Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📖

a Sentinel. Imagine my joy when I saw the testimonies of healing! I believed them, remembering our Lord’s words, “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” I obtained a copy of Science and Health and before a week had passed I realized that if God was my all I needed no glasses. My eyes were healed in a few days, and since then I have never thought of glasses. I was also cured of dyspepsia, and nothing that I have eaten has hurt me since then. The belief in health laws was next destroyed, by knowing that our heavenly Father did not make them, and from this has come the beautiful experience of the overcoming of fatigue.

For this alone I can never be thankful enough. True indeed are the words, “They shall run, and not be weary.” This was more than a year ago, and I can say that not once have I felt inclined to lie on the couch, nor have I had a headache, although I am doing more work than ever before. Fear has also been overcome in many ways. - A. L., Chelmsford, England.

DEPRAVED APPETITES OVERCOME

When Christian Science first came to me, or rather, when I first came to Christian Science, I did not have a very bad opinion of myself. I thought I was a pretty good fellow. I had no religious views. I seemed to be getting along as well as, if not better than, some who professed Christianity. So I drifted along until I was led to investigate Christian Science.

As I progressed in the understanding as gained from the study of both Science and Health and the Bible, and commenced to know myself, I found that a great change had been wrought in me. For fifteen years I had used tobacco, both chewing and smoking; for ten years I had been a victim of the drink habit, sometimes to excess; I was also addicted to profanity. Christian Science removed these appetites. A stomach trouble and other lesser ills, such as headache, a bad temper, an inordinate love of money, etc., disappeared under the same benign influence. Those things that seemed to be pleasure do not give me pleasure now. They were not real pleasure. I have lost nothing, I have sacrificed nothing; but I have gained everything, and not yet the whole, for I can see plenty yet to be done.

The condition of mind before investigating and after is as different as black and white. As Mrs. Eddy says, “Not matter, but Mind, satisfieth.” - G. B. P., Henry, S. D.

CATARRH OF THE STOMACH HEALED

I should like to express my gratitude for the many benefits I have received through Christian Science, and to mention the great joy brought to me in the thought that man is not the helpless victim of sin, disease, and death. Through its teachings I have been able to overcome many errors.

When Christian Science found me, one year ago last April, in Chicago, I was suffering from catarrh of the stomach, which had been very persistent, and I had been a slave to the cigarette habit for eighteen years. Pain and weakness had robbed me of all that one holds dear. The first symptoms of the disease appeared about five years ago in the form of severe cramps of the stomach, which finally developed into other symptoms of that painful disease. I doctored continually, my diet daily becoming more rigid, until three slices of toast became my daily allowance of food.

In this condition I left the East for my home in Chicago, hoping that a change of climate might benefit me. After spending six weeks there and finding no relief, I concluded to return East. The Sunday morning before leaving I picked up a Sunday paper, and glancing through the religious items my eyes fell on the notices of Christian Science church services. Curiosity led me to a service and I shall never forget that morning or the surprise and joy it gave me to find that beautiful church, and to know that so great a number actually believed that God does heal the sick to-day. This brought a first ray of hope. The evening service found me there again. Among the notices read was that of a reading room, giving the location and time of opening. Monday morning found me there promptly, and the first book I picked up was Science and Health which opened a new world to me.

I had dieted so long and suffered so much that I had a morbid fear of food. When I had reached and read of “neither food nor the stomach, without the consent of mortal mind, can make one suffer” (Science and Health, p. 221), I left the reading room for something to eat. I found a bakery near by, and bought a bag of cakes which I ate, and shortly after I had a hearty dinner without the least complaint from my stomach.

>From that time until now I have eaten anything that I wished, and the craving for cigarettes, which I had for many years, has entirely vanished. The understanding of Truth, which entirely relieved the diseased stomach, healed also the morbid appetite for smoking. After coming back East, I bought a copy of Science and Health, which I have read daily, and find it a continual help in all the affairs of life.

In my home and at work I find this Science a comfort and source of strength. I have had many difficulties in the way, but it has helped me out of them all. - W. E. B., New Britain, Conn.

SPINAL DISEASE HEALED

When I first heard of Christian Science, seven years ago, I supposed that it was some old fad under a new name. In the little Texas town where we then lived there were two or three Christian Scientists who met at the home of one of their number to read the Lesson-Sermon. Meeting one of them one day, I asked if unbelievers could come to their meetings. She said that they could if they wanted to. I went, expecting them to do something that I could laugh at when telling my friends about it. How surprised I was to find out that they didn’t do anything but read the Bible and another book which they called Science and Health. I still thought it all foolishness, but resolved to go to their meetings until I found out all they believed. I continued to go until I began to understand a little of what they knew, not what they believed; and instead of spending my time telling others what a silly thing Christian Science is, I am now trying to find words to tell what a great and wonderful thing it is. I have been healed of so-called incurable spinal disease of ten years’ standing by studying the Bible and Science and Health. Science and Health has been my only teacher, and I wish to send my thanks to our dear Leader.

There are no other Scientists near where we now live, but I have the Quarterly and study the lessons by myself. I have five small children, and Christian Science is invaluable to me in controlling them, and in overcoming their common ills. They often help themselves and each other to destroy their little hurts and fears. - Mrs. M. H., Oleta, Okla.

MANY TROUBLES OVERCOME

In the second chapter of First Peter, ninth verse, I read “that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.” The periodicals so wisely established by our Leader give us one means of showing forth the praises of Truth.

>From the darkness of physical pain and weariness into the light of wholeness and joyousness in work and living, - from the darkness of a clouded sight into the light of clearer vision, - from the darkness of doubt and discord into the marvellous light of the reality of good, - this is what a reading of the Christian Science textbook has done for me.

At the time the book was lent to me, I was teaching in the public schools of Chicago, and absences from my work on account of illness were of frequent occurrence. For five weeks I had been under the care of a specialist for an organic trouble, and he said I would have to come as many more months before a cure could be effected. At this time, Science and Health was brought to my notice. I never thought of such a thing as being healed by the reading of the book, but my thought was so changed that I was healed, not only of the organic trouble, but of blurred eyesight, fatigue, and a train of other discordant manifestations. I did not go back to the physician until four months later to pay my bill (which, by the way, was more than five times the price of the Science and Health I had purchased). From the time I read the book I taught steadily without losing time from my work. I was helped, too, with my work in many other ways.

Through reading the textbook I learned that God has given us strength to do all we have to do, and that it is the things we do not have to do (the envying, strife, emulating, vainglorying, and so on) that leave in their wake fatigue and discord.

Gratitude to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, and to her faithful students, with whom I afterwards became associated, can be expressed only by daily efforts to put into practice what has been taught. - T. H. A., Madison, Wis.

PREJUDICE OVERCOME

I became interested in Christian Science somewhat over three years ago when in much need of help. I had never been strong, and as I grew older I grew weaker and at last became so ill that life was a burden to me. Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy was sent to me, in answer to prayer, as I thought. I was a little afraid of all these new fads, as I thought them, but I had not read far before I felt that I had found the truth which makes us free. I was healed of stomach trouble, inward weakness, and bilious attacks.

One physician said I might have to undergo an operation before I could get well, but, thanks to this Truth, I have found that the only operation needed was the regeneration of this so-called human mind by learning to know God. In many cases I have been able to help myself and others.

Words cannot express my thanks to Mrs. Eddy, and to all who are bringing these great truths to the help of the whole world. - E. E. M., Huntington, W. Va.

A CONVINCING TESTIMONY

I became interested in Christian Science some five years ago, the practical nature of its statements appealing to me, and I must say, at the outset, that with my little experience I have found it all and more than I ever dreamt of realizing on this plane of existence. I am satisfied that I have found Truth. God is indeed to me an ever-present help.

My little girl, some ten months old, was afflicted with constipation. It was so severe I dreaded to go out anywhere with her, as I knew not when she would be taken with a convulsion. I had tried all the usual remedies in such cases, but it seemed to grow more obstinate. There was a Christian Scientist living in the same house with us, a Scientist who let her light shine, and while she said little, I felt the reflection of Love. I had no knowledge of the teachings of Christian Science, save that God was the physician at all times. In my own way I believed He was