It is not necessary for me to tell my old friends and acquaintances how great has been my deliverance from sickness and suffering, but I always have to tell them that it was through Christian Science that I recovered my health.
I was miserable for ten years. Among my many ills I had one which all the physicians whom I consulted said was incurable. Through this trouble I was a great sufferer, being confined to my bed from a week to ten days at a time in great agony, feeling that I could not recover. After each attack, I looked like one who had passed through a long siege of fever or severe sickness, and it took me a long time to gain enough strength to care to take up life again. When I did, it was only to over-do and be thrown back into the power of this claim; and this was the way in which my life was spent.
I became very much discouraged, although my physician tried to give encouragement by assuring me that while the disease could not be cured, it would not cause death. He had given the case much thought and study, but at last, seeing how discouraged I was becoming, referred my case to an institution in New York where they made such troubles a specialty. The word came back that there was no cure for the disease, but that it would not cause death, although I might at times be in such agony as to feel that I was going to die.
Having already doctored for ten years. I felt so disheartened that I thought I would never go to another physician. Shortly afterward, however, a new trouble appeared which seemed so dangerous that I felt compelled to go back to the physician again. After he had made a thorough examination, he said he could not take my case; that I must select a specialist and have an operation at once, and he warned my sister that not a day must be lost. Talking privately with her, he said that I had a cancerous tumor and that it might already be too late for a successful operation. She asked him if there could not be a mistake in his diagnosis, and he replied that there was no chance for a mistake in this case. You can imagine my sister's grief and anxiety, it having been less than a year since the doctors had pronounced a cancer in my father's case, and that at a time when we knew of no power that could save him. My sister, although feeling that there was little hope, asked me how I would like to try Christian Science before having the operation. Wishing her to have nothing to reproach herself with, after all was over, I said that if it would be any consolation to her I would try Science, but that I did not see how we could, after the doctor had cautioned us as he had.
Although our fear of the delay was great, the fear of the result of the operation was greater, so in the afternoon we went to the Scientist. I told her that the doctor had given me such great fear that I felt that a few days must decide it, but that she could give me as many treatments a day as she wished. She replied that one each day would be sufficient but that I must promise to give up all my material remedies. I said I did not see how I could, as my life depended on some of them. She assured me that life did not depend upon material remedies, and in one treatment this was proven to me.
On my return home from my second treatment, another sister who knew nothing of my trying Science—we had kept it from the other members of the family, knowing they would be very much opposed to it—said, "What are you doing? I know you are doing something, for you have gained so much." I did not dare to tell her, feeling that it might retard my recovery. However, the change had so excited her curiosity that she began to hunt for the medicine, and when she found a book which my healer had loaned me she came to me and said, "I know, now, what you are doing. You are trying Christian Science, and I don't care what you try or do if you can gain like this." This was great proof that my gain was not imaginary.
My healer patiently and gently led me into the true understanding of my real Being, and I was healed of both of the above-mentioned claims in eighteen treatments, as well as of many other troubles, some of which had long baffled the skill of the physicians. At almost every step the healer requested me to take, I rebelled. When she said that I need not come any more, that I was healed, I told her that if I were willing to pay the money I did not see why she should not continue. The healing had come in such a short time that I was not prepared for my freedom.
All the drugs in our house were at once thrown away, but not until later, when a demand came from friends for some remedy, was the complete emptiness of our medicine closet made so apparent to us. The former drugs have been replaced by Mrs. Eddy's writings, all of which we now have, and the exchange has proven a very happy one for us.
Since my healing, four years ago, I have had the privilege of class instruction from one of Mrs. Eddy's loyal students, and of becoming a member both of the local and of the Mother Church, and I feel that the only true way of expressing my gratitude to the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science for all these benefits received is in daily living the life which testifies to the understanding of the Truth.
Minneapolis, Minn.
