Testimony of Healing August 25, 1986 Issue

Some years ago I was returning to the office during a noon...

CONSTANCE E. SNYDER

Some years ago I was returning to the office during a noon hour, after having done an errand. I had attended the Wednesday evening testimony meeting at our branch Church of Christ, Scientist, the night before, and I still felt uplifted, thinking about the readings I'd heard then. They had centered on this Bible verse (Gen. 1:27): "God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him."

I was hurrying to get back to the office on time, when there appeared three burly men walking leisurely in front of me. They separated so that I could pass by, but as I did, one reached out, grabbed me by the coat collar, and dragged me backward. Immediately, yet with no human effort and feeling no fear, I thought of this man as the perfect child of God—God's image—the truth that had been brought out in the testimony meeting the night before. As I was jerked around to face my would-be antagonist, I knew I was facing instead "the spiritual image and likeness of God," part of the Glossary definition of man in Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy (p. 591). The man spoke to me in a threatening tone, but I did not even really hear what he said, nor did I need to know. God was protecting us both. Without conscious effort I said aloud something that I'd learned years ago in a Christian Science Sunday School class and that daily I affirm for myself: "Divine Mind tells us every day what to do, how to act, and what to say." I was immediately released. In fact the change in the man was so pronounced that his only parting gestures were a happy wave and a shout.

From an early age until I was twenty, I had the treasured privilege of attending a Christian Science Sunday School, and I've been active as a member of a branch church and of The Mother Church for more than forty years. I have loved teaching the truths of Christian Science in the Sunday School. It is an avenue for helping children to understand and demonstrate the preventive and curative powers of Science.

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