I am sincerely grateful for all the...

Elsie B. Cunningham

I am sincerely grateful for all the lessons I have learned, as well as for the many healings I have received, in Christian Science. I was brought up in a Christian Science family, and many of my early healings came easily because of my receptivity to this wonderful truth. However, after I became an adult, I found it necessary to grow in my own understanding and application of this Science before I could demonstrate it for myself.

One of the healings for which I am grateful occurred several years ago. My husband and I were preparing to leave for a city where we were to receive the priceless privilege of class instruction. The night previous to our leaving I had moved a large and heavily packed traveling case across the room. For many years I had suffered from a discomfort in my back if I lifted something that was too heavy or lifted anything when I stood in an awkward position.

I had not been alert to apply the truths of Christian Science to this susceptibility, and I awakened to a sense of discord the next morning. I hurriedly prepared for our departure and, in getting breakfast, lifted a full kettle off the stove. Something gave way in my back, and I was unable to stand erect. With difficulty I placed the kettle back on the stove and walked into the den, my thoughts full of fear, pain, and self-pity. I picked up Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy and read (p. 160): "The motion of the arm is no more dependent upon the direction of mortal mind, than are the organic action and secretion of the viscera. When this so-called mind quits the body, the heart becomes as torpid as the hand."

The word "torpid" stood out to me. Looking it up in the dictionary, I found one meaning to be "having lost motion, or the power of exertion." I began to reason that since all power belongs to God, then matter can have no power of motion. I began to see that man's true selfhood as the child of God is not subject to the control of matter or of its laws. That movement and life are not circumscribed within muscles, flesh, or bones became very clear to me, and I knew that the power and presence of God, good, was all I could really experience.

I was still unable to stand erect, but all fear had left me. By the time our friends arrived to take us to the airport, not only was I completely free, but the experience itself had left my thought. There has been no further difficulty or inconvenience of this nature since that time.

A more recent healing taught me the wisdom of being steadfast and alert. I came home from my office one evening, suffering from a sense of physical exhaustion which seemed to increase during the evening until I had little control over my nerves. I became very fearful and called for help from a Christian Science practitioner. I retired, but I asked my husband to read to me from Mrs. Eddy's writings because I felt a definite need to keep my thinking alert.

He read for about an hour, and I denied that there was any power that could interfere with my understanding and utilizing the truths I was hearing. I found I was able to assimilate what was being read. I went to sleep soon thereafter, and the next morning I arose and went to business. There was a feeling of weakness, but my sincere gratitude for the glorious upliftment of thought and the healing I had experienced of the nervous difficulty soon overcame this also.

For all the avenues we have to assist us in our joyous spiritual progress, I am most humbly grateful.—(Mrs.) Elsie B. Cunningham, Los Angeles, California.

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