While serving as a public schoolteacher, I had been teaching a...

Henry G. Rutledge, Jr.

While serving as a public schoolteacher, I had been teaching a particular class for almost a whole semester. One day the principal announced that the class would be "dissolved" at the end of the semester. Since the class was in a foreign language, most of the students would have to lose credit and repeat the class the following year. I tried everything I knew to protest this action; I felt intimidated, however, as the principal could retaliate with punitive actions against me if I continued to protest. The parents of the students also protested, but to no avail.

I also prayed the best I could. I knew that because God's children are always in their right place, reflecting Him, these students could not actually be discriminated against or treated with unfairness. They dwelt "in the secret place of the most High" (Psalms 91:1), and so did I.

One morning when I woke, I was surprised to hear these words being spoken in my thought: "Go see the superintendent." I felt that this was God's guidance. It took some courage, but I visited the superintendent that very day. The class was allowed to continue intact for the rest of the school year. There were no repercussions, and my teaching assignments even improved in the following years.

Several years ago a growth appeared on the bridge of my nose. I realized that a painful growth cannot be the creation of a good God. Therefore it is not good and has no intelligence, power, or reality. I telephoned a Christian Science practitioner to treat me through prayer, and within one week the growth disappeared. I am grateful for this proof of God's care and for the earnest work of the practitioner.

I realized that a painful growth cannot be the creation of a good God. Within one week it disappeared.

In 1990, a painful condition developed in both of my knees, which were stiff and sore whenever I had to climb stairs. One day when I was alone in a stairwell, I said to myself: "This condition is not real; there is no cause for it; it cannot prevent me from doing my job, and that job includes using the stairs. I will not accept this condition as part of me at any time." Soon after, the trouble completely disappeared. I was so thankful. Since that time I have been able to climb stairs with ease and without pain.

Henry G. Rutledge, Jr.
Davis, California

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June 24, 1996

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