. When I mentioned it to one of the Christian Scientists, she helped me see that no one need be a slave to a bad habit, because we each have God-given dominion over such tendencies. She also asked if I would like her to pray for me. I said "OK" and thought more about what she had said—about not being a slave, and having dominion. By the time we arrived in the village at the end of the trip and I had the opportunity to buy cigarettes, I had lost the desire for them. I never smoked again.

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