"…no offense has been given, and no one is guilty"

The healings in the Century of Christian Science Healing are filled with the spirit of faith in God and love for our fellow man. There is a steadfastness, an unwavering quality of thought, no matter what the circumstances appear to be. Often everyone involved is touched by the truth. These healings have strengthened my conviction that all things are possible to God.

Mrs. Eddy’s beautiful healing of the severely crippled man on Boston Common (page 9) is a perfect example of the steadfastness of her profound understanding of God and her love for a stranger. The student who related this healing said that the first time Mrs. Eddy saw the man she stopped and briefly spoke to him. She told him that man is God’s perfect child. Days later he saw her again and called out to her. She repeated this truth to him, and “he was healed and made perfect, – every whit whole.”

The healing on page 110 by Samuel H. Meeks, a 14-year old boy “and a pupil in a Christian Science Sunday School” is especially meaningful to me. Five small children were in a canoe with him when it capsized. They were about three miles from shore. He swam for help to a fishing boat. He said that “(a)s I went along I thought of all that I had learned in the Sunday School.” He said that it was “the understanding of Christian Science which (he) gained in the Sunday School” that enabled him to swim the four miles to reach the fishing boat. The children hung on to the canoe and said the Scientific Statement of Being and the prayer for little children by Mrs. Eddy. He was gone for 2 hours, and a younger 10-year old boy helped “keep up the children’s courage” while he was gone. When the fishing boat picked them up, the 4-year old girl was floating on the water. Later she said that while she was waiting and floating, she knew the water was over her father’s and mother’s heads, “but I knew that it wasn’t over God’s head.”

As superintendent of our branch church Sunday School, this healing has inspired me to know that our students are gaining an understanding of God that is immediately relevant to everything in their daily lives. God is everywhere and everpresent, and no matter where they are, they are secure and safe in God’s loving care. We can learn from them. Jesus said we must humble ourselves as a little child to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matt.18:4)

In late November 2019, PBS showed a documentary about fascism in Europe in the 1930s and ‘40s.  It included a film segment of a crowd of German women and children in 1945 enthusiastically waving Nazi flags at a rally. The narrator said that it was a “hypnotism” or mesmerism controlling people at the time. I had just read again the testimony beginning on page 136 by (Mrs.) L. Adrienne Vinciguerra about her experience in WWII. She found Christian Science and was able to walk out of a prisoner-of-war camp. She continued to study and was protected and able to help others throughout the war. I realize that through her study of Christian Science, she was not hypnotized by her situation or the war going on around her – (nor were other Scientists that she met during the war.)

The news of disease and corruption today can seem hypnotic, and I see how important it is to stay alert and awake to God and the truth of being.

The testifier was steadfast. She meekly and willingly gave every thought to God, listened for God to speak, and then obeyed. For example, as the war was ending, she was in Austria and a friend came to take her to safety in Switzerland.  She started to get ready to go, and then she said: “I had constantly been confronted with such big decisions. I was so used to turning to God before anything I ever did, that I stopped in the hallway and said spontaneously: “What shall I do?” And the answer came as fast as the question had been asked: “Whom are you running away from? There are no enemies.” I saw that in God’s creation there are no enemies, and there is no need to run.” Her home became an oasis when the Russians came into the city. Not only was she safe, but it was a place of peace and joy for the Russians. She says, “I was completely without fear. I was so convinced of the truth that there is only one man, the man made in God’s image.”

This week an offense and a misunderstanding happened in our family. We seemed to be invaded and overcome by sorrow, hurt feelings, and anger that spread quickly to four households. I went back to working on this Association assignment and I read the words above again, “…the truth that there is only one man, the man made in God’s image.” My thought turned and I began to see everyone in this light. At a recent Zoom Wednesday meeting at our branch church, a testifier who is an attorney with a career in mediation cases, said that the most important element in resolving all cases is forgiveness. I held to the truth that “there are no enemies,” therefore no offense has been given, and no one is guilty. The evil and error began to dissolve and disappear in my thought, and gently, within a few hours, peace and love tenderly filled our homes with kindness, thoughtfulness, and an appreciation of good for each other. This loving communication continues between all of us.

Thank you for this assignment to read this book.

I am going to hold more steadfastly to the truth that God, good, is governing all mankind. God is the only authority and is supreme. “God is our judge, our lawgiver, and our king. He will save us. And the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity.” (Isa. 33:22, 24) This law of God cannot be denied, reversed, or annulled. In the allness of God, good, there is no sickness of any kind, no sinful thinking or acting, and no dying.

We are all the beloved of Love, and we express goodness, kindness, harmony, purity, peace, health, and well-being. As Paul said, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ…” (Rom 8:14- 17)