Needed reminders

The Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, ask many questions of the reader. One that comes to mind this morning is: “Are we benefited by praying?” It’s early in the chapter Prayer – page 2, line 4.

 

As is usual in Science and Health we are given an answer – “Yes, the desire which goes forth hungering after righteousness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return unto us void" (ibid).

 

So, I am asking myself: Will I be benefited by reading the new book from the Christian Science Publishing Society, Christian Science: Continuing evidence of Christ-healing? I think the textbook’s answer applies in this case as well. I am forever “hungering after righteousness” as a student of Christian Science and expect its blessings.

 

I had been thinking about reading testimonies and sharing testimonies at church testimony meetings. It is not enough just to read or listen, and enjoy. I can benefit myself and the whole of mankind by actually praying for more enlightenment through learning from another’s experience in demonstrating Christian Science.

 

For instance, in testimonies of Christian Science healing we very often find quotes from the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings: Science and Health, Prose Works other than Science and Health, and Poems.

 

I find I have gained much from having those quotes to hand.

 

I recall a time when I was impressed by this passage from Science and Health page 463: “...truth removes whatever is offensive”. It had healed someone. I think it was shared at a Wednesday meeting. When a daughter cried with the pain of a loose tooth that wouldn’t budge, that truth came to be uttered with immediate effect. The tooth just fell into to her hand. The complete sentence from Science and Health (it is important to be exact in quoting from our textbooks) is: “A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive” (p. 463:12-13).

 

So, I decided to read one healing a day from our book, Continuing evidence of Christ-healing. Read it, ponder it, take notes about it and try to find something which will apply to something in my life or from the news.

 

A testimony from Annette Söllinger (pp.19-22), Eye Infection Gone, gave me a nudge. Annette said that in her prayers she had been trying to “distinguish between the true and the false, between the right and wrong, effective and ineffective prayer – all with mortal limited thinking. An impossible task!” (p. 20). I was very impressed, but didn’t quite “get it.” However, in reading a current issue of the Christian Science Sentinel I found a sentence that settled it all for me -- “The turning point was when I yielded up any personal sense of responsibility for healing.” (See Healing of Covid by Hernando Pico Niño, December 1&8, 2025, CS Sentinel, p. 13-14.)

 

As Hernando said,

“Christ Jesus, the greatest healer in the world has known, said, ‘I can of mine own self do nothing’ (John 5:30), and acknowledged that his heavenly Father ‘doeth the works’ (John 14:10).”

 

I can see that I can never be reminded enough of those truths.

Joyce Voysey