PRAYER BRINGS HEALING AND REGENERATION

"Thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling" (Ps. 116:8 ). I was just beginning to learn about Christian Science through reading the Sentinel and other Christian Science periodicals when I went for my annual checkup. The doctor said that I had cancer in a serious stage and informed me that I would probably not live over five years.

Because I was so fearful and knew so little about Christian Science, I decided to receive the recommended medical treatments. After several minor operations plus radium and cobalt treatments, I was no better. In fact, my health grew steadily worse. Then, one day after a very painful stay in the hospital, I decided to rely completely on Christian Science. I knew somehow that it would heal me. Mary Baker Eddy's words in Hymn No. 253 (Christian Science Hymnal) were a great help to me at this time:

Christ, Truth, did come to me, and talk to me, and heal me. The healing did not come easily. The pain was terrible, and many times I felt that I would pass on. But finally I began to gain ground.

I had help from Christian Science practitioners at different times and from several dear friends. I also began a deep study of Christian Science myself and many times studied all night long.

One of the first things I learned was that God is eternal Love and that man is His immortal expression. My true selfhood had never been other than the flawless image of God. I then realized that the problem was not physical but mental. As Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health: "The mental state is called a material state. Whatever is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is imaged forth on the body" (p. 411 ). True healing takes place in consciousness.

This statement by Mrs. Eddy was very encouraging: "The new birth is not the work of a moment. It begins with moments, and goes on with years; moments of surrender to God, of childlike trust and joyful adoption of good; moments of self-abnegation, self-consecration, heaven-born hope and spiritual love" (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 15 ).

Many long-standing, false character traits, such as selfishness, resentment, and self-righteousness were gradually rooted out. When I saw the powerlessness of the claim called cancer, I lost all fear and became more loving, joyful, grateful. I felt I was really living in an atmosphere of Love. This is when the healing actually took place.

After this, my daughter and I joined a branch Church of Christ, Scientist, and The Mother Church. My husband had been very much opposed to Christian Science, but after seeing this healing both he and my son took up the study and now are serious students of it.

This healing occurred almost twenty-five years ago now. I probably would not be alive today without Christian Science. It has given us a much happier home and a happier marriage. Most of all, though, I am grateful for the spiritual regeneration that Christian Science has brought me, and for an increased awareness of man's true being in Spirit, God.

Nell Langford
Amarillo, Texas

(From a testimony originally published in the Christian Science Sentinel, December 28, 1981)