Christian Science came into...

Gladys M. Cracknell

Christian Science came into my life more than forty years ago through the healing of my mother of a heart condition which the doctors had said was incurable. She was healed after a practitioner had been working for her about two weeks, and since that time she has been very active both in a branch church and at home.

I was a very shy girl and had been unable to enjoy life because of the fear of mixing with people; so I was very unhappy. However, I had the great privilege of more than two years in the Christian Science Sunday School, and I just drank in all the teacher told us and accepted it with great joy. I can remember how very grateful I was to realize the truth of Jesus' words (Mark 9: 23), "If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth."

Gradually the shyness lessened, and I became active in the branch church of which I had become a member. I have since had the great privilege of being Sunday School superintendent, clerk, Reading Room librarian, and Second Reader—evidence that to some extent self has yielded to a right sense of myself as God's reflection. This has brought great joy, and much good has unfolded to me through these activities.

When I was Second Reader, I had a painful and much-inflamed abscess. I endeavored to handle this myself; but the condition became more aggravated, and I felt it wise to call for the help of a practitioner. He encouraged me with helpful passages from the writings of our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, but when Sunday came there was no improvement. It was my great desire to serve as Reader that day, and the practitioner assured me that I could and that he would support me through prayer.

So I went forward knowing that, as our Leader says on page 385 of Science and Health, "Whatever it is your duty to do, you can do without harm to yourself." As I read at the two services that day, I was so completely lifted above the mortal sense of body into spiritual sense that pain and distress could not enter my consciousness. That night the physical healing began, and very soon all evidence of the abscess had disappeared.

At another time I became very ill with what appeared to be a heart condition. I called for the help of a practitioner, and much good work was done so that the fear abated. The practitioner asked me to ponder this lovely passage in "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mrs. Eddy (p. 260): "Jesus knew that erring mortal thought holds only in itself the supposition of evil, and that sin, sickness, and death are its subjective states; also, that pure Mind is the truth of being that subjugates and destroys any suppositional or elementary opposite to Him who is All."

And on the same page we read, "Pure Mind gives out an atmosphere that heals and saves." I thought a great deal about "pure Mind," and I knew that in Mind, God, there is nothing unlike purity and perfection and that there is no other Mind. Finally I began to show improvement, and very soon a complete healing was realized.

For all these blessings, and many more that have come to me through the study of Christian Science, and for our devoted practitioners, I am humbly grateful. For the precious privilege of class instruction, which has been a beacon along my pathway, I am also grateful. I give thanks for our beloved Leader's precious gift, her inspired revelation of God and His Christ to mankind.—(Mrs.) Gladys M. Cracknell, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

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Testimony of Healing

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December 19, 1964

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