"What was cured then can be cured now. What was nothing then is nothing now.

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What a wonderful gift is this collection of testimonies bearing witness to Truth!! Every time I pick it up, I want to continue reading—on and on.

I’m halfway through my fourth in-depth sequential reading of the booklet. The childlikeness of the five-year-old youngster who simply told her little sister, “My body fell, but I am not in my body. Can God’s child fall?” is beautiful (C.E.M., Journal, July 1898; p. 77).

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“True confession time: the first thing I read is News of Healing”

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True confession time: the first thing I read in almost every Sentinel starts on page 24 of each issue—News of Healing. I usually turn first to the testimonies in the Journal, as well. Testimonies have always been of great importance to me; sometimes I have felt guilty about not reading the articles first! What makes testimonies so valuable to me is their demonstration of the validity of the teachings of Christian Science. Without proof, Christian Science is a nice philosophy to live by, but what do we do at the crunch points of life?
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"They never gave up, no matter how serious the material condition."

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Thank you for the wonderful collection of testimonies. The demonstrations they describe have had a salutary effect on my thinking and, hopefully, on my ability to progress in Science.

As you suggested, I made no effort to read and digest them all at one sitting. Since I had to look them all up in their original form, I repaired on four separate days to the terrific Reading Room of First Church, Arlington, Virginia. Reading the original volumes required physical as well as mental effort—climbing onto step stools many times to retrieve volumes, some over 100 years old, gently pulling them down with their crumbling covers, and gently turning the pages in search of the valuable lessons these testimonies taught.

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"I felt Love's all-presence and a deep sense of peace."

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I am very grateful for the compilation of testimonies and the deeper understanding of God and His allness they have given me.

1. In all honesty, do you feel differently about Christian Science healing and your own practice of C.S. after completing the reading? What new conclusions might you draw from these testimonies?

I do feel differently about Christian Science healing and my practice. I feel a stronger reliance on and trust in Truth and in the truth about man. The conclusion that can be drawn is that we can depend completely on the truths of God and their effectiveness in healing; we can trust that they do heal.

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“Learning how to bind up the broken-hearted”

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Thank you for sending the book of testimonies of healing. It is a great help and a great source of happiness. It is helping me think about Christian Science treatment.

The introduction, which tells about the two wartime workers, made me think of Mrs. Eddy’s words, “If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted” (S&H 366:30–31). The most broken-hearted of all would be those who feel the way that man in the introduction felt—that God isn’t there, because if He were, these terrible things couldn’t have happened.

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“Strong faith, understanding, and trust in God were the qualities of thought that opened the way for the healings”

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Thank you for the wonderful assignment. At first, I did not know how I could read all of the testimonies from the bound volumes because it is a 70-minute drive to our Society’s Reading Room and we have only one car, which my husband takes to work. Then I realized that since our Reading Room is located in our church building, I could do the reading by arriving early on Sundays, and my husband graciously agreed to leave for church earlier than usual. After doing this for five weeks, I had read all of the testimonies. This was a demonstration in itself!
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“Ready to say “YES! I will support you with treatment.”

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Below are my answers to the questions that came with the booklet of testimonies. This assignment has really, really inspired me to keep on.

Question 1. I may not feel differently about Christian Science so much as I feel differently about my own ability to practice it. I always understood Christian Science heals. Had I contemplated quite so fully what a healing treatment does? Not exactly.

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“Doing it not just for myself, but for the whole world”

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My fruitage this year is in a greatly improved outlook, less fear, and freedom from reliance on drugs of any kind. I was in a lot of mental turmoil, but I have (once again) come through the fog of pain, depression, and anxiety.

I have a bulletin board in front of my desk, and at the top in big letters I have the words “Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good”…

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“I have been mesmerised into thinking that I haven’t progressed.”

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When I was reading the testimony on the website called “Love is the Doorway to Healing,” I thought, “That’s a very good point—someone has some really good insights there.” It was only when I got into the third paragraph that I realised that I was reading my testimony! (I had been thinking, “Ha, someone else in Association has a video production company, that’s interesting.”)
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“I felt that I, too, could fight the good fight.”

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I have been feeling a heavy burden from just about everything, then procrastination, and then more of everything. Finally I made myself sit down with the booklet of testimonies and read for a couple of hours each time.

After the end of the testimonies, a passage from the Bible came to me: “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Heb. 11:1). I felt that I, too, could fight the good fight. Being obedient to Truth is a natural part of man and a natural part of me. It also rekindled my desire to study the Bible, the textbook, and other writings by Mrs. Eddy.

“Understanding that God guides every one of His ideas.”

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1. Thank you so much for the wonderful book of testimonies. After reading them, I felt a greatly renewed sense of God’s healing power. Again and again, the testimonies show that the Christ meets us where we are and that nothing can stand in the way of complete healing. The testimonies reaffirm that Christian Science healing is available everywhere, at any moment, for everyone.
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“It feels like the walls of resistance to using Christian Science…are cracking”

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1. Thank you so much for this assignment. The compilation of testimonies sounds like a wake-up call as to the possibilities of Christian Science healing. And this “bugle call” of physical healing is made by a band of trumpets! It reminds me of Joshua’s band—after the trumpets sounded, they all shouted together to bring the walls down. Maybe our shouting will be our subsequent demonstrations and our reports of them.
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A healing of depressive and lonely thoughts

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Question 1. In all honesty, do you feel differently about Christian Science healing and your own practice of Christian Science after completing the reading?

Yes, reading the testimonies in this year’s assignment (and many more articles in the Sentinel and Journal) has made me think much more about how Christian Science relates to our daily life. It shows how healing can be so natural. I am starting to understand how the spiritual reality of being is a present possibility that is right here with us.

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