Internal strain healed
In the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy informs readers, “... a just acknowledgment of Truth and of what it has done for us is an effectual help” (p. 372 ). And in the reminiscence of one of her students, Janette E. Weller, we learn that Mrs. Eddy counseled her to “always give credit to Truth” (We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Volume II, p. 45). In that spirit, I share this testimony.
One morning about a year and a half ago, I was attempting to lift a heavy urn in our garden that had toppled during the night. As I did, I felt an internal tear, or strain. What came to mind was someone I had worked with many years ago who apparently had a similar injury. My primary job was to assist this man, a foreman on a construction crew, and I’d been told he was suffering from the effects of an operation he had undergone to repair such an internal condition.
As a student of Christian Science, I knew prayer was a reliable health-care option. Here’s how the path to healing and freedom unfolded for me.
The thought came to refuse the mental suggestion of pain and suffering in the manner Mary Baker Eddy once did. I read about the following instance in We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, Expanded Edition, Volume II. Adam H. Dickey, a teacher of Christian Science, was called to Mrs. Eddy’s residence to serve as one of her most trusted workers. Part of his job was to prayerfully support and protect Mrs. Eddy and her household from harm, and to thereby protect the full revelation of divine Science. Once, he helped her overcome the apparent attack of disease that might have prevented her from taking her daily carriage ride.
After he spoke spiritual truths to Mrs. Eddy and the attack quickly ceased, she told him, “Mr. Dickey, I want you to see what we have done.... Now take this lesson to yourself, and whenever anything happens to you of an unfortunate nature, do not admit anything on the wrong side, but instantly declare that the experience does you good.... every attempt of evil, when surmounted and destroyed, helps the one who is attacked, and your quick and right declaration to the effect that, instead of harming you, it has done you good, breaks the claim of evil, and you become a law to yourself that evil cannot harm you” (p. 424).
This incident inspired me to rise above the claim of internal injury. I realized I would gain an important lesson from the experience that would advance my understanding of divine Truth, and of myself in God’s image and likeness. That night, I chose not to retire to bed as normal. In years past, I might have been tempted to welcome sleep as an opportunity to give matter a chance to “recuperate.” Instead, I stayed awake and studied. I used concordances to Mrs. Eddy’s writings and to the Christian Science Hymnal for ideas that specifically pertained to my situation.
It was a wonderful time alone with God. These ideas from Hymns 50 and 204 gave me comfort and strength. One is an entreaty for God to:
Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease;
Take from us now the strain and stress,
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.
(John Greenleaf Whittier)
And the other speaks of witnesses to Truth:
They go in Thy strength, and they speak in Thy name,
With power of Thy promise forth faring,
And during the battle the victory claim,—
Their trust in Thy truth is their daring,
Salvation to all men declaring.
(L.S. Berg, trans. © CSBD)
I’ve used this last thought of claiming victory before—rejoicing in the healing before it becomes evident, steadfastly entertaining an expectancy of good, claiming my true spiritual selfhood as God’s painless, harmonious, whole, unstrained image and likeness. After a few hours of sleep, I rose very early to pray for myself before I faced the day. I felt impelled to gain a stronger sense of my divine heritage of freedom from error. I yearned to better know God’s law of love and harmony for His child. As I prayed, it became increasingly clear that the claims of material sense must collapse before the recognition of our God-given dominion.
During the day the symptoms gradually disappeared into their “native nothingness” (see Science and Health, p. 365 ). I was able to lift the urn in the garden to its rightful position with no harm to myself. And the symptoms have not recurred since the healing.
More valuable than the release from the physical condition has been the increased confidence in God’s ever-present healing power. As I face challenges through prayer, I’m learning the meaning of “take[ing] pleasure in infirmities,” as St. Paul said (II Corinthians 12:10 ). I’ve come gradually to see that false claims necessarily fade away before the light of spiritual understanding as Truth displaces mistaken notions, or error, in thought.
The daily study of the Bible, Science and Health, Mary Baker Eddy’s other writings, and her biographies has become invaluable. An understanding of Christian Science is the “pearl of great price” (see Matthew 13:46 ) gladly purchased by “seeking no other pursuit or pleasure than that which cometh from God” (Mary Baker Eddy, Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 340 ).
Robert B. Scott
Pleasanton, California, US
