I have been a student of Christian Science nearly all of my life. Our family first turned to it when my older sister was seriously ill. She had had scarlet fever which had left her with some complications. One was that she'd lost most of her sight. Medical doctors were unable to help her. She was completely healed through Christian Science treatment, though. Her eyesight was normal and she drove with an unrestricted license right up until her passing, when she was in her eighties.

After the healing of my sister, my parents enrolled my younger sister and me in a Christian Science Sunday School. Christian Science has been my way of life all the years since and my greatest blessing.

I had two healings after I had attended the Sunday School for some time. One was of a large birthmark on my forehead. The other was of a severe skin condition. After that, I always turned to God for help. Some later healings came quickly; others took longer and involved more study on my part, sometimes with help from a Christian Science practitioner. But I was always healed.

I would like to tell of a healing I had recently. I live in a small town on the California desert, and sometimes the temperature reaches 120 degrees.

One hot day I came home from the market in the morning. I pulled my car into the garage, which is about twenty-five feet from the house and not air-cooled or insulated. Then I went into the house with my groceries. Later in the afternoon I realized I had not brought in a six-pack of soda, so I went out to get it. I picked it up from the floor of the car and started toward the garage door, when a bottle slipped out of the package and exploded as it hit the floor near my left leg. When I looked down I saw that my leg was bleeding profusely. I grabbed a towel that was on the service porch, wrapped it around the leg, and made my way to the bathroom. I prayed the best I could at the time. When the bleeding had almost stopped, I was able to get to the telephone and call a practitioner for help. The woman I called was two hundred miles away, but she agreed to pray for me right then and to get in touch with a Christian Science nurse in my area who could tell me how to bandage the leg. There was a wound, and through it the bone was visible.

A dear granddaughter changed the bandage three or four times a day for me for about a week. I felt no pain the whole time and had no fear, knowing that God's power is always present and accessible.

I studied the first chapter of Genesis in the Bible a great deal during this time and clung to the fact that God created all things and that all He created was good. I affirmed that God was my strength and knew that since He created man in His image and likeness, I could only reflect His perfection and goodness.

Christ Jesus stated (Matt. 5:48), "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect." And St. Paul wrote to the Romans (8:28), "We know that all things work together for good to them that love God." A great help to me were these passages from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy (p. 475): "The Scriptures inform us that man is made in the image and likeness of God. ... Man is spiritual and perfect; and because he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so understood in Christian Science." Mrs. Eddy goes on to say (p. 476), "In divine Science, God and the real man are inseparable as divine Principle and idea."

I endeavored to keep these thoughts in consciousness, allowing no entry to error of any kind. The hole gradually filled in with new flesh, and in three weeks I was entirely healed. I have since had no difficulty at all in walking or moving normally.

For this healing and all the healings I have had over a long period of years I am so grateful. I am also grateful for membership in The Mother Church for more than fifty years and for being able to serve in a branch church, teaching Sunday School for over thirty-five years.

ZELLA M. WILLIAMS
Blythe, California

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.