Testimonies of Healing
I would like to give, in a few words, my experience and that of my family since coming into Christian Science. We had our first experience with it about seven and a half years ago.
For over four years I have owed a very large debt of gratitude to Christian Science, and aside from having spoken several times at testimonial meetings, I have made no public acknowledgment of my indebtedness. Ruskin says that "every duty omitted obscures some truth we should know.
For seventeen years I was an invalid, caused by the birth of my child. Eleven years of this time I could not walk, and had to be lifted from the bed to the chair.
One cold, rainy day, January 20, 1897, an old gentleman about seventy-two years of age, entered my store to have his spectacles repaired. The first I said to him was, "How dare you venture out in such a bad day?" he replied, "I have no fear of weather," and added, "I am trying to live the life of a Christian Scientist; but am very young in Science yet.
I have been a constant sufferer from a claim of rheumatism for forty years, of late years scarcely able to get up when down. At times I could not lift my hand to my head, being in constant pain, with swollen limbs and joints most unsightly.
The year of the World's Fair I met with a very painful accident at the Art Institute, spraining my ankle, and being bruised in several places. Christian Science healed me so that within two weeks I was out at the Fair, walking around for hours, and with no discomfort whatever from my ankle.
Three years ago, when going through mental and financial distress, I happened upon Christian Science, and while I had been brought up in the Jewish faith I found that it was not an ever-present help in time of trouble and need. I took Christian Science treatment and began to read the literature, and soon to attend services.
I was born of Quaker parentage, and taught to speak when the Spirit moved me. Surely the Spirit of the Lord is upon me at this moment, to tell to all the world what the teaching of Christian Science is doing for me.
A stanza in our Hymnal,— For we must share if we would keep That blessing from above: Ceasing to give we cease to have, Such is the law of love, reminds me that I have not shared the benefits I have received from Christian Science, and that, "It is more blessed to give than to receive. " Last July I was stricken down with a violent case of typhoid fever.
Six years ago I was healed of a severe stomach trouble, which I had tried in vain for two years to get relief from through medicine. Three years later, through the study of the Bible Lessons as given in the Quarterly, it began to dawn on my consciousness that Christian Science is the religion of Jesus Christ; and that it can be proved by its works.