"I became confident good things would happen"

What stands out to me from the reading is that often a person discovers Christian Science as the result of a Christian Scientist reaching out to them. Inevitably the person helped remarks their gratitude for the thoughtfulness and kindness of the outreach. In the early years of the growth of Christian Science this surely was a major reason the religion grew. 

Today it seems we don’t do enough of this. I aim to do better. This wonderful book illustrates that sometimes Christian Science healing is instantaneous, and at other times it may take years. I am realizing that when it takes time it likely results in significant spiritual growth as is shown in the accounts in the book. This is to be cherished.  

The Perkins describe similar challenges they faced with their three children. In each case a child broke an arm or wrist. It is clear from the start that Christian Science was important in the lives of the parents and children. 

First their 10-year-old son fell getting off a streetcar and landed heavily on his elbow. The boy began repeating the Lord’s Prayer as soon it happened. As soon as he contacted his mother she called a practitioner. The parents kept in mind the passage on p. 401 of Science and Health where Mrs. Eddy indicates Christian Scientists could consider having bones set by a surgeon. They consulted with a surgeon they knew but through prayer decided not to have the arm set, and simply had a cast put on the arm. Through prayer alone the break healed perfectly.

Some years later the Perkins’ fourteen-year-old daughter fell and injured her arm, and both bones in her wrist were broken. The family turned again to Science and Health for guidance and read the same reference as previously.  However, this time they focused mainly on the second part of the statement. There Mrs Eddy indicates Christian Science is always the most skillful surgeon, and that she and her students had healed broken bones through mental surgery alone. So the family decided they would seek healing through “the most skillful surgeon” – Christian Science. They called a practitioner for help and relied entirely on God for the healing. The wrist was healed perfectly, and the girl resumed participating in active sports.

A few months later their eight-year-old son broke his arm. The Perkins said, “this time there was no fear whatever, because we knew that although the accident appeared real to the physical senses, it never had happened to the child of God.” In three days the arm was healed. (pp. 164-168)

What I love about these accounts is how these devoted Christian Scientists grew in their understanding and demonstration of Christian Science with each event. Parents want to protect their children from harm at all times. When such events happen the first response is often fear. Through prayer these parents overcame fear, and the healings came more rapidly each time.

Over the years growing up in England I knew of Peter Henniker-Heaton and his remarkable healing. In later years I heard his wife, Rose, lecture. Peter’s healing is a remarkable story of commitment to healing through Christian Science and persistence. Together over a 10-year period, four of those years in London during WWII, they were committed to Peter’s healing. He mentions when he was too weak to turn the pages of Science and Health he memorized half of the book by heart. I was told that when Rose left the apartment she would prop up the book so he could read and memorize two pages at a time. This brings home to me to have confidence we can rely on Christian Science for healing, no matter what. (p. 156)

I was a child during WWII. Our family lived in a London suburb and we experienced air-raid sirens at night and the bombing that followed. The next day we saw ruins with smoke still rising and shrapnel that was too hot to handle. My teenage years in post-war England were gray. However, my mother had become a Christian Scientist during the war, and as a result my sister and I attended Sunday School. When I became 16, I told my mother I wasn’t interested in religion and wouldn’t attend Sunday School anymore. My mother in her wisdom did not try to force me to go. For about a year I just stayed home on Sundays.  

My mother had a good friend who was a Christian Science practitioner. She would visit our home occasionally, and I would chat with her and my mother for a while. Much later it dawned on me my mother was asking for the practitioner’s help with me. I guess I was a bit of a handful. I‘ll always be grateful for my mother’s prayerful support.

After high school I became a management trainee at a building company in London. I found myself thinking about my future. I read Science and Health by Mary Baker Eddy and found great inspiration there. As I studied and accepted Christian Science, I became confident good things would happen. 

Along the way friends told me about a college for Christian Scientists in the United States. I was awarded a place there but would have to pay for the tuition, etc. I had little in the way of savings. I learned about people getting good jobs in the uranium mines in Canada. Through a friend I was able to get a free passage on a freighter from England to Philadelphia. In Philadelphia I took a Greyhound bus to Edmonton, Canada, sleeping all but one night on the bus.

From the time I was accepted at college, I had an impulsion to take the path that was unfolding before me. From then on I never had a sense of fear or lack of certitude as I relied on God for direction. Mrs Eddy’s article “Angels” on pp 306 and 307 of Miscellaneous Writings, has always been a favorite of mine. The passage “God gives you His spiritual ideas, and in turn, they give you daily supplies” has inspired me over the years.

When I arrived in Edmonton in October 1956 there were several inches of snow on the ground. I lined up outside the labor exchange with many other men. I was told that the uranium mines laid off many workers for the winter. They had no job for me.

I returned to the YMCA where I was staying. I had about $20 left. I took out my Bible and Science and Health. As I read and prayed I was filled with a sense of peace and a conviction God would guide my next steps. He would not abandon me. 

A fellow staying at the “Y” told me one of the uranium companies had its own hiring office. When I arrived at the office it seemed like something out of a Dickens story. The only furniture was a big wooden desk and a chair and a man sitting on the other side with a huge ledger open.  The only thing missing was a quill pen! I told him I would take any job, but he said he had no openings because of the layoffs.

In those days I was rather self-conscious but I said, “Would you mind checking your ledger?” He said he knew what was in his book, and he had no openings. Amazingly, I said, “Would you mind taking another look?” In exasperation he flipped some pages and then stopped in surprise. He had overlooked an opening. In three days I was flying up to Gunnar Uranium Mine on Lake Athabaska where I spent almost a year as a surface laborer and saved enough money to pay for my first year at college. 

Over the years I have been blessed to have many good things unfold in my life. A happy marriage, wonderful children and grandchildren, great friends, and a varied and fulfilling career. Christian Science has been a constant and essential guide in this unfoldment.

Many people seek to live their lives respecting the norms and laws of our society and living morally. This is foundational to a successful society. The challenge is to go beyond this, to reach out to others and offer Christian Science to them, particularly when they are in need and to not “pass by on the other side.”

I am aware that I need to do a better job of praying regularly for healing challenges facing our country, our world, and in my daily life. I plan to do so in the year ahead.