I wish to add my testimony of gratitude to God for...

Clinton Bent with contributions from Anna Bent

I wish to add my testimony of gratitude to God for Christian Science and for our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, its Discoverer and Founder.

More than thirty years ago my mother was healed through Christian Science of valvular heart trouble and nervous prostration, after the physicians, including a specialist, had said that there was no hope of survival from these ills. As a result of this healing I was entered in a Christian Science Sunday School and attended until I was twenty years of age. I shall never cease to be grateful for this opportunity. Youngster-like, I would often have preferred to play ball, go on an outing, sleep, or indulge in the many attractions which material sense deems important to youth. Here it seems just to acknowledge gratitude to God for His wisdom in guiding my mother to manifest true love in firmly deciding that my place was in Sunday school. Gradually, through regular attendance, I grew to love Sunday school, and felt out of place if occasion forced my absence.

In the light of Christian Science, the Commandments, Beatitudes, Lord's Prayer, and various Biblical stories and readings began to unfold, and their great wisdom and practicality were revealed. There foundational truths transformed what seemed to be a weak body into a strong, healthy one. Before my healing I was subject to fainting spells, which came as a result of the slightest sense of fear or excitement. I do not know when the healing came, but I know now that it resulted from the general change in my thinking through the Sunday school training. In addition to this healing I have had many others, some with the aid of a practitioner and many without, but always without medical or surgical aid. I have been healed of a severe cut, which exposed the ankle bone; a scalp disease, which covered the head, threatening to destroy the hair; tonsillitis, colds and coughs, measles, abscessed ears, headaches, chills and fever, warts, exhaustion, athletic foot, and many other difficulties. The bone of the middle finger of my left hand was crushed and apparently broken halfway between the knuckle and the lower joint. On the underside the flesh was opened wide from the impact which crushed the finger. To mortal sense it was a very serious experience. Several weeks later the finger was healed with the exception that it was partially stiff. Through patient steadfastness in the thought that Mind, God, is All-in-all, the only cause and the only action, I was finally able to move the finger as freely as the others.

As to false appetites and pleasures, I am grateful to have learned that man is the image and likeness of God; that we must measure up to that standard if we would enjoy the blessings of God, good; that the pleasures as well as the pains of sense are deceptive and fleeting, and that this deception must be either prohibited or rooted out if we would be at His "right hand," where "there are pleasures for evermore."

In conclusion, I wish to say that I am grateful that I early recognized my indebtedness to Christian Science and acquired membership in The Mother Church and a branch church, in which, besides serving in other capacities, I have been privileged partially to repay for my Sunday school education by teaching other children. I am grateful for every activity in the Christian Science movement.

Clinton Bent, St. Louis, Missouri.

My son's statements relative to my healing are true, and I have witnessed most of the other healings mentioned.

(Mrs.)Anna Bent

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