Christian Science in Germany
Seal, Frances Thurber. Christian Science in Germany. New York: Bond Printing & Publishing, (1931) 1977.
This 1931 first-hand account of Seal’s missionary work in Germany begins with her introduction to Christian Science and concludes with her conviction that her work was complete, nine years later. Her father had been a missionary, but she was never satisfied with her father’s God. After finding in Christian Science the God she could love, she was healed of “a serious disease of the stomach” (12). She felt she had found true Christ healing and took the course in healing. Less than a year later, her Christian Science teacher Laura Lathrop, called on her to take Christian Science to Germany. With no funding, knowledge of German, or prior contacts, but only the certainty that God had sent her, she went to Dresden. People found her through the publicity of her healing works and by word of mouth. Seal had one occasion to return to the States and was able to take the teaching course directly from Mary Baker Eddy. Upon her return to Germany, she established churches and taught others to heal. Several of her cases attracted considerable attention, and clergy began to resist her mission. For eight months, she was mercilessly persecuted, with the police evicting her every few days. During that period, “every case was healed,” she reports (68).
ISBN-10: 0930227514
ISBN-13: 978-0930227517