Testimony of Healing December 13, 1999 Issue

Facial injuries healed through prayer

Charles Edward Langton

"Trials are proofs of God's care." This statement in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 66) has often made me ask myself if I could have God's care without some trying circumstance, injury, or illness. I do believe that God loves us and does not cause His children to suffer. So why do I need a "trial" to be assured of that? In considering this question, I went to the Bible and found that Joseph experienced many trials, but his unflinching trust in God's love and care blessed him and many others (see Gen., chaps. 37–50). Also, the New Testament accounts of Paul's activities attest to the fact that he was not troubled by adversity. He endured stoning, beating, imprisonment, shipwreck, and snakebite, and in every instance he was confident of God's love and care. And he, too, was blessed, as were others (see Acts, chaps. 14, 16, 27, 28). These Scriptural accounts were very inspiring to me.

Then an experience I had provided additional enlightenment on the subject of trials in a very convincing way. On trash pickup day, as I was moving a large container to the curb, I tripped and landed face-first on the driveway. My nose and forehead were severely cut. At first I did not know this, because my nose and forehead felt numb. When I became aware that my face was bleeding a great deal, I realized the injuries were serious, and even wondered if my nose was broken.

I called a Christian Science practitioner and requested treatment through prayer. As my wife cleaned my face and applied bandages, I felt assured that all was well. A statement from Science and Health greatly helped calm my thought and removefear. It reads, "Hold perpetually this thought,—that it is the spiritual idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying,overlying, and encompassing all true being" (p. 496).

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