Speaker: "There is no power apart from God." Our guest first heard these words at a time when she was completely helpless, unable to see or to move. She is going to tell you herself how these words awakened her to God's all-power and how this brought her complete recovery. I'd like to introduce Mrs. Lois B. Estey of Geneva, New York. Mrs. Estey.

Mrs. Estey: Back in 1930, I was suffering from a large internal growth which had been pronounced incurable. Finally the last physician I had gone to informed me very gently that he could do no more for me, and when I questioned him, he said that I had only a year or possibly a year and a half in which to live.

We had recently moved to Buffalo, where I was not only sick and without hope, but also without friends. My husband and I were befriended by a couple who lived in the same apartment house, and they impressed us as being Christian in an unusually practical and helpful way. Their lives were so joyous, and they seemed to have a remedy within themselves for almost anything. So we began to question them about their religion and found they were Christian Scientists. So when my need became urgent, I decided to turn wholeheartedly to Christian Science myself. And we got a copy of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. I really was having a hard time physically: my eyesight had gradually failed, and I finally became totally blind. Also I was completely paralyzed.

But I shall always remember the compassion of the practitioner. One night when I was having great difficulty in breathing and was losing ground rapidly, he sat and talked quietly to me about the simple truths of God and of man in God's spiritual image and likeness. I was only half listening and faded into semiconsciousness. But then I heard him say to another member of the family: "If Christian Science is the truth, you want it, no matter what happens. If it is not the truth, you don't want it, even if it heals her."

That statement struck a responsive chord. It seemed as though I had been awakened out of a daze. I suddenly saw that there was no advantage in learning about God if that knowledge wasn't accurate. In that moment the fear of dying left me, in the realization that what I really wanted was to know God better—to know Him as He actually is—to know the truth. Before the practitioner left, he came to my bedside and said, "Now I want you to be very obedient and repeat over and over the words, 'There is no power apart from God,' and let in no other thought." So I resolved to do just that.

Suddenly a pain would sweep through me, and I would think, "Well, isn't pain a power apart from God?" And then I would think, "No, I must be obedient even if I don't understand the statement, 'There is no power apart from God.'"

Then I might try to move, and the thought would come, "Surely paralysis is a power." But then I would declare again, "There is no power apart from God."

Then I would want to look at something, and I couldn't see. And I would think, "Well, certainly blindness is a power that isn't of God." But I kept repeating, slowly and with a real effort to comprehend, "There is no power apart from God." And finally it dawned on me with great force that either there wasn't any God, or He must be all-power. He must be the only power and presence that exists or He wouldn't be God. That fact just dawned on me with radiance and beauty, and I saw that pain and blindness and paralysis have no power and no existence, no matter what they seem to be, because God never made them. I knew from that moment with an unshakable knowledge that I had found the truth concerning God.

Shortly afterward there was a sudden severe pain, and almost simultaneously the entire growth passed from me. At the same instant the blindness and paralysis left. And within a few days I was out walking with my little girl. Two years after the healing I saw the doctor and allowed him to make a thorough examination. When it was over, he said, "There's not a trace of the old trouble," and he added that it was Christian Science which had healed me.

Speaker: And what about your family, Mrs. Estey?

Mrs. Estey: Well, we had another little daughter afterwards, and I'm so thankful that all of us have grown in the practical understanding of God, which Christian Science has given us.

Speaker: Thank you so much, Mrs. Estey, for telling us of your healing. I'm sure all of us can appreciate how much it means to you.

No doubt most of us have heard the word "power" associated with God. We find God's power illustrated throughout the Bible, in both the Old and the New Testament. The Master, Christ Jesus, relied on his understanding of the power of God in every situation. In fact, he once asked a most challenging question on this very point. He said, as it is written in the Gospel of Mark, "Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?"

Doesn't the whole career of the Master indicate that the way out of human misery is to know the Scriptures, to rely on God, to actually acknowledge His power and trust in Him? Our guest's account of her healing is a clear illustration of how present and available God's loving care really is and of how we prove this when we prayerfully, understandingly reason from the standpoint that God is the only power.

I'd like to read to you more of the statement concerning God's power which our guest referred to, the statement which led to her healing. It's from the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. It reads (p. 228): "There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dishonor God."

It is from this standpoint, the standpoint of the all-power of God, that Christian Science enables us to meet the most severe emergencies. Since God is good, since He is the only cause and creator, as the Bible declares He is, good alone is real; good alone has power. From this basis the only logical conclusion is that discord is but the outcome of a false concept of power or reality apart from God. A correct understanding of God's all-power and goodness brings healing and restores harmony.

Persistent prayer may be needed that we may prove this in our own experience. But as the healing of our guest illustrates, the victory comes when we stand firm and accept wholeheartedly the fact that actually there is no power nor presence apart from God. This awareness of God's all-power awakens us to the realization that in reality man is spiritual and perfect, forever maintained in complete harmony and well-being by his heavenly Father.

God's power is present and available to you and to me wherever we may be, whatever our need. Hear this beautiful promise of Isaiah: "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 135 from the Christian Science Hymnal (I know no life divided).