Some time ago I was in deep...

A. Jackson Detsch

Some time ago I was in deep financial distress, and everything I did seemed futile. I suffered from continuous colds and headaches, and would not travel without certain brands of medicine; in fact, I took great pride in the size and variety of our medicine chest contents.

One day I left for a short trip. My wife had been suffering from a badly swollen throat and was hardly able to whisper. On my return I heard her singing like a lark, the bandages off her throat, and the swelling all gone. I asked at once what medicines she had used. She replied that she had been healed by reading and studying Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and had thrown all our medicines away. This provoked me. I told her that she could use Christian Science herself, if she wanted to, but that she should not try it on the children or me. Having a mistaken concept of this Science, I said that I had will power enough of my own. I felt I did not need Christian Science.

As my financial condition, despite my will power, grew steadily worse, I finally listened to my wife's repeated pleas to learn something about Science. I visited a practitioner, who began by giving me the spiritual sense of words that had formerly had only a material meaning to me. For instance, when I told him that what he said was beautiful and that I believed I had found something for which I had been looking, he replied, "That is something to be grateful for." Previously gratitude had seemed to me a servile quality; now, however, it lifted me in exultation.

The continuous headaches and colds left me, and they have not returned. But I continued my visits to the practitioner, who helped me to understand more of the truth contained in Science and Health. One day I was so overjoyed that I exclaimed that I had no need to be concerned over financial supply; that what I needed was to realize the truth, and "all these things" would be added unto me. Thus my healing of will power came about.

Succeeding visits to the practitioner brought more unfoldment, but one day I asked about my still evident lack of supply, and he said (Prov. 3:5, 6): "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." These verses in Proverbs I had read before, but they never had meant anything to me of practical value. Now, however, I at once felt the spiritual promise in them, and was healed of worry. A few days later some material came to me in the mail from a firm about which I knew nothing, in a line of trade about which I knew nothing. I did not worry, plan, or scheme. I knew that I had only to take one footstep at a time, and leave the rest to God's direction.

So commenced a business that proved successful. When a friend who had experienced financial difficulty asked me where I was during the hard times of 1917, I was reminded that on my wall hung the framed incorporation certificate of our business, which was dated 1917. Thus it was demonstrated that the activity of infinite Mind is uninterrupted.

Christian Science has also healed our domestic life, which had been embittered with discord and was the despair of our children, our relatives, and our friends. One evening toward the close of a lovely day in our home, I overheard my wife say musingly to herself, "I never thought I could be so gloriously happy."—A. Jackson Detsch, San Francisco, California.

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