Testimony of Healing August 22, 1988 Issue

Shortly after my wife and I were married, I began to operate...

Warren Dwight Silvernail

Shortly after my wife and I were married, I began to operate a dairy farm in southern New Hampshire. Although I was not a student of Christian Science at the time, I attended services at a Christian Science branch church with my wife nearly every Sunday.

One morning while at home alone, I fell from a high platform to the barn floor about eighteen feet below. In falling, I struck my back on a supporting beam. And when I tried to stand, I found I couldn't get up. At first I thought I would be all right when I regained my breath, but after ten or fifteen minutes I still couldn't stand. I pinched myself and realized there was no sensation in the lower half of my body.

Then the thought came, "Christian Science can heal you." At first I thought, "But you don't know anything about Christian Science." Then, as I thought about the church services I had attended, I remembered a few words from a statement read at the close of each Sunday service. They were: "There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind ...." (This is the first part of "the scientific statement of being," found on page 468 of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy.) I knew Mind was another name for God. Since I had no in-depth understanding of Christian Science, I tried to focus on the full meaning of each word.