Regarding Mary Baker Eddy, Elizabeth Earl Jones,
The Mother Church & His Family
The following pages are shared reminiscences of R. Conwell Shoup with David Keyston covering the period from the 1890's to 1996. All accounts are rendered in Mr. Shoup's own words wherever possible to preserve the originality of the story being related.
A Little Background
You might be interested in my background as a Christian Scientist. My grandfather on my father's side came into Christian Science over 110 years ago. He was in the last stages of diabetes and given six weeks to live by several doctors about 1896, and so took a trip to meet with a business associate to prepare to die. This man told him there was a church down the street where people were healed.
He went to their Friday night service (in those days they met on Friday night instead of Wednesday for the testimonial meeting) and after the service asked an usher how he could get a healing. He was introduced to a C. S. practitioner and made a date for the next day for a treatment. The practitioner gave him one treatment, and told him to go to a fine restaurant he recommended and order a steak dinner. He had not been able to eat anything, except specially prepared food, without getting deathly sick, and he told the practitioner it would kill him. The practitioner told him he was healed and that he could enjoy a good meal. He did as the practitioner suggested and thoroughly enjoyed it and had no bad effects. He knew he was healed, and took the next train home and arrived early in the morning, waking the family with the words, "I am healed, I am healed!"
My mother's father was a medical doctor. His wife, my grandmother, had a large fibroid tumor that weighed 18 pounds. It made her an invalid for several years. She was healed of this by Mrs. Sue Harper Mims of Atlanta, who was Miss Elizabeth Earl Jones primary teacher, and Miss Jones was my teacher. This healing brought my mother's family into Science over 90 years ago. My mother was a practitioner for over 60 years. My grandfather could not give up his medical practice because that was all he knew, but he recommended Science to many when medicine didn't help. And when there was a bill pending in the Congress of the United States that would have limited our ability to use Christian Science treatment, he went to Washington as a doctor to testify before the Congressional Committee, and told of healings he had witnessed, that doctors had not been able to help. This bill was thrown out and was never passed. I believe my grandfather's testimony had a lot to do with defeating this bill.
Healing, Healing, Healing
I can tell you of some thrilling healings. I was born in New York but we moved to Atlanta in 1920 where my mother was born and lived until she married. However, when I was three years old my mother had to go to Atlanta from New York on some family business, and she of course took me with her. I was left at my grandfather's house with their maid of thirty years service. My grandfather, who was a doctor, came home and found me deathly sick and said I had all the symptoms of mercury poison. He looked in his medicine cabinet and found a brand new bottle of mercury tablets he had bought open and all gone but about one tablet. He said I had enough poison in me to kill a whole town of people, much less one little boy, and told my mother I had no chance to live now.
My grandfather knew that Christian Science heals, for his wife was healed of the fibroid tumor that had made her a bed-ridden invalid (mentioned previously), and he himself had been healed by C.S. treatment of a condition called "locomotor ataxia" also thought to be incurable, but he was sure nothing could heal this condition. My mother then decided she had to get me away from his thought and said she was going to take me home to New York. My grandfather said I could not stand the trip to the station much less all the way to New York. In those days there were no airplanes, and trains were the only means of transportation. My father met the train and the next day when I returned home, green poison poured out of me and I was instantly, completely healed. I wanted something to eat and I wanted to go out and play. I have been told that mercury is the most deadly poison there is. Incidentally my mother was visiting a girlhood friend while I was left with the maid mentioned above.
More Wonderful Healings
Now I am going to tell you about some remarkable healings that took place in our family. At the request of the Trustees of The Mother Church, our family moved to Boston and we lived there a whole year while my father completely reorganized the publishing house, (mentioned later on), and in so doing he saved them millions of dollars in the cost of their operation.
While living in Boston, my father became a close friend of John Randall Dunn, who was a Christian Science teacher and lecturer, whose lectures were so inspiring that they lifted you right out of a sense of materiality, and gave a sense of dominion over matter that is difficult to describe. Mr. Dunn was a wonderful help to our family as is related in the following testimony.
There is a healing that took place in our family concerning my brother, who was about four years younger than I. He was coming home from school on a bus one day. This was back in the 1920's when we lived in Atlanta, and this was a large bus with a door in the center for exiting. In those days buses did not have safety doors. As my brother was starting to exit through this center door, the bus driver did not see him and took off with the result that he was thrown out on the ground and one of his feet was crushed under the wheel of the bus. The driver did not know anything had happened. It was about a quarter of a block from the bus stop to our house and my brother hopped home on his good foot. It just happened that our grandfather was there visiting our mother. Grandfather was a doctor and he examined the foot and said it was so badly crushed it would have to be amputated. Mother asked her father to set the foot as best he could and said she would heal it through Christian Science treatment. He said there was not much he could do but he would do his best. Now it just happened that John Randall Dunn came to Atlanta to give a lecture. By that time the foot had healed so that my brother could walk on it, but with a bad limp. We were all riding in our car with Mr. Dunn. He asked what was the matter with my brother and why was he limping so badly? We told him the story of what had happened and Mr. Dunn then said to my brother in a very positive and strong voice: "Francis, don't you know that God made man Up Right?" Immediately there was a loud popping sound in the foot and just as immediately the foot was completely healed.
I also remember when there was a very heavy snowstorm that left several feet of snow on the ground. My mother was walking out of the house for some purpose and she had to walk on top of the snow. As she was walking the crust of the snow gave way suddenly under her feet and threw her down so that the upper part of her leg was badly broken. This condition was healed in less than a week. I have told you before my mother was a practitioner for over 60 years.
Demonstrations At Work
This next story happened over fifty years ago. I had a job with a toy jobber selling toys to retail stores. A toy buyer who was a friend of mine asked me if I would be interested in forming a partnership with him to become what is called a manufacturer's representative to sell toys to toy jobbers and large chain stores. We then drove to New York to go to the toy fair, which is a toy show held every year where the toy manufacturers show all of their wares each year and the toy buyers all over the country go to buy the latest toys for the coming year. As a toy buyer my friend had contact with many of these companies. When we got to New York we took a hotel room with two beds, but my friend instead of going to sleep kept walking around the room saying: "I wonder if we can get [this line] or [that line]," mentioning different manufacturers we had planned to contact. I finally got tired of hearing all of this and said to him: "Jack, there is something in the Bible about lines and I believe I can find it for you." I then turned to the Bible that was in the room and found it in Psalms 16 and read to him: "the lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea I have a goodly heritage." Then I said to him: "Go to bed. God will take care of everything for us."
The next day we got the company that made Scrabble and several other fine games, and before we left New York we got twenty other good lines and had to turn some down. We made over $100,000 our first year from Scrabble alone. Also we were the only ones they hired as manufacturers representatives. In all the rest of the country they put men on salary and expenses, who made only an average income. Everywhere I went my competitive salesmen would say to me: "You are the luckiest man I know. How did you start off with so many good lines."
I want to tell you of what was probably the most remarkable experience that I ever had. When I was transferred to Nashville, Tennessee from Atlanta, I was given the territory from east of the Mississippi River to Knoxville. I hired and trained a man to take over the Knoxville part of the territory and a little afterward I went to Knoxville to give him some more training.
The last day I was there I took him to dinner and sometime after 7:30 p.m. I left him to drive to Nashville. Just as I got to the outskirts of Knoxville I had a strong feeling that something terrible was about to happen and, as I have never ignored any intuition that has come to me, I pulled over to one side of the road and worked metaphysically on protection and safety, until I felt completely safe. I then drove on to Nashville. As I got there I turned on my car radio and heard the theme song for Amos and Andy just coming on and realized that I had been only about one and a half hours getting from Knoxville to Nashville.
Now it is two hundred miles of driving between Knoxville and Nashville, and in those days it was a single-lane highway each way and full of curves and in places somewhat mountainous. Such a thing is absolutely impossible but it happened to me. I can't explain it but can just tell you about it. Incidentally Amos and Andy was a very popular radio program at that time. I just had to tell this story. This was in the days before there was any television, and people listened to radio a great deal more than they do now. On page 90 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy has written: "Divest yourself of the thought there can be substance in matter, and the movements and transitions now possible for mortal mind will be found equally possible for the body."
So Much To Be Grateful For!
I remember a couple of healings, one of which involved Mrs. Eddy that I will relate later on. The first healing took place in Nashville, Tennessee, when my son was about 3 or 4 years old. It was a bitter cold morning, and we were preparing to drive to church where I taught Sunday School. Sunday school was at 9:30 and church at 11:00, and I always took our son and myself to Sunday School and then returned to pick up my wife and take her to church. I got in my car and opened the right front door to let our son in, and saw him coming. He then stopped and started back as my wife said something to him. It was bitter cold and the door of my car had been sprung a little as I had to slam it hard to close it. I reached over and closed the door because I thought my son had turned back, but he came on and I slammed the door on his right hand as he was pulling himself into the car. He began crying at the top of his voice and his fingers began to swell all crooked. I picked him up and began treatment for him when I remembered something Mrs. Eddy had said, when a member of her household had fallen and cut his face open from the eye to the chin on a meathook. It was: "Truth can work just as quickly as error," and I declared this out loud to my son. He stopped crying at once, and his fingers went back to normal. We were not even late for Sunday School. That afternoon we went over to his grandmother's and we told her about getting his fingers caught in the door and held up the other hand to show her, illustrating how complete the healing had been.
My Father As A Practitioner
I will tell you about a healing my father performed. He had a patient who kept raving to her husband what a wonderful practitioner my father was. Her husband was not a Christian Scientist. Her husband said one day to his wife: "If he is so good I know someone I want to see him heal."
It turned out to be a veteran of World War I whose hip had been shattered by shrapnel and was laid up in the Veteran's Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. He said the pain was so intense an average person couldn't stand it but over several years he became inured to it. He was given daily doses of morphine to help ease the pain and had become addicted to the drug.
My father took the case and in one treatment healed him of his pain and his addiction to morphine. In about a week he was able to get out of bed but had to be lifted to get around. In about two weeks he was coming to church, but had to be carried in and out. A van of some type brought him to church from the Veteran's Hospital. Two weeks later he was walking to church. The doctors had called the disease which had settled in his hip "Tuberculosis of the Hip." All of this was healed.
Elizabeth Earl Jones, C.S.B.
I had the privilege of going through Elizabeth Earl Jones, C.S.B.'s first class, which was in 1941. Before she was made a teacher she addressed the Foster Association in Birmingham, Alabama for several years, and after doing this she would spend about a week at our home in Atlanta before returning to Asheville, NC. While visiting in our home, Miss Jones and my parents had deep discussions of Christian Science, most of which I had the privilege of listening to. When I decided it was time for me to go through class, I discovered Miss Jones had just been made a teacher so I, of course, applied to her for class instruction. I wanted to be sure my teacher had a correct understanding of Mrs. Eddy's place in Bible prophecy. I knew Miss Jones was very clear about this. (In later years it has been my privilege to address our Association three times.)
This prophecy is in Revelation, chapter 12:1, "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." Mrs. Eddy quotes this passage from Revelation in Science and Health on page 560 and she writes: "Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science interprets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and the grand necessity of existence is to gain the true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of anyone whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again, without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can never understand the divine Principle." Also verses 2 through 6, refer to this "woman." And, verse 10 says; "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ...."
On page 117:29-10 Mrs. Eddy writes: "Jesus bade his disciples to beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadduccees, which he defined as human doctrines. His parable of the 'leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened' impels the inference that the spiritual leaven signifies the Science of Christ and its spiritual interpretation, an inference far above the merely ecclesiastical and formal applications of the illustration. Did not this parable point a moral with a prophecy, foretelling the second appearing in the flesh of the Christ, Truth, hidden in sacred secrecy from the visible world?" Mrs. Eddy defines the three measures of meal as three modes of mortal thought.
World War I
There is an interesting story I would like to relate concerning my teacher, Miss Elizabeth Earl Jones, C.S.B. She was living in Boston at the time, which was during the year that our family was there when my father was reorganizing the Publishing House.
World War I had started and one of Miss Jones' patients was an English noblewoman. At this time the German submarines were sinking any Allied ships that attempted to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
The story about Miss Jones began when one morning she woke up and started singing over and over again: "I'll do what you want me to do dear Lord, I'll go where you want me to go." She just couldn't stop singing this verse.
The English noblewoman I mentioned above found that there was one last ship leaving for England, and it was to be accompanied by American warships to ensure its safe passage. She told Miss Jones that she had to leave that day for New York to get this last possible chance to return home or she would have to remain until after the war. Then she suggested to Miss Jones that she should accompany her to England. Mrs. Jones said she couldn't possibly do this, but then remembered that she had been singing all morning, "I'll do what you want me to do dear Lord. I'll go where you want me to go," so she called a friend who was a Senator from North Carolina, where her home was, and asked him to get her a visa to go to England. When they got to New York, her visa wasn't there. The Englishwoman asked what she was going to do. She said if God wanted her to go to England, He would provide the way and she boarded the ship.
The ship began to take off, and just then a tug boat approached the ship and a man with a large megaphone called and said, "Is there an Elizabeth Earl Jones aboard?" She got her visa, and continued her journey. An interesting thing further about this is, that while in England, Miss Jones only took for patients wounded or injured U. S. Soldiers, and although some were severely wounded she never lost one case.
My Father & The Mother Church
About the year 1915 my father sold the C. S. publishing house equipment that automatically folded, wrapped, and addressed the C. S. Monitor for mailing. He also sold similar equipment to other major newspapers such as the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the Boston Herald, and others. His company normally sent a man to install this equipment and train a man to operate it, but in the case of the Monitor my father decided to do this himself. In working with the publishing house he discovered that they were wasting large sums of money in their operation. At that time the Trustees had complete control of the operation of the publishing house, as it was before the litigation between the directors and the trustees. He found many places where they were wasting money and made suggestions to correct these. The result was that they asked my father to take a year's leave of absence and to completely reorganize the publishing house. So, our whole family moved to Boston and rented a home there for a year while my father reorganized the publishing house.
At that time there were a number of people living in Boston who had lived in Mrs. Eddy's home and/or had been taught by our dear Leader. My parents became good friends with them and got to know these people very well. They all told my parents that Mrs. Eddy considered herself to be the "woman in the apocalypse," a common view then, but disparaged by the ecclesiasticism of the church today.
I forgot to mention that my father saved the publishing house millions of dollars in their operation and was offered the position of Manager of the Publishing House, and to name his own salary.
Up until about 50 to 55 years ago every Christian Scientist that I knew understood Mrs. Eddy's place. Then suddenly many of my Christian Science friends began saying to me that anyone could have discovered Christian Science, that even "You could have discovered Christian Science." I always replied, "Only Mrs. Eddy could have discovered Christian Science." Most of these were my best friends, but after I replied as I did they would have nothing to do with me. They also stated, "God did not know Jesus or Mary Baker Eddy," and, "Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. Therefore man is equal to God."
On page 46 of Miscell. Wri., Mrs. Eddy writes:
DO YOU TEACH THAT YOU ARE EQUAL WITH GOD?
A reader of my writings would not present this question. There are no such indications in the premises or conclusions of Christian Science, and such a misconception of Truth is not scientific. Man is not equal to his Maker; that which is formed is not cause, but effect, and has no power underived from its creator.
These friends also stated that, "The only evil or error there is, is that error that is in your mind or consciousness." To answer this. Mrs. Eddy has written in Ret. and Intro., page 67, under the title of "THE HUMAN CONCEPT," that, "Sin existed as a false claim before the human concept of sin was formed; hence one's concept of error is not the whole of error," etc.
Up until this time our movement had grown rapidly, but it was at this time it started to regress from its rapid growth. I always believed that the person or persons who started all this was a plant to destroy our religion.
"Mrs. Eddy's Place"
I have always believed that the reason Christian Science has not grown so that all Christians would have the understanding of what God is, and of what man is as His image and likeness, as taught in Christian Science is, due to the fact that most Christian Scientists do not have the right concept of Mrs. Eddy and her God-ordained place. In 1943, after five years of researching the archives of the Mother Church, the "committee of editors," as it was known, gave the Board of Directors 57 pages of typewritten copy of what Mrs. Eddy had written about herself, and, as you know, this was synthesized into an article containing six points relative to her place in prophecy and first published in the Christian Science Sentinel of June 5th, 1943 and in the July Journal of the same year. The pamphlet called "Mrs. Eddy's Place," was available for sale in our Reading Rooms. I cannot tell this story without telling you that my father was the one responsible for getting the Board of Directors to form and appoint the six members that made up this committee.
This is how it came about. We had moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1920 and after a time my father became First Reader. Then the reader that followed him refused to have one of Mrs. Eddy's hymns the first Sunday of each month. In the meantime my father had become chairman of the board of his church and he told the First Reader he had to have one of Mrs. Eddy's hymns each Sunday. He refused to do so, saying it was making too much over Mrs. Eddy to have to read the Rule for Motives and Acts and use her name as author, and then do it again a second time with one of her hymns.
I forgot to mention that my father was also Committee on Publication for Georgia during this time. So, for some reason, he decided to go to Boston to talk to the Directors about this as he knew them all personally from his earlier experiences in Boston. He made appointments with and spoke to every member of the Board and suggested that they form a committee to search the archives of the Mother Church to find out just what Mrs. Eddy thought herself to be. As you know they formed a committee of six members, three of which believed that Mrs. Eddy was "the woman," and three who were very much opposed to this view of her. After several years of research and study of the archives all six members of this committee were thoroughly convinced that Mrs. Eddy did consider herself "the woman."
Now to clear up one other matter. My father did not take the position as manager of the Publishing House, because he supported the Directors, and the Trustees had hired him and offered this position. Actually, I only assumed this. It was some time before the litigation that he was offered this position, and it could very well have been another reason altogether. My father was Committe on Publication for Georgia and would have been made a teacher and would have made one of the best lecturers ever, as he was the most dynamic speaker I ever heard talk. He was selected to be a teacher, but passed on before he could accept his appointment. He never returned from his trip to Boston after he persuaded the Directors to form the "Committee of Editors." (The committee formed to search the Archives to determine how Mrs. Eddy viewed herself in regard to her fulfillment of biblical prophecy, most particularly the prophecy regarding the Woman of the Apocalypse.) He was murdered. He was only 52 and had always been in excellent health.
On their way back from Boston my parents stopped in New York to see my mother's brother. He was an inventor who developed the first colored TV and the first sound movies. My father developed a carbuncle on his neck about the time he was in Boston and when my uncle saw him he told my father he had a machine that would zap it right away in a short time. My mother was with him and she told me a doctor was called to operate the machine. My mother said the doctor seemed to deliberately hurt my father. The net result was that the poison from the carbuncle all discharged into my father's system. This was mental poison from the enemies of Christian Science.
Remember, what my father had done on his trip to Boston would immortalize Mrs. Eddy. It was destined to bring forth the six points contained in the leaflet entitled, "Mrs. Eddy's Place," which set forth our Leaders place in history and scriptural prophecy for all time. This was published by the Christian Science Publishing Society, in the Sentinel and the July, 1943 issue of The Christian Science Journal, as the official position of The Mother Church regarding our beloved Leader's place in history and prophecy. My father worked valiantly, heroically, to overcome the effects of this mental poison but was unable to do so and passed on while on his way back to Atlanta.
I have always felt that my father gave his life for his Leader, in revealing to all mankind the truth about her. I found out later that the uncle was a student of occultism and very opposed to Christian Science. (This is illustrative of the dragon's hatred of the Truth, the truth my father caused to be set forth regarding Mrs. Eddy.)
Bliss Knapp's Destiny of The Mother Church
When Bliss Knapp's book, Destiny of The Mother Church, was published, there were many Christian Science churches that refused to have it available in their reading rooms, because they thought it was incorrect in its portrayal of Mrs. Eddy. Some even said it deified her. In the church of which I am a member, we had a meeting to decide this matter of having "Destiny" available and there was much opposition to the book by our members. I spoke up and told our members how Bliss Knapp's parents had been so helpful to Mrs. Eddy in getting our Movement started in the very early days.
Mrs. Eddy appointed Ira and Flavia Knapp as "First Members" which preceded the Board of Directors as our first governing body, and she made Ira Knapp the first chairman of the Board of Directors when they took over. She also appointed Bliss Knapp a lecturer when he was quite young.
When the voting took place the book was approved by a two-thirds majority. Later several members told me they had come to the meeting prepared to vote against this and what I told them changed their minds. The main objection to publishing the book was that by doing so The Mother Church would get a large amount of money from the Maybury estate, the receipt of which was contingent upon doing this.
A Knapp student, a good friend of mine, told me that Mr. Knapp had told his association that they would publish his book because they would need the money.
More Grateful Demonstrations!
I have always lived a very healthy life. However, about two years ago I had an experience when a young man in a parking garage ran over me and severely injured me while I was walking to my car. I was unable to walk after this accident and the next day found I could not raise my right arm above my belt. His bumper hit my right leg and his hood hit my right shoulder.
The young man told me he had $100,000 insurance and hoped that would be enough to take care of my expenses. A security guard in the garage took me to my car and said they had insurance to cover any accident. I told both of them I was not the suing kind and not to worry. I knew that if I took this route (to sue the young man) that I could not demonstrate over the problem, and my health was more important to me than money.
When I got home I hopped into my house on my good leg and went to work to heal the situation. To make a long story short I was playing golf five days afterward. I did not call a practitioner for help, but did my own work. I held to the fact that I could never be outside of divine Mind, and that as an idea in Mind, I could only be what God, Mind knew about me, and that as God, Mind, is everywhere, I was never outside that Mind, or manifesting anything except what Mind knew about Himself. Man is the embodiment of God, good. He is the expression or evidence of what God is, so man must manifest His qualities.
I also remember a healing my sister had. She fell down a staircase in our home and knocked the eye out of it's socket. My parents replaced the eye and with Christian Science treatment by them, her eye and eyesight were restored to normal.
The Carpenters
Our family was close to Gilbert Carpenter, Jr. and Sr. We visited their home in Providence, R. I. and "Gibby," Gilbert Jr., came down to Atlanta to our home one time. The story of how we got to know the Carpenters is quite interesting.
My father had to go to Washington, D. C., on business. It was during the Great Depression. We went to a Christian Science Reading Room and asked if there was a Scientist who had a room to rent. We were sent to a home and while there were told that there was a book in the Library of Congress that was written by someone who had lived in Mrs. Eddy's home and was full of deep Science which Mrs. Eddy had given to one of her students. We went there and found the book, "Notes on the Course in Divinity," that were taken by Lida Fitzpatrick while she was in Mrs. Eddy's home. My dad and I began to copy it in longhand when the curator came up to us and told us that there was a Gilbert Carpenter in Providence R. I., and that we could obtain the book from him. My father got in touch with Gibby and ordered the book. It had only 60 pages and he paid over $300 for it. We later went to Providence several times over the years to see the Carpenters. The rest of the books were reasonably priced and he even gave us a couple of his books at one time.
The book, "Notes on the Course in Divinity," was later included in the book, "Divinity Course and General Collectanea," and published by Richard Oakes, with the blessing of the Carpenters. (Known as the "Blue Book." Available from our online store above.
Our Beloved Leader
Now for the healing including Mrs. Eddy. My father and mother went through class with Norman John in Wilmington, Delaware. I believe it was in 1911. Mr. John called my parents on the phone one day and asked if they could come to Wilmington for something special and to come at once. So, they left their apartment as it was and went to Wilmington hurriedly. They did not take time to clean or straighten up the apartment. When they got to Wilmington, Mr. John asked my father to do something that my father did not think was according to Principle. I have no idea what it was, except some kind of a manipulation. My father refused Mr. John's request and my parents returned home to New York.
When my father got home he suddenly fell on the floor and was shaking violently and could not control himself. My mother was screaming the Truth at the top of her lungs, but my father didn't get any better, rather he got worse. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, Mrs. Eddy appeared, and said, "Evil, error, cannot harm, rob, cheat or defraud you," and my father was instantly, completely healed. (Mrs. Eddy had passed on just several months previous to this.) My mother said to Mrs. Eddy, "Won't you sit down and stay awhile?" Mrs. Eddy replied that she could not stay where there was so much confusion, and disappeared. (Remember, my parents had left for Wilmington in a hurry and had not straightened their apartment.)
One More Healing
I will tell you of one more healing. I had moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1939, as I had been promoted to a better job there. After I had been there a couple of months, a friend I had met at church suggested to me that he would get a couple of girls to go with us to a very popular night club in Nashville. We did so and one of the girls especially appealed to me. I made a date with her for the next night and we then dated regularly.
She was then a student of Unity and had just gone to their headquarters to take what was similar to our taking class instruction. On each date we argued over religion, and I could never convince her to study Christian Science or even to go to our church. She was important at that time to her Unity group.
One night we went to a very popular roller skating rink. It was a Friday. As we were skating a young boy crossed in front of us and to keep from running into him, I had to push my partner over and in doing so pushed her into the rail surrounding the rink. She didn't say anything at the time, but the next day I called her and she said she had three broken ribs and the worst headache she had ever had. She said, "You have been telling me about Christian Science, do you think you can help me?" This was Saturday. (In those days everyone worked six days a week.) I had a secretary whom I told not to interrupt me unless it was an emergency, and I got to work to heal my friend. After about an hour, I called her and asked her how she was doing and she said: "My headache is all gone, I feel fine." I then asked her about her ribs and she said, "I'm hitting on them and I can't feel anything." That night we had a date and the first thing she said to me was: "I want to join your church tomorrow." I said, "You can't. You have to attend six months before you can join." You never saw such disappointment on a face before! She joined our church as soon as it was possible and the amazing thing which happened after that was that later 18 members of Unity, started coming to our church and became active members in time. They told me if she found Christian Science to be the right religion-and they had seen her healing-that convinced them.
Oh, I ended up marrying the girl and we had 50 years of a perfect marriage-absolutely perfect-just heaven. We never had a cross word or argument during our entire marriage. We both liked doing the same things and we both loved Christian Science.
Finis
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