On this program Mrs. Dorothy Reid of New York City told of her own experience. The program was as follows:

Speaker: The Bible tells us that "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." How often we fail to realize just how much these words can mean! At a time of great trouble our guest learned how true and practical this promise of God's help can be. I'd like you to hear about it in her own words. Let me introduce Mrs. Dorothy Reid of New York City. Just when did this experience take place, Mrs. Reid?

Mrs. Reid: It was more than twenty-five years ago. I was in a sanatorium with what had been diagnosed as an advanced case of tuberculosis. I had been away from my home for a year and a half, and there was very little improvement. We were very discouraged, but at this point a business acquaintance of my husband's told him something of Christian Science, and he said he was sure it could heal me. He sounded very convincing; so my husband attended a Wednesday testimony meeting in a Christian Science church that very night. He knew at once that he had found something he had been searching for. Then he went to see a Christian Science practitioner for an explanation of this religion, and from that time on he never doubted that I could be healed.

The next time he came to the sanatorium he left me a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and I read it every day. At that time I was in the hospital section of the sanatorium and was not permitted to sit up, even to cat my meals. During the following three weeks I was moved to a cottage, and by Christmas I was so much improved that I was permitted to come home for ten days for the holidays.

I went to see a Christian Science practitioner while I was home. We talked for about an hour, and she told me a great deal about God. I was greatly uplifted and encouraged by our talk, but at that time I didn't have enough confidence in Christian Science not to go back to the sanatorium. She didn't urge me in any way, but she did point out that medicine and Christian Science cannot be mixed. I'll always remember what she said as I left, "Go back, my dear; study and pray, and you will know when it is right for you to come home." I did return, and I did study and pray very earnestly for more light and understanding. No further medical treatment was given me. I felt like the woman in the Bible who touched the hem of Christ Jesus' garment and was healed.

A couple of months later as my husband was coming into the main building, the head physician called him to his office. The doctor was obviously puzzled but delighted and said: "I know you don't know anything about X rays, but I want you to look at this series of twenty plates taken of your wife's lungs over the past year and a half."' He pointed out clear evidence of the disease on each plate. Then he showed my husband the last plate, which had been taken a few days previous, and he said: "The lungs are completely healed, and we can't understand it! Your wife is well—she can go home!" The physician didn't know what had happened, but my husband did, and so did I. We knew that my understanding of God and what I had learned about man through reading the Christian Science textbook had healed me.

The next day when I left the sanatorium, the physician reminded my husband that although I was healed, I must always be careful; he referred to me as "a china doll."

But the healing was complete. I immediately took up the busy life of a young mother with two children. I have lived a very active, full life since then, and there has never been the slightest evidence of the lung difficulty.

Of course I am unspeakably grateful for this healing, but most of all I'm grateful for a growing understanding of God and His great love for His children. Also for the knowledge that the healing truth taught by Christ Jesus is available to all who earnestly seek it.

Speaker: I'm sure you are grateful, Mrs. Reid, and we're grateful you could be with us today.

Often it's assumed that God is unable or unwilling to meet our needs in time of trouble, that the Almighty is unknown and consequently not available for us to rely upon. But, friends, you've just heard a wonderful illustration of the fact that God's help is available and effective in time of trouble. Mrs. Reid's healing was accomplished through spiritual means alone—through prayer, at a time when she was depending on no other aid or treatment. The healing was verified beyond question, and it has proved to be permanent.

Now all of us can experience divine help in the measure that we gain a correct knowledge of God, a logical, provable understanding of Him. This understanding, gained through Christian Science, includes the great truth that God is all-powerful Life and Love and Spirit. Let's talk a little more about each one of these terms.

When we think of God as eternal Life, boundless Life, the origin and source of all true existence, we can begin to see that God is the source of all health and strength, vitality and wholeness. He could not be the source of sickness, fear, weakness, infirmity; that would be contrary to the very nature of pure, omnipotent Life.

Now when we realize that God is divine Love, it's logical to recognize that God is good. There can be no evil side to His perfect goodness. His tender care for man is unfailing. To experience it, we only need to understand and acknowledge His presence and all-power and goodness.

Christ Jesus taught that God is divine Spirit. And when we understand God as Spirit, we realize that nothing can destroy or consume or corrupt Him or anything that He creates. And since man is actually created in God's own image and likeness, as the Scripture says, the logical conclusion follows that actually nothing can destroy or consume or corrupt man. Nothing can deprive the real man of his God-given life and strength and harmony and substance, because God makes man and maintains him.

It was a clear glimpse of these spiritual facts that brought a complete recovery to our guest. Through her study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, a new and clear understanding of God and man dawned in her thought. This understanding wiped out the fear and discouragement, the belief in so-called laws of disease, which produced the physical trouble.

Figuratively speaking, she had touched the hem of Christ's garment; in other words, she had become aware of the ever-present healing Truth that Christ Jesus taught and practiced.

As you and I realize these spiritual facts, as we look beyond the mortal picture to the reality of God and man in His likeness, we too can have proof of God's ever-present help. As Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 166): "To ignore God as of little use in sickness is a mistake. Instead of thrusting Him aside in times of bodily trouble, and waiting for the hour of strength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn that He can do all things for us in sickness as in health."

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 135 from the Christian Science Hymnal (I know no life divided).