I first heard of Christian Science about three years ago, through the marvelous—as it appeared to me— healing of a claim of rheumatism in the mother of a friend of mine. Being the mother of four children, girls nine and six years old, and a pair of twins—boy and girl —three years old, I was naturally interested on their account, especially as our family had had some experience with illnesses and accidents, and with physicians and drugs. I had attended perhaps two or three of the services at the Christian Science Church, when the first opportunity presented itself to test Christian Science methods.
My daughter, six years old, while out playing in a neighbor's garden had eaten a large quantity of castor oil beans, which so severely poisoned her that she was thrown into convulsions. I was so badly frightened and as yet so wedded to the old way, that we sent for a physician. He gave her some medicine and called four times in twenty-four hours, but she seemed to be steadily getting worse; the medicine did not stay on her stomach, and her frantic appeals for water to drink were, by the doctor's orders, only yielded to once an hour in small doses. To mortal sense my dear one was passing away, and in this hour of sorest need I thought again of Christian Science, and I sent for the First Reader of the little Christian Science Church. Awaiting her coming, I sat beside the bed of the little sufferer, who was in convulsions and screaming with pain, my heart with anguish torn, when of a sudden she ceased her violence and I heard the sweetest, softest humming, and as I looked at her I saw that the expression of her face had completely changed; her cry of pain had changed to a soft, bird-like utterance. I hardly knew how to interpret this transformation. I did not then understand the portent of this change, but when the healer arrived I then knew that the demonstration had been made before she reached the house, and that my child was saved. I shall never forget the difference in the methods of treatment as it then appealed to me. The Christian Science healer began to talk to the child. My daughter said the pain was all gone, and when she again asked for water, the healer said, to give her all the water she wanted. She was up and about the next day.
In about two weeks after the above event, the dreaded disease, croup, made its appearance. Strange as it now seems to us, it is a fact, that we actually looked for it in our family. The children had had it several times and we expected it as we expected our breakfast. Well, we were not disappointed. My little twin daughter was down with it this time. The symptoms were unmistakable, we knew only too well the old familiar doglike bark. With a childlike trust in the love of our Father for His children, I essayed to meet this claim myself, and in ten or fifteen minutes she sweetly slept. It went away so marvelously that I could hardly understand that my simple faith in God had wrought the change. The next day I sought my teacher to get an explanation, and I well remember the tears that welled up to her eyes when she said that God did it in answer to my childlike, trustful understanding of His power and love.
