On this program Robert F. Williams of Houston, Texas, told of his own experience, as follows:

Following some three years of active service with the Army in World War II, I returned to civilian duty with a large corporation that had been my employer for more than twenty years. They rewarded me with a splendid promotion and the following year elevated me to the rank of superintendent, a position I had hoped for since first entering their service. I was greatly elated over my good fortune. My future appeared very bright indeed.

I had enjoyed my new position only a few months when I had to go to the hospital with what was later diagnosed as coronary thrombosis—severe. For more than two weeks, under oxygen and the constant care of skilled physicians, my life was despaired of. It was a month before my family was given any encouragement and more than two months before I was permitted to return home.

I was informed my heart had sustained severe damage; therefore my future activity must be limited accordingly. I was forbidden to walk up steps, drive a car, swing a golf club, or engage in any work or play that might cause excitement. A special diet and various drugs were prescribed. To add further to my troubles, rumors of my "retirement" began to reach me. To say that my world had completely caved in on me would accurately describe my thoughts as I returned home. That was the situation when Christian Science was presented to me.

Through this religion I gained new hope, for I learned that we can rely on spiritual law for healing—just as Christ Jesus did—even when a condition is considered incurable. Since my physical examinations left me no hope of cure, I accepted these new teachings wholeheartedly. I sought the help of a Christian Science practitioner, and, with some misgivings, I set out to learn more about God and His laws.

The terrible fear that accompanies heart trouble was so strongly entrenched in my thinking that several weeks passed before I had the courage to turn away from material means and depend entirely on God to heal me. Once the decision was made, progress was fast. Under the rules of my company, it was necessary to return to the hospital for periodic examinations, though no treatment was given. Good reports were immediately forthcoming, and I returned to duty less than four months after leaving the hospital. My physical strength increased as I began to get a clearer understanding of God. After one hospital check the doctors expressed amazement, describing my case as "one in a million." A short time later, the noted physician who heads the heart clinic informed me I was completely healed and that I could now live a normal life without fear.

I had sold my golf clubs, but now purchased a new outfit and resumed playing. Words cannot express the joy and satisfaction that came to me from this experience. I continued to play regularly and even won the championship tournament sponsored by my company. During the same year I was called up by the Army for physical examination and given their highest rating.

The musical selection on the program was "God Is My Help in Every Need" by Clara Edwards.

The commentary was as follows:

Now I'd like to discuss with you briefly a few of the important points of Mr. Williams' experience. For his glorious victory proved that "man's extremity is God's opportunity."

Our guest was healed through an understanding of this spiritual fact—that man can never be separated from God, divine Life. His recovery proved what the Bible makes so plain—that there is no human need so great, no peril so immediate, but that the ever-present power of God can bring deliverance. Such a healing does not violate God's law. Christian Science shows that healing results from understanding this law, from knowing the truth that God and man are inseparable.

Now God, who is infinite, eternal Life, could not produce disease, injury, weakness, or death. God is good and could not create evil. And since God is Life, His law preserves and maintains man. In reality man is the spiritual image and likeness of God, as the Bible declares. He is the expression of immortal Life. And so man, the child of God, necessarily expresses the continuous unimpaired functioning of divine Life. Our guest experienced proof of this, and his healing shows that there's nothing haphazard about relying on the law of God in an emergency. The immediate availability of God's law is brought out in both the Old and the New Testament in the Bible. Elisha, Christ Jesus, and Paul proved the healing and restoring power of this divine law in the most extreme emergencies.

The same divine law that healed and saved in Bible times is in operation today. It's unchanging because it expresses God, who is eternal Truth, Life, and Love. It sustains all that God creates and supplies man with health and strength. In Christian Science we learn to understand this law and rely on it. In the degree we do so, we find that man's life and health are not subject to disease and death because in reality they come from God. Let me read you a passage from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," where Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, indicates this. She says (p. 151): "The blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing to do with Life, God. Every function of the real man is governed by the divine Mind." Our guest learned to prove this. He relied wholly on the power of God, praying effectively as taught in Science. The result was in strict accord with Bible teachings: he was completely healed.

In Christian Science we face every problem in just that way. We know the spiritual truth about it—that God is the author of life, not death; of health, not sickness; of joy, not sorrow; of strength, not weakness. Such spiritual reasoning is true prayer. It brings thought into accord with God and His law, and this opens the door to healing.

Mrs. Eddy explains these teachings throughout her textbook, Science and Health. She writes (p. 381): "God is the lawmaker, but He is not the author of barbarous codes. In infinite Life and Love there is no sickness, sin, nor death, and the Scriptures declare that we live, move, and have our being in the infinite God."

So you see, friends, that under God's law man can never be separated from Life. When this is understood, it operates as a law of restoration and healing in every situation. So we begin right where we are to replace fearful, diseased thinking with the understanding of this healing truth. Regardless of what the appearances of danger may be, we reject as utterly false every thought that denies man's inseparable relationship to God, divine Life. We realize that danger, fear, and disease are no part of the real man's experience and cannot touch him. We fill our consciousness so completely with the calm awareness of God's tender love that there's no room for suggestions of fear, disease, accident, or death.

When we systematically replace doubt with confidence—with the understanding of God's law of Life—discords disappear. Then we see that "man's extremity is God's opportunity," and we prove the truth of this Bible promise: "I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord."