The key Church Action "Our goal is to make better Christian healers-to help is listening students realize their full spiritual potential. Tell us how we can improve this Sunday School. You talk. We'll listen." This is the kind of straight talking that goes on informally these days between the Sunday School staff and pupils of First Church of Christ, Scientist, Wellesley, Massachusetts. They are out to prove that mutual trust can cement a bond between the generations. And the young people do open up and speak freely. They say they appreciate a teacher who asks what the class would like to know about Christian Science, instead of one who doles out the information he thinks they ought to know. They don't want to go there to read the Lesson-Sermon or hear the teacher lecture on it; they want discussion of its application to their lives. "Nothing can improve Sunday School teaching faster than the teacher listening more to the pupil," said the superintendent, who had just wound up a series of Sunday School teachers' workshop meetings covering the techniques of teaching different age groups. Perhaps the improved relations between youth and adults was most clearly reflected in the recent action to lower the church membership age requirement to twelve years. Almost immediately, six young people from ages thirteen to eighteen joined. Furthermore, they are getting assignments on church committees commensurate with their abilities and regardless of their age. make parents more aware of how Sunday School serves the needs of youth. Of course, some parents are not Christian Scientists. One such father, moved by the meeting, commented, "I'm delighted to have my children in your Sunday School!" And he has since attended a church service there. A new member declared that if they had had a meeting like that six years ago, she and her husband would have joined then instead of deliberating so long. A second parent-teacher meeting was conducted by the children and young adults themselves. They told the assembled parents what Christian Science meant to them, referring to many healings they had experienced: injuries in a soccer game, poor eyesight, poison ivy, nosebleeds, fatigue from being overworked on a summer job. A pet horse had been healed, financial needs met, and schoolwork accomplished through what they'd learned in Sunday School. These pupils also took the leadership in a churchsponsored hymn-sing last winter. There was an enthusiastic turnout from both the congregation and the Sunday School. Young people chose and introduced the hymns, and accompanied them on flute and guitar. Several students, including an eight-year-old, played the piano. Afterward someone remarked, "There certainly wasn't any generation gap in our church today when we were all sitting there singing and exploring the Hymnal together." In Sunday School, these students suggest to the superintendent what hymns to sing, and there are student accompanists and precentors, ushers and hostesses as well as students assisting in the library and the nursery. One fouryear-old plugs in the microphone each Sunday! "We like to have all the students feel some responsibility for the success of Sunday School," the superintendent explained. Testimonies of Christian Science Healing I was in great distress when I first heard of Christian Science. Our young son, then about eleven years old, was suffering from epilepsy, and the disease was pronounced hereditary and therefore incurable by several medical doctors. During those months I prayed day and night to God, since we read in Psalms (103:3), "[He] healeth all thy diseases." It was at this time that my prayer was answered in a very wonderful way. A friend, who was a student of Christian Science, and by whom I was employed, assured me one day that my son could be healed in Christian Science. Willing, in my extremity, to accept anything, I immediately agreed to try Christian Science. The seizures had by that time become much worse, and there was no relief from the medical source. My friend then made an appointment for me with a Christian. Science practitioner. My first contact with the practitioner brought unbounded hope and joy, and a new light dawned in my consciousness. She explained something very wonderful about the right concept of God. Our son was healed in one treatment. After a few moments of silent prayer this consecrated worker pointed out that my entire family and I should study the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy. She explained that understanding this book would bar the door of thought to any recurrence of the disease or fear of reversal, and that it would eliminate false beliefs. So in great humility and gratitude for this vision of the healing Christ, and to express my grateful thanks to God, I went straight to the Christian Science Reading Room and purchased the textbook. From that time to this, over forty years ago, the King James Version of the Bible, Science and Health and Mrs. Eddy's other works, and each of the Christian Science periodicals have been to me and my entire family a steady guide in demonstrating Christian Science. The healing of my son has remained permanent. Following my son's healing, my husband and I enrolled our children in the Christian Science Sunday School, and we began to attend regularly the Sunday services and the Wednesday evening testimony meetings in a branch Church of Christ, Scientist. We have all had wonderful proofs of the power of God through the application of this Science, each healing remaining complete and permanent. I wish to tell of one of the healings that I myself experienced. I suffered for some time from heart disease. When a severe attack occurred, I was losing consciousness. My foster daughter called the cook, who was not a Christian Scientist, for help. Then she called my nearby family, who gathered The statements made in these testimonies with regard to healings have been carefully verified. The original testimonies and their respective verifications are on file for reference with The Christian Science Publishing Society. -THE EDITORS around my bedside. I heard them repeat the Lord's Prayer and "the scientific statement of being" from the textbook. The statement concludes (p. 468): "Spirit is God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore man is not material; he is spiritual." I also heard our cook, who sat by me, saying, "There is no pulse and no heartbeat. She is dying." Then my son cried out, "God is here, and He is Life, and Truth, and All!" When I opened my eyes, it all seemed like a dream I had had, and I was healed. The attacks never again returned, and the healing has remained permanent. I am grateful for membership in The Mother Church and in a Christian Science Society, for class instruction in Christian Science, and for the great privilege of taking part in the healing and redemptive work of helping others. I give thanks to God for Christ Jesus, the Saviour of mankind from sin, disease, and death, and for Mrs. Eddy, our beloved Leader of the Christian Science movement. (Mrs.) MINNIE BAKER Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada I gratefully verify my mother's testimony. I went with my mother and brother to the office of the Christian Science practitioner and witnessed that my brother's healing of the above-named disease was complete and permanent. Christian Science has been my only physician for over forty years. I have had healings of many physical ills, and Christian Science has met my every need. I early learned that healing in Christian Science is the result of scientific prayer to God, and that it takes only a spiritual fact to bring out the normal physical manifestation and annul the general misconception entertained by mortal thinking. I praise our Father-Mother God for Mrs. Eddy's priceless gift to the world set forth in the teachings of Christian Science. I am deeply grateful for it! (Mrs.) LUCILLE HOMOLKA Ferndale, Washington [Original in German] I have known Christian Science for seven years, am a member of The Mother Church and a branch church, and have served my church as First Reader and had class instruction. Many wonderful experiences have taken place during this time. In my second year as Reader, one Friday evening as I was hastily painting the entrance hall to our apartment, I had a severe fall. When I regained consciousness, I strongly rejected every thought of accident and tried to go on with my work. Nevertheless, all the symptoms of a brain concussion manifested themselves, together with an almost unbearable pain in my left arm. The forearm and hand hung down as if lifeless, and it seemed evident that the arm was broken. I realized that I was faced with a difficult decision. Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health (p. 401): "Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and supremacy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave surgery and the adjustment of broken bones and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon, while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation." As I am in government service, I was required to report the matter to a doctor. When I was told, however, that the arm would have to be straightened and placed in a cast immediately, I turned unreservedly to God. It was Friday evening. Sunday morning I had to read. An attempt to take the precaution of informing my substitute was unsuccessful, as I was not able to reach him. Not once before had I been absent from my post. When I voiced this to my son, he replied, "Don't you see that this is only a temptation?" He then pointed out that whoever God appoints, He also sustains and supports without need of a substitute. That awakened me. I realized that no physical condition can ever cause an interruption in my relationship to my heavenly Father. I must stress the fact that I prayed for hours without interruption. The pain gradually eased. Nothing in the way of medical treatment was given to the arm and the hand. On Sunday morning I hid the arm behind me and with great joy and reverence in my heart, read two services (German and English) as usual. No one noticed any incapacity, and no one knows anything about it even today. In my prayerful work I was strongly supported by my son, who, as Second Reader, was also in a position to assist me inconspicuously with the handling of the books. I constantly kept in mind my favorite passage from the Bible (Ex. 15:26): "I am the Lord that healeth thee." And this all-gracious and omnipresent Physician rewarded my obedience with a quick healing. Within a few days the arm and the fingers had adjusted themselves normally, the abnormal color disappeared, and I began to take hold of and lift things. I was healed. I can do everything again, from typewriting to playing an instrument. An indescribable feeling of happiness came over me on the occasion of this glorious proof of the everpresent healing love of God. This experience, a kind I had previously only heard of, moved me deeply, and my gratitude far exceeds what my words express. Mrs. Eddy says (Science and Health, p. 3), "Action expresses more gratitude than speech." It is my desire to perform more acts of gratitude in the service of the Christ, Truth, to pass along fruits to the hungry from the glorious blessings that Christian Science has given us. (Mrs.) CLAIRE Roselius Munich, Germany With great gratitude I can testify that I was a witness to the healing of my mother's arm in those days. Through class instruction my mother and I were, in a measure, equipped with the perception of the Biblical facts about God and man, so that it is today natural for us to look for God's operation in all things and the presence of His perfect, spiritual creation everywhere. The presentation of the message of Jesus I would like to relate one healing I experienced some time ago that has meant much to me. I had a large growth on one of my heels and had to wear special shoes to accommodate it. I was new in the study of Christian Science, and while many discordant conditions had been overcome, this one had not. After a while I became indignant about it because the growth was becoming larger. I decided I would not look at it, as I was placing too much importance on it and was letting it usurp my thinking. I earnestly tried to shut out every false or unkind thought and to focus on the truths I was learning in daily study of the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly and to put them into practical use. One morning several days later I awakened with this verse in my thought: "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee" (Isa. 26:3). I was filled with a great sense of love and gratitude and went happily through a busy day, not even thinking about my heel at all. That night I discov ered that the growth had completely disappeared and my heel was smooth and * |