Although I had previously purchased...

Jane Downs Carter

Although I had previously purchased all Mary Baker Eddy's writings, it was not until I accompanied my husband on an Air Force assignment overseas immediately after World War II that I resolved to gain an understanding of the teachings of Christian Science.

I returned to the United States expressly for this purpose, but for the first year I lived in a small town where there were no other Christian Scientists and no branch church nearby to attend. I relied entirely upon my own study of the Bible and the works of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, for spiritual progress.

Later, in a southern town, I was asked to serve as a Reader for a small group of Christian Scientists. During this time I became ill with an internal tumor and for the first time had to determine whether I really believed that Science could heal disease. Friends wished me to undergo surgery, but instead I asked for help from a Christian Science practitioner. The condition was a painful one, and this became a period of moment-by-moment yielding to God, earnestly seeking protection for my new understanding of Him and His laws. The pain ceased after three months, and after about six months the tumor disappeared.

The medical opinion that I could not have another child was proved wrong by the addition of two children to our family. Indeed, when our son was born, everything was so harmonious and unlike the experience I had had before relying on Science that it was a turning point in my path. I am grateful for the services of the Christian Science nurse who assisted the doctor.

Church work has led to the realization and utilization of greater talents and abilities. It was a privilege to serve as a circulation representative for The Christian Science Monitor and to gain thereby a larger concept of what it means to stand for Truth. I am especially grateful for class instruction and the training that it gives us in practicing Christian Science from the standpoint of God's goodness and of man created in God's image.

It was through my understanding in a degree the purity of man as the idea of Soul that the drinking and smoking habits left me. By holding to the truth that Spirit alone is substance and the source of man's true supply, we found that a business situation in which our credit was overextended was eased day by day.

Living now in the Middle East, I have a deepening gratitude for membership in The Mother Church, for the life of Christ Jesus, and for a new understanding of Mrs. Eddy's ability to listen to God when she was establishing the Church that nothing might be lost of the revelation of Truth to this age.—(Mrs.) Jane Downs Carter, Ankara, Turkey.

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April 8, 1961

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