Speaker: Worrying about contagion, germs, and climate seems to be a prevalent tendency these days. But these fears can be overcome through a better understanding of God's healing power. Such prayerful undertanding not only eliminates fear, but can result in better health and maintain freedom from disease. Our guest was completely healed of a serious, recurring sinus condition in this way. He'll tell you about it himself. I'd like you to meet Eric Brotherson of Tarrytown, New York. He's an actor and has played in a number of Broadway shows. Won't you tell us about it now, Mr. Brotherson?

Mr. Brotherson: When I was in my teens, I began having difficulties with a sinus condition. It became progressively worse, and the attacks would continue from spring until fall. Each summer became a nightmare. I was under constant medical treatment and incapacitated a great deal of the time. My father took me to a number of specialists; and various treatments and remedies were tried, but the relief was only temporary. Finally, when I was at college, I was told that there was no hope that I would ever be free of this condition.

But shortly after graduating from college, I became interested in Christian Science. It was during the depression; the family financial affairs were in a bad state. My mother had known of Christian Science previously and had begun to study it again in an effort to solve these problems and find healing. So I began reading with her just to give her a sense of companionship, so she'd know she wasn't standing alone.

At that time I wasn't even sure that I believed in God, and I just wasn't interested in anything. It seemed impossible for me to find a job, and I was very unhappy. But I discovered a few weeks after I began reading the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, that my whole outlook was improving. I found that I could believe in God. I also found a new approach to the problem of employment, and soon I had a very satisfactory job. So I realized that if Christian Science could help me work out some of these problems, here might be the answer to the sinus difficulty, too. So I asked for help from a Christian Science practitioner and began to really study the Bible and Science and Health myself. I didn't have another attack for quite some time; but I still was afraid of the trouble, and I used to talk about it from time to time because it had been so real to me.

Then I had the worst attack I'd ever had. I was laid up for eleven days. I was unable to sleep, unable to eat, unable to do anything. But, with the practitioner's help, I continued to rely entirely on Christian Science.

That last night, when everything seemed at its worst, I remember that finally I just thought to myself, "It really doesn't matter what seems to be going on; I'm going to hold to what I know is true all night long, if necessary." And I began to pray earnestly, realizing that God is All, the only power and presence, and that matter has no life, intelligence, or even the capacity to cause or experience pain or sensation of any kind.

Then I must have fallen asleep, because before I knew it, it was morning; and I was awake, and I was completely healed. It was the most wonderful healing I have ever experienced. There was not a trace of the trouble left. I was just as clear and free as if there had never been anything called a sinus infection. The trouble never returned, and it's been twenty years now.

One of the reasons I'm so grateful for this healing is that it has made my career on the stage possible. I used to have quite a bit of difficulty with colds; but I find that with my study of Christian Science that if there's a suggestion of cold, it's quickly met, and I've been protected from contagion, too. In three shows, I've played an accumulation of over two thousand performances, and I've never missed one of them.

Speaker: Thank you, Mr. Brotherson. Your healing shows so clearly that chronic conditions do not have to be feared or accepted as incurable.

Friends, it may never have occurred to you before that God's help is available for overcoming such things as a chronic or recuring illness. But our guest's experience shows how completely possible and practical it is. He found through Christian Science that even though a discordant condition seems to have a long history, it can be removed by our relying steadfastly and fearlessly on the everpresent power of God.

You'll recall he resolved that if necessary he would pray all night to keep uppermost in thought the spiritual truths he had learned concerning God's power and supremacy. I'd like to emphasize the importance of such a fearless, steadfast stand.

It is becoming recognized increasingly that fear is an element of all disease, and the overcoming of fear is vital in Christian Science healing. There is a logical reason for this. It is impossible to really acknowledge God as the only power and the only presence and still be afraid.

The only time anyone can fear is when he doubts God's government and distrusts His love and ever-present care. Healing in Christian Science is the natural outcome of acknowledging God's all-power, His perfect care for man, for this acknowledgment destroys fear.

Let me explain, however, that fear cannot be lastingly removed through mere human rationalizing, or "whistling in the dark." The remedy for fear is a spiritual understanding of God.

For example, when you learn that God is infinite Life, the only cause and creator, and that He is good, you see that God could not be the author of disease or discord of any kind. From this standpoint, it is clear that sickness and inharmony lack divine authority because they lack a divine origin. Likewise, when you learn that man is the likeness of God, infinite Spirit, it becomes clear that man, the spiritual expression or idea of God, could not be subject to discord or imperfection of any kind.

Discord of whatever name or nature is exposed in Christian Science as merely the outward evidence of a mistaken concept of God and man. Therefore discord is not something to be feared; it is something to be exposed as unreal, as a distortion or dream concerning God's perfect creation.

So instead of entertaining fears concerning climate, seasons, or other physical conditions, you and I can replace them with the steadfast, prayerful acknowledgment that because God is good, only goodness, perfection, harmony, and health can be expressed by God's man. In Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy gives some very practical guidance on how to avoid disease. She writes (p. 390): "Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin." Friends, in the degree that you and I do this, we experience the proof of the Bible promise that God is indeed "a very present help in trouble."

The musical selection on the program was Hymn No. 99 from the Christian Science Hymnal (He that hath God his guardian made).