A sickbed promise to God precedes a revolutionary new approach to health and healing

Have you ever found yourself in an extreme situation and made a promise to God? For example: "If you will help me out of this one, I swear I will..." A woman once described a time in her mid-thirties when she was confined to bed with a long and severe illness. Several physicians attempted in vain to cure her. She tried every remedy she knew of, without success. In her extremity, she promised God that if He would restore her, she would devote her remaining years helping sick and suffering humanity. She did recover and her vow was never forgotten.

Immediately after this healing, the woman took up earnest study of the New Testament. She saw that Christ Jesus expected his healings of sickness and sin should be copied by his followers and that his same methods should be employed. Ultimately, she concluded that the means he employed was of Spirit, that is, of God, and that the only true method of healing must be the spiritual method.

The woman later explained that this was in her thought when in 1866 she took a bad fall, resulting in what her doctor would diagnose as a possible spinal dislocation and concussion. Three days later, still in a bad way, she was confined to bed with pain and unable to walk. She asked for her Bible and read one of Jesus’ healing accounts. She prayed for herself and immediately left her bed, healed, shocking the doctor and friends in attendance.

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This healing marked a moment of discovery - that Spirit, or God, is not simply an aid to healing, but that God is the only true healer on any case. Her discovery didn’t yet have an explanation. But, the miracles recorded in the Bible, which had before seemed supernatural to her, she now saw as natural and repeatable.

She glimpsed in Christ Jesus’ teachings and healing, as well as in the miracles of patriarchs and prophets, disciples and apostles, the operation of a divine law of God relative to health and healing. Thus began a deeper research in the Bible for the method of the Christian science that explains the divine laws of healing and how to practice them.

Although she later would recall this period of discovery as “sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope,” it was accompanied by a definite focus and urgency.

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"I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and demonstration." (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, 109)

Nine years later, Mary Baker Glover (later, after remarriage, to be known as Mary Baker G. Eddy) published  her first edition of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures - her explanation of the divine Principle of healing and the method of Christian Science prayer. Science and Health is the textbook of Christian healing in its modern form. Rooted in Scripture, Science and Health was written, revised, and its method was fully tested over 44 years of Mrs. Eddy’s personal research and practice. Science and Health explains how Jesus healed and how we can, too.

"After a lengthy examination of my discovery and its demonstration in healing the sick, this fact became evident to me, — that Mind governs the body, not partially but wholly. I submitted my metaphysical system of treating disease to the broadest practical tests. Since then this system has gradually gained ground, and has proved itself, whenever scientifically employed, to be the most effective curative agent in medical practice."(ibid,111)

_That took some nerve to write.  And one might say it takes some nerve to say today. But she wrote from experience.

Here is a partial list of conditions healed by Mary Baker G. Eddy in her early practice of Christian Science: Abscessed eye, dumbness, boils, nervous breakdown, cancerous growths, emaciation, lameness, mental disability, heart disease, insanity, enteritis, bowel obstruction, consumption, tuberculosis, infected wounds, paralysis, membranous croup, cataracts, crossed eyes, diphtheria, hernia, asthma, childbirth complications, blindness and deafness.

Christian Science lays down the law, the divine and permanent law relative to healing the sick and maintaining good health. Christian Science is an explanation and a practice rooted in experience. It is a Science built on proof of its underlying divine Principle.

The evidence of Christian Science is older than time, even if the full explanation of it has a relatively short human history. To understand its modern day roots, we can look to the life and ideas of the one who discovered it in 1866 - a woman who made a promise to God that if He would restore her, she would devote her remaining years helping sick and suffering humanity - American religious and health reformer, Mary Baker Eddy.

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"When you tell God you’ll do something, do it—now. God takes no pleasure in foolish gabble. Vow it, then do it."         (Ecclesiastes 5: 4 The Message)

For more information on this remarkable woman, you may wish to visit the online resources of The Mary Baker Eddy Library for the Betterment of Humanity. Located in Boston, USA, this library opened in 2002 as a place for people to explore the life, ideas, and achievements of Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910). The Library and museum provides educational experiences, programs, and exhibits featuring the Mapparium®, the Hall of Ideas®, and the Quest Gallery. The Library also offers user-friendly access to its vast collections through Research and Reference Services. As its primary resource, the Library’s collections include one of the largest collections by and about an American woman. (The above-mentioned story is recounted in archival document A11051 located in the library.)

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