In my late teens I had a deep longing to know God. I had been reared in a religious atmosphere and had received the teachings of the church of my parent's choice, but I knew that I did not know God. I had been taught to love the Bible, so I turned to it and read it through. I found it to be an interesting history of the Hebrew people, but I read it through the eyes of the scholastic theology I had been taught, and its anthropomorphic concept of God did not satisfy my longings. God was still unknown to me.

I wasn't satisfied with my life either, and my unrest took the form of social drinking, smoking, and frequenting nightclubs for entertainment. My husband was a career military man, and this type of entertainment was socially accepted.

After a few years of this, my health gave way, and for several months I was under the care of medical specialists. I was examined by each department of a very reputable clinic in the city where I lived and was told that I had three conditions considered incurable. The specialists put me on a rigid diet, the slightest deviation from which caused acute suffering; I was told I would always have to adhere to this diet. Also I was taking three kinds of medicine daily, and was given a fourth prescription though it was never filled.

At this time I turned to Christian Science for healing. I knew nothing of its teachings, but I knew that it healed. In a crisis situation one night I called a Christian Science practitioner whose name I had obtained from a Christian Science Reading Room. A few days later I visited the practitioner in her office. After one treatment I walked out of her office healed of the three conditions previously declared incurable. I abandoned the medicine and began to eat normally with no ill effects.

At that time I did not know that Christian Science had any particular teaching with regard to smoking or drinking. ^{See Science and Health 406:28-30; 454:1–3 .} But after my first visit to the practitioner I never took another drink of alcohol nor did I want one, and about a month later I realized that cigarettes no longer had any appeal for me. So I gave up that habit too.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes: "A mortal, corporeal, or finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of limitless, incorporeal Life and Love. Hence the unsatisfied human craving for something better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a material belief in a physical God and man." ^{Ibid., p. 258.} It was some time before I realized that my "unsatisfied human craving" had begun to be satisfied when I accepted the teachings of Christian Science. But as I learned more, I saw that I had found the God I had so longed to know.

What did I learn that was so satisfying? That God is Spirit, and that man in the likeness of God is spiritual. Man is the conscious reflection of Spirit, not a material mortal. Thinking of myself as simply material, I had sought satisfaction in material things and material stimulants: so I reached for the cigarettes and alcoholic drinks as the highest things I knew, not realizing that what I truly craved could only be satisfied by the things of Spirit. When, through the study of Christian Science, I began to learn of the nature of God and my relationship to Him, this so satisfied me that there was no longer any desire for less. My interest in nightclub entertainment held on for a bit longer, but eventually the atmosphere found there became so offensive to me that this habit, too, dropped away.

"But," one might say, "spiritual things are so intangible. How could they possibly satisfy? And even if they satisfied you, how can I know if that is what I am searching for?" The answer to these questions is found as we cultivate our spiritual sense. This true sense is present in the consciousness of every individual. Science and Health states, "Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to understand God." ^{Ibid., p. 209.} Through the study and application of Christian Science, spiritual sense is cultivated, and the spiritual qualities and ideas that constitute the things of Spirit become more real and tangible to us.

Everyone desires joy and peace, but these are never found in material indulgence. Joy, peace, harmony, purity, are spiritual things, cognized by no material sense: yet the human consciousness devoid of them is undernourished indeed. A knowledge of God and of man's relation to Him as His beloved child is so deeply satisfying that any desire based solely on material indulgence is stilled.

Throughout all ages God has been revealing Himself to hungering hearts. The Bible is replete with God's revelations of His nature to the seeking, receptive thought. Job, whose trials are proverbial, expresses this unsatisfied longing to know God. In his deep torment he cries: "Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!... Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him." ^{Job 23:3, 8.} The Psalmist sang, "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness." ^{Ps. 17:15.} Christ Jesus demonstrated this likeness, man as God made him. And in doing so, he was able to save and heal. Studying and practicing the teachings of Christian Science, we can indeed acquaint ourselves with God and find the peace and deep satisfaction that accompany that knowledge.

Where did Mrs. Eddy discover what she has shared with all mankind as to the nature of God, the knowledge that satisfies human cravings? She herself speaks of revelation, reason, demonstration, as the steps of discovery. The Bible was her sole guide and textbook. Tirelessly researching the Holy Scriptures and listening for God's revelations, she discovered just how all-inclusive God's nature is. In Science and Health she defines God in this way: "The great I am; the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; intelligence." ^{Science and Health, p. 587.}

What an all-encompassing definition of Deity! To know God in this way is to begin to glimpse the infinite, the perfect, the only creator, the source of all being, the nature of all reality. These terms for God open up inquiry and investigation that are endless—but infinitely satisfying as new glimpses of His presence and power unfold. One can never know all of God, for He is infinitely unfolding and expressing Himself through all eternity. But oh, how satisfying is each new view of His allness!

Mrs. Eddy's discovery included the fact that man is wholly spiritual. A concept of man as physical, cognizing all through the material senses, is as unsatisfying as the belief in a physical or anthropomorphic God. The real man, the image of Love, expresses the nature of God. He is the image of infinite Mind, the cherished offspring of Love, governed by the law of divine Principle. He exists to reflect his creator, and he is satisfied to be what he is created to be—God's witness.

Man lives only as the expression of the one Life. His nature and character emanate from divine Love; therefore he expresses purity, innocence, beauty, peace, and joy. Because he is the full manifestation and expression of God's infinitude, man has no unsatisfied longings, no unfulfilled desires. He finds, in expressing the purity and holiness of Spirit, that deep satisfaction which the material senses can never achieve.

These truths are practical. As mankind, through Christian Science, gains a true knowledge of God and man, the great unrest—manifest, for example, in the drug culture in its various phases—will fade out, and the higher enjoyment of demonstrating man's spiritual nature will satisfy the "craving for something better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a material belief in a physical God and man."