Testimony of Healing December 22, 1986 Issue

The last time I visited an optician was in 1969

Charles A. Phelps with contributions from Bernice T. Phelps

The last time I visited an optician was in 1969. He prescribed trifocals. (I had been wearing glasses for almost thirty years, including bifocals for several years for what had been diagnosed as astigmatism.) At that visit in 1969 the optician commented that my eyes would continue to deteriorate gradually. He said that they should be checked regularly and the glasses corrected annually.

About a year later, through some Christian Science literature left in the home of a friend, my wife and I became interested in this Science. Recognizing what this teaching had to offer, we soon started attending the local branch church. We also began regular study of the Bible and of the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. The textbook reveals in depth the availability of the healing power of God and His Christ. Our study of this revelation began in late 1970 when my first annual eye examination was due. I did not return to the optician, however, as my glasses still seemed to be satisfactory.

More important, I was beginning to learn the meaning of such Biblical promises as this one (Isa. 32:3): "The eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken." Mrs. Eddy explains it so well in Science and Health (p. 486): "Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immortality are in Spirit and understanding, not in matter,—hence their permanence."