For over twenty years Christian Science has been my only...

Alice D. Lamb

For over twenty years Christian Science has been my only physician, and yet it was only last year that I attained church membership.

I had smoked for more than forty years and had defended it as not being an issue that should interfere with church membership. My approach was possibly a bit different than that of others since I had been raised by a father who was in the tobacco industry and for whom I had high regard, as he represented love and truth to a great degree. Even when he had urged me to give up the habit, I would not.

Since smoking did not prevent church attendance, the habit was allowed to grow to the point where I was smoking about two packages of cigarettes a day. This began to bother me, and I tried to give up the habit, only to find that I was smoking more.

Soon after this I encountered my first serious test. We were traveling, when suddenly I felt a strange numbness and then a severe pain in the back of my head. We stopped to visit friends. I called a Christian Science practitioner in that city, and the help I received enabled me to carry on with social plans we had. However, my entire thought was to get home where I might study, for every human sign told me that I was in serious physical trouble.

We live in a rather isolated place, and so I did not have to face family and friends who might possibly have had fear for me. With the help of an inspired and dedicated practitioner and my loving husband I could study day or night.

However, this was not a quick healing, something which was hard for me to understand at the time. But as the difficulty lessened, I wanted to give thanks as I never had before. I wanted church membership. When I expressed this desire to my practitioner, she assured me that the smoking habit would leave me if I truly wanted to be free of it. I was healed immediately. Never have I wanted to smoke since that time, and I have not even had the sense of ever having been a smoker. That was over three years ago. My physical healing followed shortly, and it has been complete.

With what joy I now realized that I had the right to ask for membership in The Mother Church, which was lovingly granted me.

I give thanks for all the workers in the Christian Science movement. I am grateful that God chooses His workers carefully and has given us Mrs. Eddy's revelation, which is surely the Comforter promised by Christ Jesus (John 14:16): "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever." I thank God for those dedicated practitioners who stand guard when our own defenses are not sufficient, and I pray to be shown how I can best repay the debt I owe Christian Science.

(Mrs.) Alice D. Lamb
Kelleys Island, Ohio

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