I had a wonderful, spiritually uplifting experience that was totally unexpected and that brought me into Christian Science. I had been brought up in a church school of another denomination, and I will always be grateful for the Sunday School training and required Bible study I received, for these gave me a firm foundation in Christianity.

Early in my married years and while I was an active member of that church, the ritual of the church services lost all appeal for me. I left the denomination that I had valued since childhood. Along the way I became involved in an offshoot religion for a period of ten years.

One evening a woman whom I had never met but who came to my house after she had been recommended as a baby sitter, put a copy of The Christian Science Journal into my hands. She said, "Perhaps you would like to read this." I thanked her but thought to myself, "I'll never read that." However, a few weeks later I picked up the magazine and began to read. Almost immediately I realized that this was what I had been seeking. There was a significant difference between Christian Science and the religion I had previously embraced. I saw the revolutionary teaching of Christian Science that exposed material sense testimony as unreliable and unreal. I knew that I had found the "pearl of great price." Membership in The Mother Church and a branch church followed in the proper course of time.

My first healing in Christian Science was that of bursitis. A few years earlier I had been treated medically for the ailment. When the trouble returned I knew that I would not seek a doctor's help. Instead I asked for the prayerful assistance of a Christian Science practitioner, who referred me to this sentence in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 381): "God is the lawmaker, but He is not the author of barbarous codes." This statement was very comforting to ponder, and it sustained me. I had no doubt that my healing would come through prayer alone. I made a vigorous effort to continue my daily tasks joyously and to attend the services in our branch church. Soon I was completely healed, and there has been no return of the ailment. This first healing impressed me greatly.

A more tenacious problem to overcome was the persistent asthma that had troubled me for over twenty years. Before embracing Christian Science, I had given up medical treatment for this ailment because I had found only temporary relief, and the medicine I was taking began adversely affecting me. As a student of Christian Science I found where my answer lay. Through the prayers at different times of three devoted, patient, and compassionate practitioners, I gained complete freedom.

Healing did not come at once. There were years of attacks that caused labored breathing. Yet I learned to pray for myself, and I grew to understand the meaning of the spiritual truths that were shared with me—that God had all good for me, that He loved me; that in reality I had an inviolate, innocent nature as God's beloved child. I was healed of many false traits, including self-righteousness, self-assertion, self-consciousness, and a sense of inferiority. When I finally came to see that the limitation parading as asthma was utterly unreal, that it could be likened to the devil, or evil, which Christ Jesus cast out of those he healed, then I was free. The few times the suggestion tried to tempt me again, it was put down at once, and the condition has not returned. I have been free from that problem for sixteen years now. How can I ever be grateful enough!

More recently I was healed of extreme dizziness. When the symptoms occurred, I managed to get to the telephone to ask for help from a practitioner. I was reminded that I was "anchored in Soul, God." I knew I would be healed, and I rejoiced that this was an opportunity to grow spiritually. I stayed put, comforted by the feeling of safety in God and confidence inspired by the practitioner.

When fear gripped me again, the practitioner met this firmly with the reminder that I must see the unreality of the evil. This admonition was the Christ light that penetrated the darkness. I was glad to hear those firm words of truth, and I rejoiced in my ability to prove them. Within a day I felt completely well again, and the dizziness has not recurred.

I rejoice that this Science teaches us that ever–present God can be understood here and now.

LOIS McL. JESSUP
Chappaqua, New York