Science and Health
with Key to The Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter XVIII - Fruitage

 

663:1
I tried to live my life in my own way and put religion
aside. I was a great believer in fate and in will-power,
and thought to put them in the place of God, with
the consequence that I was led to do many rash and
foolish things. I am now thankful to say that my out-
look on life is entirely changed; I have proved God's
wisdom and goodness so often that I am willing and
thankful to know my future is in His hands and that
all things must work out for the best. I have found a
God whom I can love and worship with my whole
heart, and I now read my Bible with interest and
understanding.
663:13
I was healed of very bad rheumatism simply by read-
ing Science and Health. I had tried many medicines,
also massage, with no result, and the doctors told me
that I would always suffer from this disease, as it
was inherited, and also because I had rheumatic fever
when a child. I suffered day and night, and nothing
relieved me until Science proved to me the falseness
of this belief by removing it. I gave up all the medi-
cines I was taking and have never touched any since,
and that is more than two years ago. Before this I
had often tried to do without a medicine that I had
taken every day for ten years, but was always ill and had
to return to it, until I found out that one Mind is the only
medicine, and then I was freed from the suffering.
663:27
I had also suffered constantly from bilious attacks,
colds, and a weak chest, and had been warned not to
be out in wet weather, etc., but now, I am glad to say,
I am quite free from all those material laws and go
out in all sorts of weather. – R. D. F., Edinburgh,
Scotland.
664:1
CURING BETTER THAN ENDURING
664:2
For eight years I was a great sufferer from weak
lungs and after being treated by ten different physi-
cians, in the States of Illinois, Missouri, and Colo-
rado, I was told there was no hope of my recovery
from what they pronounced tuberculosis, which was
hereditary, my father having been afflicted with it. I
was greatly emaciated and hardly able to be about.
My general condition was aggravated by what the doc-
tors said was paralysis of the bowels. Three physi-
cians so diagnosed it at different times, and assured
my husband that I could never get more than tem-
porary relief. This indeed I found difficult to obtain,
in spite of my almost frantic efforts. At times I was
nearly insane from suffering, and after eight years of
doctoring I found myself steadily growing worse. For
four years I did not have a normal action of the bowels,
and it was only by extreme effort and by resort to pow-
erful drugs or mechanical means, with resultant suffering,
that any action whatever could be brought about.
664:21
I had heard nothing of the curative power of Chris-
tian Science, and only to oblige a friend I went one
night, about three years ago, to one of their mid-week
testimonial meetings, in Boulder, Colorado. I was much
impressed by what I heard there, and determined at once
to investigate this strange religion, in the hope that it
might have something good for me. I bought the text-
book, Science and Health, and from the first I found
myself growing stronger and better, both physically and
mentally, as I acquired a better understanding and en-
deavored toput into practice what I learned. In one week
665:1
I was able to get along better without drugs than I had for
years with them, and before three months had passed I
was better than I had been any time in my life, for I
had always suffered more or less from bowel trouble.
Since that time I have taken no medicine whatever, and
rely wholly upon Christian Science. My lungs are now
sound, my bowels normally active, my general health
excellent, and I am able to endure without fatigue
tasks that before would have prostrated me. The
study of our textbook was the sole means of my healing.
– L. M. St. C., Matachin, Canal Zone, Panama.
665:12
SEVERE ECZEMA DESTROYED
665:13
It is only two years since I came from darkness into
the light of Christian Science, and to me the spiritual
uplifting has been wonderful, to say nothing of the
physical healing. Words cannot express my gratitude
for benefits I have received in that time. For five
years I suffered with that dreaded disease, eczema, all
over my body. Five doctors said there was no help
for me. The suffering seemed as terrible as the hell
fire that I had been taught to believe in. When Christian
Science came to me two years ago through a dear friend,
she gave me a copy of Science and Health and asked
me to read it. I told her that I would, for I was like a
drowning man grasping at a straw. I had been a Bible
student for twenty-eight years, but when I commenced
reading Science and Health with the Bible I was healed
in less than a week. I never had a treatment. A case
of measles was also destroyed in twenty-four hours after
it appeared. – Mrs. M. B. G., Vermilion, Ohio.
666:1
SCIENCE AND HEALTH A PRICELESS BOON
666:2
I am a willing witness to the healing power of Chris-
tian Science, having had a lifetime's battle with dis-
ease and medical experiments. Various doctors finally
admitted that they had exhausted their resources, and
could only offer me palliatives, saying that a cure was
impossible. I had paralysis of the bowels, frequent
sick headaches with unutterable agony, and my mortal
career was nearly brought to an end by a malignant
type of yellow fever. Many were the attending evils of
this physical inharmony, but God confounds the wis-
dom of men, for while studying Science and Health
two years ago, the veil of ignorance was lifted and
perfect health was shown to me to be my real con-
dition, and to such there is no relapse. The constant
use of glasses, which were apparently a necessity to
me for years, was proven needless, and they were laid
aside. Mrs. Eddy has made Scripture reading a never‑
failing well of comfort to me. By her interpretation
"the way of the Lord" is made straight to me and
mine. It aids us in our daily overcoming of the tyr-
anny of the flesh and its rebellion against the blessed
leading of Christ, Truth. The daily study of the Bible
and our textbook is bringing more and more into our con-
sciousness the power of God unto salvation. – J. C.,
Manatee, Fla.
666:27
A CRITIC CONVINCED
666:28
With gratitude to God I acknowledge my lifelong
debt to Christian Science. In 1895 I attended my first
667:1
Christian Science meeting, and was deeply impressed
with the earnestness of the people and the love re-
flected, but as for the spiritual healing of the physical
body, I did not believe such a thing to be possible.
I bought Science and Health and studied it to be
able to dispute intelligently with the supposedly de-
luded followers of Christian Science. I pursued the
study carefully and thoroughly, and I have had abun-
dant reason since to be glad that I did, for through this
study, and the resultant understanding of my rela-
tion to God, I was healed of a disease with which I
had been afflicted since childhood and for which there
was no known remedy. Surely my experience has
been the fulfilling in part of the Scripture:
"He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from
their destructions." I believe that Science and Health
reveals the Word referred to by David. – C. A. B. B.,
Kansas City, Mo.
667:19
BORN AGAIN
667:20
It was in April, 1904, that I first heard the "still,
small voice" of the Christ and received healing through
Christian Science; and the blessings have been so
many since, that it would take too much space to
name them. Reared from childhood in an intellectual
atmosphere, my paternal grandfather having been an
orthodox minister of the old school for forty years,
and my father a deep student, ever seeking for the
truth of all things, I began early to ponder and to
study into the meaning of life, and came to the con-
clusion before I was twenty that though God probably
668:1
existed in some remote place, still it was impossible to
connect Him with my present living. My highest
creed, therefore, became, "Do right because it is right
and not for fear of being punished." Then began the
suffering. Sorrow after sorrow followed each other
in rapid succession; for ten long years there was no
rest, the road was indeed long and hard and had no
turning, until finally the one thing that had stood by
me all through the trials, namely, my health, gave
way, and with that went my last hope. But the last
hour of the night had come, the dawn of day was at
hand; a dear friend left Science and Health upon my
piano one day, saying that I would gain much good by
reading it.
668:15
Glad to get away from my own poor thoughts, I
opened the "little book" and began to read. I had
read only a short time when such a wonderful trans-
formation took place! I was renewed; born again.
Mere words cannot tell the story of the mighty up-
lifting that carried me to the very gates of heaven.
When I began to read the book, life was a burden, but
before I had finished reading it the first time, I was doing
all my housework and doing it easily; and since that
glorious day I have been a well woman. My health
is splendid, and I am striving to let my light so shine
that others may be led to the truth. There have been
some mighty struggles with error, and I have learned
that we cannot reach heaven with one long stride or
easily drift inside the gate, but that the "asking" and
the "seeking" and the "knocking" must be earnest and
persistent.
668:32
For a long time I was always looking back to see if
669:1
the error had gone, until one day when I realized
that to catch a glimpse of what spiritual sense means
I must put corporeal sense behind me. I then set to
work in earnest to find the true way. I opened
Science and Health and these words were before me,
"If God were understood, instead of being merely be-
lieved, this understanding would establish health" (p. 203).
I saw that I must get the right understanding of God!
I closed the book and with head bowed in prayer I
waited with longing intensity for some answer. How
long I waited I do not know, but suddenly, like a won-
derful burst of sunlight after a storm, came clearly
this thought, "Be still, and know that I am God." I
held my breath – deep into my hungering thought
sank the infinite meaning of that "I." All self‑
conceit, egotism, selfishness, everything that constitutes
the mortal "I," sank abashed out of sight. I trod, as
it were, on holy ground. Words are inadequate to con-
vey the fullness of that spiritual uplifting, but others
who have had similar experiences will understand.
669:21
From that hour I have had an intelligent consciousness
of the ever-presence of an infinite God who is only good.
– C. B. G., Hudson, Mass.
669:24
A RESTLESS SENSE OF EXISTENCE DESTROYED
669:25
Through reading Science and Health and the illu-
mination which followed, I was healed of ulceration of
the stomach and kindred troubles, a restless sense of
existence, agnosticism, etc. The torture I endured with
the stomach trouble I will not attempt to describe. The
attending physician declared that I could live but a short
670:1
time, and I felt there would be a limit to my endur-
ance of the torture, but the disease was dissipated into
nothingness through Christian Science, which brought
me peace.
670:5
Like many others I had been seemingly lost in the
sea of error, without a compass, yet earnestly and hon-
estly seeking a haven. I had investigated all kinds of
religions and philosophies that came under my notice,
with the exception of Christian Science, which was
not then deemed worthy of inquiry, and yet it held
the very truth I was searching for – the light which
"shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comp-
rehended it not." Three years of stubborn resist-
ance to Truth, with increasing suffering, followed –
then the light came, and with it a new experience.
Now, after nine years of Christian Science experience,
under severe tests, it can be truthfully said that it
has not failed me in any hour of need. – J. F. J.,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
670:20
MORALLY AND PHYSICALLY HEALED
670:21
I did not accept Christian Science on account of any
healing of my own, but after seeing my mother, who was
fast drifting toward helplessness with rheumatism, restored
to perfect health with only a few treatments in Christian
Science, I thought surely this must be the truth as Jesus
taught and practised it, and if so it was what I had been
longing for.
670:28
This was about ten years ago and was the first I had
ever heard of Christian Science. We soon got a copy
of Science and Health and I began in the right way to
671:1
see if Christian Science were the truth. I had no thought
of studying it for bodily healing; in fact, I did not think
I needed it for that, but my soul cried out for something
I had not yet found. This book was indeed a key to the
Scriptures.
671:6
It was not long after I began reading before I dis-
covered that my eyes were good and strong, I could
read as much as I wished, and at any time, which was
something I could not do before, as my eyes had always
been weak. The doctors said they never would be very
strong, and that if I did not wear glasses, I might lose
my sight altogether. I never gave up to wearing glasses,
and now, thanks to Christian Science, I do not need them,
my work for the past two years as a railway mail clerk
being a good test. At the same time my eyes were healed,
I also noticed that I was entirely healed of another ail-
ment which had been with me all my life, and which was
believed to be inherited. Since that time my growth
has seemed to me slow, yet when I look back and view
myself as I was before Christian Science found me, and
compare it with my life as it now is, I can only close my
eyes to the picture and rejoice that I have been "born
again" and that I have daily been putting off "the
old man with his deeds," and putting on "the new
man."
671:26
Some of the many things that have been overcome
through the study of Science and Health, and through
realizing and practising the truth it teaches, are pro-
fanity, the use of tobacco, a very quick temper, which
made both myself and those around me at times very
miserable, and such thoughts as malice, revenge, etc. –
O. L. R., Fort Worth, Tex.
672:1
HEALTH AND UNDERSTANDING GAINED
672:2
Most of my boyhood days were spent in the hands
of physicians. From birth I was considered a very
weakly child, but my mother was brave, and being
much devoted to me did everything within her knowl-
edge and power for my comfort. Sickness and medi-
cine were continually before me, and by the time I
reached my teens I thought I knew a material remedy
for every ill. I continued in my delusion, because I
was never told the real cause of my trouble. Besides
being under a leading specialist for two years, I was
also an outdoor patient at a noted hospital, but I was
not healed. It is wonderful how the "little ones" are
cared for in the face of all these seeming difficulties.
I always used the prayers that I had been taught, and
as I grew older I began to ask for wisdom. Little by
little I gained a desire for freedom, and my prayers
finally led me to the truth. The first week that I
heard of Christian Science, I visited the home of dear
Christian Science friends, and was at once refreshed
by their purity of thought and example. I bought
a copy of Science and Health, and, after studying it
a little while with the Bible, I saw that if the Bible
was true, Science and Health must also be true. I
began to demonstrate over my physical and mental
condition, and as soon as the fear and pain began
to leave me I felt encouraged to go on. I was healed,
and stopped complaining. I kept on studying our
textbook, and when I got an understanding in a
small degree of the Science of Mind, my first thought
was to help others. I was guided where I could pro-
673:1
gress in Science, and was no longer "carried about with
every wind of doctrine," but held to Principle as closely
as possible. From the time the healing came into my
consciousness, the desire for material remedies left me,
because Christian Science at once pointed out the way to
get at the cause of discord and disease. All that I had to
give up were the false beliefs of mortal mind. Christian
Science then taught me to love the church, and to appre-
ciate what it had already done for mankind. I often
thought of the old adage, "Charity begins at home,"
and after three years' preparation I felt able to take Chris-
tian Science to my home, where it found, in due time,
ready acceptance and willing disciples. This gave me
even greater joy than my own healing. The more good
I saw accomplished, the more love I had for the truth.
Christian Science changed my course from the first, and
gave me a nobler aim and purpose in life. I was not
so easily influenced by other people's shortcomings,
when I learned that evil has neither personality nor place.
I was not so ready to take offence, when I found out the
way to work unselfishly for the upbuilding of the Cause.
– A. E. J., Toledo, Ohio.
673:23
AN EVER-PRESENT HELP FOUND
673:24
On the 23rd of March, 1900, I received from one of my
daughters a copy of Science and Health on my seventy-first
birthday. Although a constant reader of all kinds of papers
and books, I had never heard anything of Christian Sci-
ence, except a short notice that spring in a San Francisco
newspaper, from an orthodox clergyman, referring to the
Christian Science people in not very complimentary style.
674:1
In Mrs. Eddy's book I came across a great deal of
thought that was not readily understood at the first read-
ing, but by continued and careful study, and a good deal
of help from my knowledge of chemistry and natu-
ral philosophy, I soon shook off the belief of sensation
in matter, – the so-called elementary substance. One
afternoon I put the belt on my circular saw to cut blocks
of firewood and also to split a small stick of frame tim-
ber. In doing this the stick closed and pinched the saw.
I picked up a small wooden wedge and tried to drive
it into the saw kerf, but a bit of ice let the stick on to the
back of the saw and instantly it flew, with heavy force,
into my face, and bouncing off my left cheek fell about
twenty feet off on the snow. The blood spattered on the
snow next the saw table, and on feeling with my hand
there were two wounds, one on the lock of the jaw and
another forward, as big as a dollar, on the cheek bone.
"Now," I thought to myself, "there is a case of surgery
for you," and without further ceremony, I began to
treat the case to the best of my knowledge, with the
result that the bleeding stopped almost instantly, and
so did a thumping pain, which had commenced. I
paid no more attention to the matter, but finished my
work, and then went to supper. When I washed my
face, I felt a big lump on the jawbone where the block
of wood struck, but after my usual reading I went to
bed and slept all night until near daylight, when a pain
on the right side awoke me. On feeling with my hand
there was another big lump on the right side, but I
treated it and went to sleep again. I never lost an
hour from the hurt, although I found out that my jaw
was broken. There is no scar, only a little red spot on
675:1
the cheek, and the lumps on the bone have long since
disappeared.
675:3
In summing up the benefits I have received from
the reading of Science and Health, I can but refer to
a condition of sickness dating back to the war (1862),
when chronic and malignant diarrhea came near
making an end of my material existence. My hearing,
also, was seriously impaired from the effect of cannon
firing at Shiloh, but it has come back to me, and where
I formerly dared not eat an orange, or grapes, I can now
eat anything without being hurt. My peace of mind
is giving me a rest which I never experienced before
during my life, and I have ceased to look away off for
the divine presence that was always near, though I did
not know it. – L. B., Baldy, N. M.
675:16
MANY PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TROUBLES OVERCOME
675:17
Less than a year ago, when nothing but trouble seemed
to encompass me, I was led to Christian Science. My
mother's copy of Science and Health was always lying
on the table, but I scarcely ever read it. One day, how-
ever, the mental conflict was so great I commenced read-
ing in the hope of obtaining peace. Every day since
then my companions have been the Bible and Science
and Health. At that time I had a very serious eruption
on my face, which had been there two years. We had
consulted several physicians, and used every remedy
suggested to eradicate it, but they proved useless. I
had given up all hopes of its ever being healed, as the
physician we last consulted pronounced it tuberculosis
of the skin and incurable. A few weeks after I com-
676:1
menced reading, I was amazed to see it almost healed
over, and to-day my cheek is perfectly smooth, while the
scar is disappearing.
676:4
In April my baby was born with only the practitioner
and a woman friend present. I suffered little pain, and
the third day I went down-stairs. I am able to nurse
him, – a privilege of which I was deprived with my first
child. He is a picture of health, having never been
sick a day since he was born. – K. E. W. L., Mt.
Dora, Fla.
676:11
A NEW LIFE GAINED
676:12
Leaving home when a young man, I carried with me
a protection against the temptation of a great city, – a
mother's prayers and a small Bible. For a time I read
the Bible and prayed, but without understanding. This
did not suffice, and evil seemed to gain the victory. I
soon omitted to read my Bible; forgot to go to God in
prayer for guidance and help, and looked to the world
for that which it never has and never can give, – health,
peace, and joy.
676:21
Thus, years later, when Christian Science came into
my home, it found me prayerless, churchless, godless;
a home discordant, and with no thought or knowledge
of spiritual things. Up to this time, my wife had for
years been seeking health through the physicians,
but without success, and as a last resort had been
sent to Christian Science. The help received was so
wonderful that I commenced the study of Science and
Health. The first effect which I realized from the
reading of our textbook, was a great love for the Bible
and a desire to read it, something which I had not done
677:1
for years. I went in silent prayer to God, that I might
see the light and truth which would enable me to be-
come a better man. "Ye must be born again." Thus
again, and as a child, was I taught to pray "the effectual
fervent prayer" which "availeth much." In a few
weeks' study of Science and Health together with the
Bible, and without other help, I was healed of a desire
for liquor, of years' standing, and of the use of tobacco.
Ten years have passed and these appetites have never
returned. I have never used either liquor or tobacco
in any form from that time to the present. Surely this
Scripture is fulfilled in our home: "Old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new." How can
we estimate the value of a book, the study of which brings
such transformation and regeneration? Only as we
endeavor to live, and strive to practise what it teaches,
can we begin to pay our debt to God, and to her whom
He has sent to make plain to human understanding the
life and teaching of Christ Jesus. – W. H. P., Boston,
Mass.
677:21
A VOICE FROM ENGLAND
677:22
For a number of years I was a weary woman, not ill
enough in health to, be called an invalid, but suffering
more than could be told with fatigue and weakness.
Feeling that this was God's will, I did not ask to be healed,
although I was constantly doctoring. I suffered with dys-
pepsia, congestion of the liver, and many other things,
including weak eyesight. With all the medicine, and
with different changes for rest, I never regained health,
and thought I never should, so I prayed for grace to bear
my cross patiently for others' sake. One day, while
678:1
lying on my couch exhausted, which had become a fre-
quent experience, the words came to me, "Whatsoever
ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." I
rose, knelt down and said, O God, make me well. I
was telling a friend this and she kindly gave me a Sen-
tinel. Imagine my joy when I saw the testimonies of heal-
ing! I believed them, remembering our Lord's words,
"Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have be-
lieved." I obtained a copy of Science and Health and
before a week had passed I realized that if God was my
all I needed no glasses. My eyes were healed in a few
days, and since then I have never thought of glasses.
I was also cured of dyspepsia, and nothing that I have
eaten has hurt me since then. The belief in health laws
was next destroyed, by knowing that our heavenly Father
did not make them, and from this has come the beautiful
experience of the overcoming of fatigue.
678:18
For this alone I can never be thankful enough. True
indeed are the words, "They shall run, and not be weary."
This was more than a year ago, and I can say that not
once have I felt inclined to lie on the couch, nor have I
had a headache, although I am doing more work than
ever before. Fear has also been overcome in many ways.
– A. L., Chelmsford, England.
678:25
DEPRAVED APPETITES OVERCOME
678:26
When Christian Science first came to me, or rather,
when I first came to Christian Science, I did not have
a very bad opinion of myself. I thought I was a pretty
good fellow. I had no religious views. I seemed to be
getting along as well as, if not better than, some who
679:1
professed Christianity. So I drifted along until I was
led to investigate Christian Science.
679:3
As I progressed in the understanding as gained from
the study of both Science and Health and the Bible,
and commenced to know myself, I found that a great
change had been wrought in me. For fifteen years I
had used tobacco, both chewing and smoking; for ten
years I had been a victim of the drink habit, sometimes
to excess; I was also addicted to profanity. Christian
Science removed these appetites. A stomach trouble
and other lesser ills, such as headache, a bad temper, an
inordinate love of money, etc., disappeared under the
same benign influence. Those things that seemed to be
pleasure do not give me pleasure now. They were not
real pleasure. I have lost nothing, I have sacrificed
nothing; but I have gained everything, and not yet the
whole, for I can see plenty yet to be done.
679:18
The condition of mind before investigating and after
is as different as black and white. As Mrs. Eddy
says, "Not matter, but Mind, satisfieth." – G. B. P.,
Henry, S. D.
679:22
CATARRH OF THE STOMACH HEALED
679:23
I should like to express my gratitude for the many
benefits I have received through Christian Science, and
to mention the great joy brought to me in the thought
that man is not the helpless victim of sin, disease, and
death. Through its teachings I have been able to over-
come many errors.
679:29
When Christian Science found me, one year ago
last April, in Chicago, I was suffering from catarrh
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