"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). This declaration of Jesus, spoken 2,000 years ago, is still alive and applicable today, as I can attest from experience.

For some time, I'd been suffering with backaches after undertaking jobs that required considerable physical effort. But I hardly paid any attention to them and went on with my activities, thinking that the aches would just go away. However, one morning I awoke with a severe pain in my legs and inter nally as well. I got up with difficulty, as each movement caused a lot of pain. I walked with great difficulty. Although I couldn't bend at all, I nevertheless succeeded in dressing myself. At that time, I lived in the country, a dozen kilometers from the closest village. It was impossible for me to sit in my car, much less drive. I was alone at home and had only God to turn to for help.

When I was finally able to find the only bearable position, lying down on my side, I began to read passages from Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy and pray with them. Turning my attention away from the pain I was feeling, I focused on becoming aware of my real, spiritual being—the way God created me—perfect and harmonious, as I'd learned in my study of Christian Science. All day and for a good part of the night, I read and prayed in this manner. Despite this, the symptoms grew worse. The more I read, the more I felt I was reading nothing but words—sentences I knew but that seemed devoid of meaning to me.

The next morning I called a Christian Science practitioner to assist me in my prayers. She comforted me, reminding me of the unreality of evil and suffering in the divine creation, and agreed to support me in prayer.

During the day, the idea came to me very forcefully that I should reread the account from the Bible of Jacob's struggle with an angel (Gen. 32:24-30) and its spiritual interpretation given in Science and Health. I thought especially about this passage: "Jacob was alone, wrestling with error,—struggling with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence as existent in matter with its false pleasures and pains,—when an angel, a message from Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew, or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and Truth, being thereby understood, gavehim spiritual strength in this Peniel of divine Science" (p. 308).

I had the impression that I was engaged in a struggle between error and Truth—between a personal, material, and false concept of myself and my spiritual and perfect identity created by God, which was my real identity. I then realized that my only dependence was on my relation to God. Therefore I was completely independent of this handicap, of this suffering. It was nothing but a fictitious story about the real me.

The practitioner continued to pray for me. The next afternoon, after two days of constant prayer and study, while I was lying down and reading, I felt an excruciating pain. Spontaneously I cried out, "I know the truth, and the truth makes me free!" These words had popped out as if independent of my will. Immediately the pain completely disappeared. I got up with no difficulty, moving freely and easily. This happened seven years ago, and this problem never reappeared. I am just as active today as I was before.

The memory of this experience is always with me because, more important than the physical healing, I truly felt the presence of divine Love, and for some time after that my surroundings took on a new sparkle. Everything seemed more beautiful and more alive to me.

This healing was a true gift from God, revealing to me the power of Truth and the strength of the Word. Jesus' de claration, which before had seemed nothing more than words, had become a divine utterance, with the strength, authority, and power of the healing Christ. It was the first time I'd experienced this divine, living, and tangible presence to such an extent. Science and Health defines Christ as "the divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error" (p.583). The Christ, Truth, had in effect destroyed the lie of life and pain in matter, and healing had taken place.

I'm very grateful to Mary Baker Eddy for having revealed to us the divine laws of the Christ-cure in Christian Science, and I thank the Christian Science practitioners for their assiduous work and their faithful and loving availability.

FREDERIQUE SAUTEREAU
BERGERAC, FRANCE