“… great sense of joy in the healing work”
/Yes. As a result of re-reading Century – and I re-read it twice – I felt a sense of heightened expectancy/certainty of healing results from prayer, and, very importantly, a great sense of joy in the healing work.
. It was hard to choose just two favorite accounts, but two which really spoke to me were Richard Knox Lee’s account (p. 80), and the account from Captain Arthur G. Cross. (p. 131)
Richard Knox Lee’s prayer, before he was introduced to Christian Science, was to a God who he knew not at all, but of whom he asked to be given another chance to live and do some good in the world. This prayer really resonated with me. I am sure that there are many today who are seeking such a God and are so ready for the cup of cold water. His account of how the practitioner went straight to his thought to set it right; the description of the elements of her treatment which resulted in him losing his fear of death; his subsequent complete restoration to perfect health and his reward of “a wonderful happy and hard-working life” was inspiring. When I was 21, I went to see my teacher and told him that I wanted to be a Christian Science practitioner. I have been seeking to learn what is required of a practitioner and to understand how to do better healing work ever since! I know I have made progress and am looking for more.
Captain Cross’s description of the way he resolved the case of the totally uncooperative prisoner in his charge by going into his cell with such a strong sense of love and seeing him only as the son of God is a method of treatment which is speaking increasingly loudly to me.
I remembered again a landmark healing I had in my late 20s when I was working in London. Throughout my childhood I seemed to have been plagued with very regular incapacitating headaches. Despite my mother’s and various practitioner’s assistance, I had not been healed even once. Struggling again with great discomfort I went into the Reading Room on London Wall at lunch time and just sat in an armchair insisting, from the Daily Prayer, that since Truth reigned in me, nothing could be true about me if it wasn’t true about God. I was there for between one and two hours, working with total conviction with this single truth. Eventually the librarian tapped me on the shoulder informing me that it was two o’clock and maybe I needed to go back to work. I went, and a short time later, the pain just dissolved, and I was free for the first time ever. It was a clear proof that “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.”
I think what I want to do differently as a result of the inspiration gained from reading Century is really summed up in two points: always holding an utter conviction of God’s goodness, presence, total care, and provision for all His creation; and endeavoring to reach and maintain the spiritual attitude of thought which refuses to believe that anyone is living in the dream of life in matter, but all are known to be the perfect blessed children of God. This will require praying without ceasing and constant deep dives into all “the books.”