Early in 1985 I spent some days at a nursing facility for Christian Scientists in the state of Florida. I want to express my gratitude for the fine nursing care I received there and the spiritual awakening I had during my stay.

I was suffering from an inability to retain or digest food. I had been working with a Christian Science practitioner for a week, and at times I felt on top of the situation. At other times it was difficult. The problem began on a Saturday, and by Thursday I knew that my husband, who is not a Christian Scientist, was becoming increasingly concerned. When I retired for the night on Thursday, I felt that on Friday he might ask me to go to a doctor or to the hospital. I prayed, and as I took a firm stand in my thought for spiritual healing, the nursing facility came to mind.

Early Friday morning, after I had spent a restless night, I packed a suitcase and prepared to leave for the nursing facility. Arrangements had been made; there was a room waiting for me. I could see that it was a struggle for my husband to take me one hundred miles from our home, and that he would have felt much more comfortable if he had been taking me to the local hospital. But I lovingly assured him that this was where I wanted to go and that I would assume full responsibility.

Upon my arrival at the facility, I knew that this was where I should be. The atmosphere was such a healing one. One of the first requirements was the selection of a practitioner from the area to pray for me during my stay at the facility. (I had dismissed the practitioner who had been helping me earlier.) I was soon settled in, and although eating was still a problem, the nurses were most helpful, cheerful, and expectant of good.

Saturday I was in discomfort. I talked with the practitioner several times. She told me we would be working from the standpoint of God's allness, striving to learn more of God. She referred me to two articles on healing in the Christian Science periodicals. And she emphasized that the purpose of our praying was spiritual regeneration, insight, and enlarged spiritual understanding. Healing would be the byproduct of spiritual growth.

The practitioner also gave me several citations from Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy to ponder, including this one (pp. 470–471): "The relations of God and man, divine Principle and idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He creates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged in its eternal history."

Finally, during our last telephone conversation on Saturday evening, the practitioner encouraged me to read the definition of Japhet in the Glossary of Science and Health. Then she added that she expected me to have a good night's sleep. As I put the phone down I thought, "How can I possibly do that with all this pain?"

I rang for the nurse and asked her to help get me ready for bed and to read me the definition of Japhet. It says (p. 589): "JAPHET (Noah's son). A type of spiritual peace, flowing from the understanding that God is the divine Principle of all existence, and that man is His idea, the child of His care." Shortly afterward I dropped off to sleep.

Although I was never fully awake during the night, at times I was aware of a dream that disturbed me and of pain. Early in the morning I woke. When I realized that what had disturbed me was only a dream, I saw that the whole situation of illness and pain was also a dream with no more truth to it than the night dream.

Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 92): "Until the fact concerning error—namely, its nothingness—appears, the moral demand will not be met, and the ability to make nothing of error will be wanting."

When I saw the unreality of the difficulty, my healing began and progressed rapidly. I ate breakfast Sunday morning and have been eating regular meals ever since. I worked daily with the practitioner and studied that week's Bible Lesson (outlined in the Christian Science Quarterly) very carefully. The subject of the lesson was "Man," and it was filled with beautiful spiritual truths that I drank in eagerly. One citation from Science and Health I pondered continually (p. 317): "The understanding of his spiritual individuality makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and enables him to conquer sin, disease, and death."

By Wednesday I was able to attend the testimony meeting and to testify to my complete healing. (Both the Wednesday testimony meetings and the Sunday services are provided for the nursing facility by nine churches on the east coast of Florida. These services are greatly appreciated by the patients.) Although I was healed, I stayed at the facility until Saturday afternoon, to take advantage of the opportunity for rest and study.

I truly felt and continue to feel rejuvenated. I am grateful to God for my wonderful awakening to the spiritual truth of being.

I am also grateful that my husband agreed to my enrolling our two children in a Christian Science Sunday School at an early age. Our daughter has remained in Christian Science and has had class instruction. Her two children are enrolled in a Christian Science Sunday School.

ELOISE C. BROWN
North Fort Myers, Florida

The Mother Church is The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts. Its branches are called Churches of Christ, Scientist, and Christian Science Societies.