Testimonies of Healing

When I was fifteen years old, I became converted at a revival meeting, and soon after joined the Presbyterian Church. A few months later, leaving the town in which I was then living, I moved to Kansas City and joined the First Congregational Church of that city.

When my attention was first drawn to Christian Science, I was in a very bad condition physically, having had a severe bladder trouble the greater part of my life which caused me untold misery, having also the very nervous, irritable disposition which generally accompanies such a condition. I was addicted to the use of profanity and used tobacco to excess.

I have already given testimony to my thankfulness for physical healing after twenty years of seemingly unbearable and incurable invalidism, but that freedom is as nothing compared to the spiritual uplifting and the interpretation given thereby to that dearest and best of books—the Bible. I was always a Bible student, joining the church when but ten years of age and feeling that every Christian must read and love their Bible, but as I reached the age of fourteen, sixteen, and eighteen, I became confused, and filled with doubts at the apparent contradictions found from Genesis to Revelation.

Nine years ago I was under that terrible cloud of suffering and despondency, that only those know who have tried every remedy that their kind physicians can suggest, not only without relief, but without further expectation of receiving any, having lost faith in drugs as a healing agency. To my sense, God had not answered my prayers, for I had prayed daily for years, that my suffering might cease, without its ever occurring to me that the healing would come through other than material means.

It is five years since we first heard anything about Christian Science, except the name, and had supposed it was only some kind of mind healing and never once dreamed of what it really is. We learned of it through a dear relative who had been, as it seemed to us, wonderfully healed after being an invalid for several years.

In May, 1892, I first read Science and Health. For three years previous to that time I was an invalid.

I have thought for a long time that I would write and tell you how wonderfully Christian Science sustained me in a trying hour. I was in the cyclone at Kirksville, Mo.

It is now four years since we began our investigation of Christian Science. It was through the healing of a neighbor who had suffered many years from different diseases and for five years had been an invalid.

When I came to Christian Science for healing, three years ago, I had been an invalid many years, being confined to a wheel-chair some of the time. I had been treated by many physicians; I had been in the Battle Creek, Mich.

I was brought into Science by being healed of inflammatory rheumatism in June, 1899. I will relate in part my experience, hoping it will help others.