At one time my husband and I...

Eliane F. Bovet

At one time my husband and I joined forces with a friend to drive through France to Switzerland, where we were to meet other travelers. We had two weeks' vacation only, and in the center of France our car broke down. For several days of our short holiday we waited in a small village, telephoning repeatedly to England for the necessary spare parts, which were unprocurable in France.

When they reached us, late one evening, the local garage did the necessary repairs preparatory to our proposed early start the next morning. We were going to have to complete the final lap of our journey, two hundred miles, the next day, if we were to get to our destination at all.

That night I awoke feeling very ill, and when the morning found me no better, it seemed at first that I could never face the ordeal before me; but we had to go. As I lay back in the car, my husband looked round, saw the seriousness of my condition, and immediately turned away and began to pray in the way we learn in Christian Science. In a very few minutes, I was suddenly and completely healed, and we drove the full distance in a light car, over cobbled and war-scarred roads, without discomfort or ill effects.

When I asked my husband later what it was that he had understood so clearly that I was immediately healed, his answer was that he had suddenly realized how much gratitude we owe to our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, for what she taught us all: that we must place absolute reliance on God and that no person, place, or circumstance can obstruct the operation of God's law. We had allowed ourselves to accept the discordant circumstances, the breakdown of the car, the delay, the sense of frustration, and the negative thought surrounding us, and, finally, my illness. But a recognition of the supremacy of God brought healing and harmony into our experience.

More recently, after a short stay at the Christian Science Benevolent Association, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, during which I had been able to attend services in The Mother Church, I started on my voyage home to England, imbued with the spirit of love and service prevalent at the Benevolent Association. I had also gained a renewed assurance that a physical disability from which I had suffered for some months would be healed.

Though I am a daily reader of the Bible, I had let a busy life at home keep me from a close study of it, and I seized the opportunity, in a secluded corner of the ship, for a quiet and uninterrupted study of the Gospels. As I read the familiar words recounting the life and sacrifice of Christ Jesus, there came over me a flood of gratitude such as I had never felt for what he did for us all.

When I got up from my deck chair, I had no pain for the first time in months. I was healed. I had not known I was lacking in true gratitude, but the inflow of it had filled my consciousness and opened the way for healing to take place.—(Mrs.) Eliane F. Bovet, Worthing, Sussex, England.

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