When I was a child my family lived in a rough and violent area, and life was not happy. There was a lot of discord in our home. I knew of Christian Science because my dad had heard of it years before and had a healing of rheumatic fever. He liked our family to attend a local Christian Science church, but our attendance was spasmodic, as my mother sometimes disapproved.

I loved Sunday School because the atmosphere was loving, unlike that of our home. I especially loved Mrs. Eddy's reference to God as "friend of the friendless" in her "Communion Hymn," because I had difficulty making friends. I will always be grateful that I was given a copy of her book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and for a loving Christian Scientist who allowed me to visit her home from time to time.

When I grew older we moved to a better area and I got a job without difficulty. But life at home was still unhappy and repressive, and I felt hopeless. I wanted to leave home and was interested in marriage. I decided to pray about this with my understanding of Christian Science.

I studied the Bible and Science and Health and found that God is indeed omnipotent and omnipresent. My earnest prayers to God were often tearful, but I found the chapter entitled "Prayer" to be a most powerful help. The Bible verses cited at the beginning of that chapter read: "For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them," and "Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask Him." These words of Jesus have aided me in understanding Christian Science, as my own problems often seemed to resemble this proverbial mountain. It was a great comfort to learn that we can deal with our problems alone with God and need not tell everyone about them.

I suffered badly from hay fever, which made life very difficult, and while I did not seek a healing specifically of this, it simply came as I began to really study Christian Science. Despite attitudes at home, I insisted that I attend a Christian Science church, and it was on the first Sunday I attended that the hay fever was totally healed.

Other things also began to happen. A colleague at work helped me to break free from family repression. I also met the young woman who, though I did not then know it, would marry me. Around this time I had a healing of severe toothache. I was reluctant to go to a dentist, and Christian my only recourse. I studied this statement from Science and Health: "The effect of mortal mind on health and happiness is seen in this: If one turns away from the body with such absorbed interest as to forget it, the body experience no pain" (p. 261). I began to turn my thought to God whenever I had the pain. After two weeks of continuing prayer, the pain ceased permanently.

I felt I should leave home, but accommodation at that time seemed difficult to obtain. I prayed about it, and was prompted to answer and advertisement in the local newspaper. I found a congenial dwelling and a landlady who supported my studying Christian Science. I had what I needed in every way, including finances, and was even able to lend some money to my dad temporarily. At this time, various lasting friendships began, which were the source of much kindness and happiness.

One evening I went out on my bicycle. At one point I was not paying attention to my cycling, and the front wheel hit a kerb. I was thrown over the handlebars. After the accident I was in considerable pain. Police took me to the nearby hospital, where I was informed that I had a broken collarbone, but that there was nothing to do except to put on a sling to keep it in place. Through prayer in Christian Science, this bone healed with incredible speed.

I am happy that my wife and I have a good marriage; we are devoted both to each other and to Christian Science. Even while this testimony has been written, my dear wife has been healed of deafness in one ear.

It is not enough just to say I am grateful. Gratitude has to be expressed. Recently I've been impressed and to how much thought and love must have gone into writing Science and Health. One learns something from this book and the Bible almost every day. I can never think of the events narrated in this testimony without thinking of passage from Exodus: "I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Ex. 20:2).

Reginald Charles Barker
Ryde, Isle of Wight, England

I am Reginald's wife and am happy to confirm the facts as my husband has stated them.

The condition of deafness referred to in his testimony had been causing me much difficulty, and I thought I had been praying to heal the problem in Christian Science, although there seemed to be no improvement. One evening I received a phone call from an elderly relative who was feeling very depressed. I was so intent in comforting her that I forgot the problem until I realised that I was hearing perfectly with the ear that had been troublesome. In fact, we had a quartz alarm clock in our bed-room, which I had thought to be silent; after the healing I was astonished to discover that it had quite and audible tick. By hindsight, I realised that I had been applying spiritual truths to a problem which I was thinking was real, instead of claiming my present which I was thinking was real, instead of claiming my present perfection, "made in God's image and likeness" (see Genesis).

How thankful I am for this healing and for Christian Science.

Mary Rosalind Barker

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.