Through the wonderful revelation of Christian Science, we are...
Through the wonderful revelation of Christian Science, we are made to see clearly that all discords, be they physical, financial, or moral, are merely false beliefs, illusions of mortal mind. The way to free ourselves from these beliefs is to know and accept the truth as revealed in the life and words of Christ Jesus and explained in Christian Science—the promised Comforter.
At one time our two sons came down with symptoms of malaria simultaneously. I first of all prayed silently for the boys, denying the validity of disease on the basis of God's allness and the perfection of man, made in His image and likeness. In addition to this I gratefully acknowledged God's care for all His sons and daughters. Then I proceeded to deny specifically one particular erroneous suggestion—that a creature called a mosquito was responsible for this evil. In other words, I upheld in my thinking the true sense of creation, revealed to us in the Bible, where it states, "And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31 ). In absolute truth there are no harmful creatures capable of causing disease; there is only the creation God has made.
After this silent prayer, all my fears were destroyed and my spiritual conviction was strengthened. I then proceeded to share these healing truths with my sons, and we prayed together. This was in direct obedience to this statement from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy: "Parents should teach their children at the earliest possible period the truths of health and holiness" (p. 236 ). They were both very receptive to these truths, and willingly affirmed that they were God's good children; that He loved them; that sickness was a lie; that therefore they were in perfect health.
As the result of my sons' participation in prayer at different intervals during that day, and of more silent prayer on my part, there was steady physical improvement for both of them. My younger boy was completely healed the following day.
However, in the case of his brother, the symptom of rising and falling temperature lingered. This belief was finally expelled by our taking a firm stand in our prayer that "Mind regulates the condition of the stomach, bowels, and food, the temperature of children and of men, and matter does not" (ibid., p. 413). Not one of these symptoms has returned.
Another healing occurred soon after these experiences, involving one of our teenage daughters. She telephoned from her boarding school in London, saying she could not breathe properly. My husband and I reassured her with the truth that God, her true Father and Mother, was right there with her, taking care of her. Because God is divine Life, we knew that she reflected His strength, and nothing could destroy her life. We told her to hold on to these truths in her prayers, and promised that we would phone her back later.
In our silent prayer for her, apart from knowing where her true dwelling place was (as in the case of her brothers), we also had to know that no bad news could cause discord for her—we were aware that she had met with some disappointing news that day.
When we did phone her back, roughly one hour later, a very firm and cheerful voice replied, "Yes, I am breathing properly." We were so happy for her. She too was happy to be free, and more ready to trust God, divine Love, to help her.
One morning recently I thoughtlessly put my index finger under extremely hot water. The pain was excruciating. For almost ten minutes I paced up and down, trying to keep calm. After achieving some relative calm, my thoughts then went to some statements in Science and Health, following the marginal heading "Remedy for accidents." The statement of truth that came to mind was "Declare that you are not hurt and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine metaphysics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be" (p. 397 ). For roughly thirty minutes I obeyed with all my heart this statement of truth, gratefully acknowledging through silent and audible prayer why I could not be hurt: (1) Since God is my creator, I am always reflecting divine intelligence and cannot in truth do things thoughtlessly; and (2) I am in truth completely spiritual, not material, possessing through reflection the indestructible substance of Spirit.
Although initially I had experienced swelling of the finger and loss of skin, the skin grew back quickly, and the finger shows no evidence of having been hurt. I was completely free of the pain within the space of thirty minutes. Naturally I rejoiced greatly. "The Lord is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works" (Ps. 145:9 ).
And this is why we cannot afford to take such healings for granted, but have to be eternally grateful.
Elizabeth Dawn Diffa
Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
