As a youngster I came into contact with Christian Science and wanted to follow it. But a child's experience goes through many phases. After some years of my reading the Bible Lesson (outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly), a different sentiment crept in: "I've read these lessons often enough; I know them by now." Sometimes I was tempted to think that others could stay home comfortably during minor illnesses, but I had to pray to heal an illness. The loving encouragement of my mother at that time was a great help.

Difficult circumstances compel you to grow from simple acceptance to understanding; they compel you to turn more completely to the source of all understanding, divine Mind. During the Second World War my mother and I were imprisoned in a war camp for women on Java. Through my understanding of Christian Science I was able to support others, and adults asked me to come and talk with them, even though I was not yet eighteen.

My mother fell sick with beriberi and fear almost paralyzed me. But then I realized that God is omnipresent. I knew God is Truth and that in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy we find an explanation of how divine Truth operates in our lives. Circumstances during the war had prevented me from learning English, but we are shown the way when a right desire impels us. I had found an English-Dutch dictionary and with it studied the whole chapter entitled "Prayer" in an English copy of Science and Health. Here the insight I had already gained into Science came to profitable use. I noted unfamiliar words in the margin and eventually learned to read the English text and understand it. This helped me tremendously. My mother was healed of the beriberi, and we both were liberated from the prison camp.

Upon our release, we Dutch women were, for safety reasons, housed by the Red Cross in quarters that shared a central kitchen. We were not allowed to do any shopping and were advised not to leave the house except to pick up food at the central kitchen.

One time when it was my turn to pick up the food and I was walking to the kitchen, I was confronted by an angry group of local youths armed with sticks. Because I understood what they were saying, I realized as they spoke among themselves that they thought they had found in me a prime victim.

I had learned to pray in the hour of need, and I turned completely to God. For me this has always remained a good, practical example of the power of faith in the sense of the word meaning trustfulness. At that moment a light breeze started up, making the leaves of the trees move and reveal something sparkling behind a dense group of trees. The boys noticed it and moved off in that direction. It proved to be a car that had been hidden from view—for them a discovery of major importance. They left me alone, and I continued on my way to the kitchen, thanking God for His protection.

We were eventually evacuated to Singapore and from there to the Netherlands. Later I married a Christian Scientist, and both our children attended a Christian Science Sunday School.

Christian Science is a Science! It was not without due cause that Mrs. Eddy called her discovery Christian Science, for Science shows the divine law that underlay the healing and teaching of Christ Jesus. Contrary to my impression as a girl that I knew everything about Christian Science, the knowledge we gather over the years by our study increases in meaning through continued unfoldment. The leaven of Truth lifts mortal thinking to "revelation." And the spiritual ideas we grasp supply our present needs.

My husband and I have been studying this Science for over fifty years, and again and again the same sentences and stories reveal new spiritual vistas. A line from a hymn in the Christian Science Hymnal beautifully expresses this experience: "The vision infinite to me grows clearer, / I touch the fringes of eternity."

Hendrika Adriana van der Horst-Moulijn
Tietjerk, Netherlands