My gratitude is boundless for having been a lifelong student of Christian Science. The teachings in Science and Health, which explain God's nature, as well as insights into how Jesus accomplished his healing work, have blessed my life immeasurably.

About a year and a half ago, I began to notice it was becoming difficult to sing hymns in church. My speaking voice seemed normal, but soon a lump appeared in my throat, which became noticeable and painful on the surface of my neck.

Shortly before this, I had been devoting myself to a study of seven synonymous names for God, found on page 587 of Science and Health—Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit, Life, Truth. and Love. A definition of the term good appears on that same page, and I reasoned that each synonym must be acknowledged as incorporating the power of God's goodness in all expressions of human activity—in business affairs, on university campuses, in households, and, above all, in our prayerful work to claim our perfection as the image of the perfect God (see ibid., p. 259).

I had also been prayerfully considering other facts: that God, as Principle, declares His power to govern every aspect of His creation; that as Mind, God is the one divine consciousness, which leaves no opportunity for false illusions or conclusions; that as Soul, God requires us to accept His law of harmony as the only possible reality. I had further reasoned that God, as Spirit, reveals the one eternal substance, which denies the possibility of any limitation in matter. As Life, God perpetually supplies us proper motivation, strength, vigor. As Truth, He is the source of our thoroughness in acknowledging the allness of spiritual truth, which brings completeness to our healings. And God, as Love, sustains and cares for His entire creation. Another statement in Science and Health reminded me of the comprehensiveness of this care: "God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more?" (p. 2).

Because of this daily prayerful work, I now found my thoughts quickly centering on God in the face of the throat difficulty. Instead of accepting the condition as real, I mentally declared that it was no part of what was true about me, and affirmed my spiritual completeness as the likeness of perfect Spirit. I also acknowledged that the activity of Truth, when specifically applied to our life situations, always brings its own pure sense of healing and wholeness.

A complete healing quickly followed. First, the pain lessened, then disappeared altogether. By the second day, there was no evidence of the growth on my neck. And I rejoiced in the dominion over matter that the eternally present truth of God affords us.

Later in the year, I found that another prayerful study project prepared me for a need that arose. I'd been reading Mary Baker Eddy's book Rudimental Divine Science, and had memorized this passage referring to Jesus' power to heal: "He wrought the cure of disease through the divine Mind, which gives all true volition, impulse, and action; and destroys the mental error made manifest physically, and establishes the opposite manifestation of Truth upon the body in harmony and health" (p. 3).

One night after I'd gone to bed, I woke up to find that my hands, lower legs, and feet were rigid and painful. I was starled. But that passage immediately came to mind. I talked back loudly to the abnormal physical evidence. I affirmed that the divine Mind had an eternal control over me, and that the errors manifested on my body had no true power or presence—that they were just mental errors, or misconceptions. As I continued to give myself this spiritual treatment, this emerged as the "punch line" to my prayer: God, Truth, was establishing His perfection, which was an uninterruptible, irreversible fact that had to be manifest in my physical condition.

In a short time, I fell asleep. The next morning, with more gratitude than words can convey, I found that I was completely free of the stiffness and pain that I'd experienced just the night before. And this healing, too, has been permanent.

I joyfully give my thanks for these experiences, and for all that I hold dear in proving God's power for good on the human scene—"in earth, as it is in heaven."

JOANNE FORSYTH
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA, US