Painful skin disease healed in Science

Linza M. Stevens

So much good has come into my experience as a result of the study and application of Christian Science that I am happy to acknowledge my gratitude for this wonderful truth. I am increasingly grateful for the conviction that it teaches the truth of God, man, and the universe, and for the many proofs I have had of its power to heal and regenerate.

In 1931 the world to me was a dreary place. Life seemed meaningless and not worth living. My life was selfish and unlovely, but I did not know what to do about it. A friend, seeing my need, brought me a copy of the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and asked that I read it, saying she thought it would help me. I opened it at page 393 and read: "Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man." This aroused my interest, and I continued to read. Later I began to attend church services.

Then began the testing times, and the battle between truth and error was on in earnest. On page 96 of our textbook Mrs. Eddy has written: "The breaking up of material beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new phases until their nothingness appears. These disturbances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth." The clash of truth and error brought a breaking up of our home and separation. The dark days were often discouraging, but I continued to work and pray and to practice as best I could what I understood of Christian Science. As I learned to put down the claims of mortal mind and accept my birthright as a child of God, the way became clearer and easier, and spiritual progress was seen. My husband had been having help from a practitioner, and eventally our home was reestablished on a sounder basis.

At Wednesday evening testimony meetings gratitude is sometimes voiced for the good that has been gained in delayed healings. I wondered about this, but a recent healing enables me to say with sincerity that I too am grateful for such an experience. For several months I had been troubled by a painful skin disease. Much mental work was done for it without success. Several times the thought came to me to ask for help, but it was ignored, because I felt that my own understanding of Christian Science should be sufficient to meet the need. The condition became more aggravated, and my thinking more confused. Then it was revealed to me that it was false pride which was standing in the way of my asking for help. A practitioner was called and help was given. There was much error of thought to be uncovered and corrected, such as fear and self-pity.

It was pointed out to me that the working out of a problem in Science should be a joyous experience. Gradually, as my thinking changed, it did become a joyous work, and the daily study of the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly became a blessed experience. In a little while the physical difficulty disappeared.

For all the activities of the Christian Science movement, for church membership, and for all the blessings I have experienced in Science, I am deeply grateful; but I think I am most grateful that all who will can prove our Leader's statement on page 261 of Science and Health, "Hold thought steadfastly to the enduring, the good, and the true, and you will bring these into your experience proportionably to their occupancy of your thoughts." Truly, in the language of the Bible, as a man "thinketh in his heart, so is he" (Prov. 23:7).—(Mrs.) Linza M. Stevens, Berkeley, California.

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