My introduction to Christian Science...

Gerald L. Keiser

My introduction to Christian Science came through my willingness to read without prejudice the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy, when it was recommended by a relative.

I was so impressed with the logic of the book that I wanted to unite with this denomination immediately. But I soon learned that I must give up the smoking habit of sixteen years' standing if I ever hoped to be accepted as a member of The Mother Church or of a branch church.

I struggled in vain, trying to break the habit through human will power. During this time, however, I had been shown how to study the Lesson-Sermons in the Christian Science Quarterly. I studied faithfully every day, and about one year later I suddenly realized that the desire for cigarettes had left me.

With the desire gone, it was no longer a problem to quit smoking. I was healed. This healing proved the truth of our Leader's statement found on page 152 of the textbook, "Truth has a healing effect, even when not fully understood." This healing took place over eight years ago and has been permanent.

Since that time I have experienced numerous healings. One of these was the instantaneous healing of a painful sinus condition; this occurred when I realized that I was in reality an individual expression or reflection of God and not a mortal.

On another occasion I fell off a walkway into a pipe trench while at work. I landed with my hands outstretched, and my right hand firmly grasped an uncovered steam line and was severely burned. The pain was intense. I got up, and although I declared the truth, as we are taught to do in Christian Science, I began to experience ill effects from shock and could not clear my thought.

I went back to the building I had just left, where a telephone was available. I called a Christian Science practitioner and explained what had happened. Her first words to me were, "In reality, it never happened."

Immediately I grasped the truth of that statement. I saw that as an idea of Mind, God, I lived and moved and had my being in Mind. I saw that I reflected only the harmony of Mind. I saw that matter is a false concept and could make no condition for my true identity.

This realization required only seconds, and I was instantly healed of the effects of shock. Evidence of the burn, however, remained. In a few weeks all sings of it were completely gone. During this time there was never any sign of inflammation, swelling, or infection.

The truth of Christian Science has transformed my thinking so that my whole life has been vastly uplifted. For membership in The Mother Church and in a branch church and for the blessed privilege of class instruction, I am profoundly grateful.—Gerald L. Keiser, Richmond, California.

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July 11, 1959

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