With joy and in gratitude to God I wish to testify that Christian Science heals after all other methods have failed.

I had been out of high school two years, owing to a chronic illness, when I became seriously ill with pneumonia, brain fever, and an internal abscess, which caused peritonitis. After I had been delirious for a month, the doctor said I could live only a few days. A sister called a Christian Science practitioner in a distant city and asked for prayerful help. She agreed to help me through prayer if my sister would get permission from my parents to dismiss the doctor. But my parents knew nothing of Science and were very fearful. They wanted to wait and see how I was when the doctor made his regular call the next day.

However, when he came again, he said to my mother, with tears rolling down his cheeks, "Your daughter is better. This is the work of God. There were so many complications that I have been helpless. I have been coming only to comfort you." So then the doctor was dismissed. The next day I began recognizing members of my family, and in two weeks I was able to be up and about the house. The acute diseases were healed. The healing of the chronic trouble came gradually, and I was able to resume my schooling.

Through the continued guidance of the practitioner I gained a greater understanding of God and of man's relationship to Him. One statement given me from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, was, "I and my Father are one,'—that is, one in quality, not in quantity. As a drop of water is one with the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God and man, Father and son, are one in being" (p. 361). She also told me to memorize "the scientific statement of being," the Lord's Prayer with its spiritual interpretation, and especially the comprehensive definition of God given in Science and Health, which says in part that He is "Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love" (p. 587). To learn that God is Life, is my Life, the source of my very being, was a joyous revelation. These statements of truth have aided me in solving many kinds of problems in the more than sixty years since God has been my only physician.

While I was yet a very new student of Christian Science, I was severely burned. The pain seemed intense, but this line from "the scientific statement of being" opened my thought to an awareness of God's infinite, all-encompassing Love and the pain disappeared instantly (Science and Health, p. 468): "All is infinite Mind and its infinite manifestation, for God is All-in-all." I was overjoyed to realize the immediacy with which spiritual truths could be proven. In a short time the outward evidence of the burn also disappeared, leaving no scars.

Many years later, when my husband passed on suddenly, I quickly remembered that God's greatest gift to man is eternal Life. I knew that a loving God, who is Life, would not and could not give life to His offspring and then take it away, any more than the sun could take away light from its beam. Therefore there was no reason for grief.

However, in a few days I realized my thinking of myself as a widow was causing a sense of deprivation. The word "widow" seemed repulsive to me as I thought of the "poor widow" (Mark 12:42) spoken of in the Bible. Then enlightenment came in the words of Isaiah, "Thy Maker is thine husband" (Isa. 54:5). I thought, "God is my Father-Mother, my husband, my All, my Shepherd, I cannot want for anything good." The word "widow" faded from my thought, and I was healed of self-pity and a sense of loneliness.

The spiritual understanding gained through the study and application of Christian Science, and the opportunities to share it with others, has made my life sweet and joyous. I am very grateful for this great blessing.

(Mrs.) Chloe Hershman Shook
Medford, Oregon