Foremost amongst the blessings...

Harry Boissevain

Foremost amongst the blessings which have come my way is Christian Science, with its appeal of strength and infinite patience with human shortcomings, overcoming them not by human means but by unfailing Love.

I had been brought up in an atmosphere of free thought and high moral culture, had had an excellent education, was rich in the world's goods, and the future seemed big with promise. But many lessons had to be learned, chiefly humility and purity—humility, which makes work a joy, and purity, which rises above personal sense and sensual pleasure.

I took up the study of Christian Science to help me learn these lessons. Because my earlier experience included no church habits and no regular working habits, I often rebelled against the strict demands of Christian Science. My first healing occurred even though I rebelled inwardly against the uncovering of some fault of character. Suffering from grippe, I had gone to a practitioner. During her treatment the pains did not cease, but as I walked out of the building I found myself entirely free.

The suggestion that "everything is relative" often discouraged me as I tried to attain a greater understanding of Science. But every time, the sheer goodness shining forth from the pages of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy brought me back to a more consecrated study.

It took me a long time to come to the point where I acknowledged that the Bible and Science and Health contained the whole statement of truth. To confess that anything is truth is an attitude directly opposed to that of physical science, where truth is such an elusive thing that it is not good to mention it with conviction! However, after I had made this acknowledgment my progress was more rapid and steady. I became a member of The Mother Church and soon after had class instruction. The power of Christian Science to heal physical difficulties became more manifest. Colds ceased to be the rule in winter, and rheumatic fever resulting in swollen, painful feet was quickly healed after a friend awakened my thought with the remark. "You are allowing yourself to have a false claim." I withdrew my consent and trusted the matter to God's fiat of perfection.

But physical healing must always be the result of spiritual awakening, of strengthening and purifying character. Mrs. Eddy speaks in her Message to The Mother Church for 1900 (p. 1) of "a membership of over sixteen thousand communicants in unity, with rapidly increasing numbers, rich spiritual attainments, and right convictions fast forming themselves into conduct." The latter part of the quotation awakened my thought. I was still in bondage to sensualism, and so my conduct was not always up to my convictions. With the help of the Concordances, I obtained a better understanding of the relation between convictions and conduct, which is obedience, and my life became purer, more honest, more firm on the side of right, more lifted above the little sins and omissions which are so often taken as a matter of course. I found myself increasingly able to make right decisions spontaneously in situations where before doubtful disputations would result in delay and fumbling. I was learning to listen more to God and to rely on what I heard.

A physical healing resulted from taking my stand when, after a period in a prison camp with little food, I had open wounds in my legs. I knew that Science could heal them, and I knew that bandaging and medications were impotent, but I consented to a doctor's treatment as the way of least resistance. More wounds appeared, until one day I decided not to return to the doctor any more. Soon afterwards the wounds healed without further attention, and the old bandages could be removed.

I must also express my gratitude for The Christian Science Monitor. Through reading our international daily I attained the capacity better to appraise news, and so in the past several years, when we had to do without an international daily paper, I was still enabled to glean true news from biased papers. The Monitor continued to bless me right through the years!

In expressing gratitude to our Leader for her important work and Christlike life, I realize that the same power which was manifest in her life and character, and which guided her in writing Science and Health, is present now. This realization gives added glow to her words on page 367 of Science and Health: "The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this age through a 'still, small voice,' through silent utterances and divine anointing which quicken and increase the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher attainments in this line of light." —Harry Boissevain, Enschede, Netherlands.

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Testimony of Healing

My first healing in Christian Science...

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