Testimony of Healing June 7, 1999 Issue

Prayer quickly conquers pain and injury from a fall

William J. Bartram

The new concrete floor in my barn was shiny and smooth. I was so proud of it. I had a couple of sheets of half-inch plywood left over from some construction and decided to stow them on the stringers in the rafters. I set my aluminum ladder and pushed the first sheet up in front of me as I climbed. As I pushed the sheet off the ladder onto the stringer, the ladder slipped on the slick new concrete. I landed on my back with a crash and lay in agony as the sheet of plywood, incompletely stowed, chose that moment to drop back down to the floor, edge first across my ankles. What I did next surprised me. I was not then a Christian Scientist, but I turned to prayer. Here's how it came about.

Earlier that year, I had subscribed to The Christian Science Monitor. But I vowed never to read the religious article in it. In fact, I began arming myself even before the first issue arrived with thoughts of how I would argue against any metaphysical content. Soon the newspaper began arriving daily, and I enjoyed every article. I quickly discovered where "religion" was located and nimbly skipped past it.

Then I began just to glance at it—that couldn't hurt anything. This led to actual reading. Soon I found myself turning to the religious article first. Instead of screaming, wild-eyed preaching, I found emotional restraint, self-control, and intelligence. Here was a logical philosophy based on a Father-Mother God who is Love. Soon I was reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, the textbook by the founder of the Monitor, Mary Baker Eddy. And I borrowed some copies of the Sentinel, with its articles and accounts of healing, from the local Christian Science Reading Room.