Letters February 11, 2013 ISSUE

Letters

JSH-Online comments, Sarah A. Britton

Only one influence

[Question of the week, January 14, 2013, “How have you prayed when confronted with either news of, or an experience with, contagion or seasonal illness?”]

I first began to think of flu and colds differently when I read that many years ago flu was considered to be caused by the “influence” of the stars. It is only in the last century or so that flu or influenza was considered to be caused by the “ influence” of microbes. My study of Christian Science helped me see that there is only one influence—the “divine influence ever present in human consciousness” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. xi ). This new understanding helped me overcome the tendency to have colds and flu, which I had suffered with for many years.

Brenda from Baltimore
JSH-Online Web post

A few years ago, as the media began announcing that it was “flu season,” my supervisor asked me if I had caught the “bug” that was going around. I said, “No, I hadn’t.” In the hours after that, I began to notice symptoms of flu in the cubicles around me, and then I began to experience those symptoms. I immediately remembered my Christian Science teacher’s instruction that when the media recommended vaccinations that we should obediently inoculate ourselves with our medicine—divine Mind. (“The medicine of Science is divine Mind …” [Science and Health, p. 104 ].) And I began to do so right there at my desk. As I declared divine Mind as my maker; Spirit as my “primitive and ultimate source of being” (Science and Health, p. 63 ); flu as no creator, no source of anything; and, like Job, prayed for my friends around me as well (see Job 42:10 ), my symptoms vanished, the sounds around me subsided, and I was able to concentrate on my work. I continued my “inoculations” throughout what the media said was a bad, early flu season in our area, and I missed no work and noticed very few of my co-workers missing work. Many times since then, I’ve met the “flu season” with the confidence that there is an immediately effective remedy for all strains of flu, and applied it.

John Holland
JSH-Online Web post

Meaning to write

Ever since I read “Seeing the presence of God” by Jan Keeler in the October 15, 2012, Sentinel, I have been meaning to write this thank-you note. The writer’s explanation of how Mary Baker Eddy’s statement that Mind is “supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual” (Science and Health, p. 427 ) was possible, was so enlightening that I have referred to it every day since. Keeler writes: “How is this possible? Because right where matter is claiming presence and space, right there is God, Spirit, filling all space and governing all action. As we grasp this fundamental spiritual principle, we will become more effective spiritual healers.”

Thank you, Jan Keeler, for this beautiful, healing revelation.

Sarah A. Britton
Greenwich, Connecticut, US

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