The earliest of my Christian Science healings that I can recall occurred when I was in boot camp in the United States Army during the mid-fifties. I woke in the middle of the night, lying on my back completely paralyzed from head to toe. All I could move were my eyes. Instantly I began thinking of passages I knew by heart, including the twenty-third Psalm from the Bible and "the scientific statement of being" from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (see p. 468). As I thought through each statement, I applied the truths it contained to my problem the best I knew how. After praying for what seemed like more than half an hour, I fell asleep. When we were wakened at the usual predawn hour, I was completely free of the ailment, and it has never returned. I feel that this healing really set the stage for my natural acceptance of God's unfolding goodness during my three years of military service. One marvelous blessing was that I was unexpectedly provided with transportation from Korea to the first Far East Workshop for Christian Scientists in Tokyo.

My father was a lifelong Christian Scientist who had been healed of invalidism as a youngster in Scotland. When he moved to this country, his gratitude for restored health impelled him to become one of a small group that established Christian Science services in their community and in 1922 chartered a branch Church of Christ, Scientist.

Science was an immense aid to Dad during the economic depression of the 1930's. He had come to depend unreservedly on God for guidance and was receptive to the practical inspiration that derives from the one Mind. In turn, all through the Depression my father was able to keep his business open, meet his obligations, and pay his employees. For a time, he even gave free use of his feed store and packing house for distribution of Government-issued supplies to needy families. To me this was a grand example of our Leader's words (Science and Health, p. 206), "In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with the loaves and the fishes,—Spirit, not matter, being the source of supply."

When Dad died a year and a half ago, one concept that helped me tremendously was that we do not need to believe the evidence of the material senses that tell us death is final; we can depend entirely on evidence obtained from the divine Mind that man's true life is eternal. Mrs. Eddy explains (Pulpit and Press, p. 5), "When the light of one friendship after another passes from earth to heaven, we kindle in place thereof the glow of some deathless reality." In the "deathless reality" of being, there simply is no dying. An understanding of this has comforted me and given me an enormous sense of joy. I have a vivid awareness of the spiritual qualities my father expressed. In fact, these qualities mean more to me than ever before—things like his selfless integrity, honesty, an unrelenting stand for ethics in business and personal life, and unfeigned humility.

About fifteen years ago I developed the symptoms of hemorrhoids. This painful condition was entirely overcome through the persistent acknowledgment that God's man can be conscious only of good, and that nothing could convince me to the contrary. Since childhood I had desired to serve my fellow beings in a higher way. This healing was the catalyst that propelled me into the activity I had wanted to pursue for so long.

One morning in 1977 I noticed I had a skin infection. My first reactions were of dismay, futility, and weakness. I had had a similar infection as a child that had lasted about a year and caused the loss of a toenail. I thought, "Oh, no, not again." After a few moments of growing helplessness, I turned to God for the strength needed to face the problem. The feeling that I was drained of personal resourcefulness probably contributed to a willingness to trust everything to Him. With certainty I affirmed that God is all-power. I knew that He could meet this, even if I couldn't seem to. I also denied that mortal belief had any ability to govern one's body. This latter point was most important. Each morning in my prayer I attributed all power to God, Spirit, and denied that true body could be subordinate to mortality. By the fourth day, the healing of infection was complete, and it has been permanent.

The real beauty of this healing is that it continues to shed light on everything I read and study in Christian Science. It has given me a glimpse of why Elisha asked of Elijah (II Kings 2:9), "I pray thee, let a double portion of thy spirit be upon me." Double my grasp of what I read and study! To say I am grateful for this Science would be the understatement of the year.

THOMAS M. BIGGAR Fort Myers, Florida