It has been nearly five years since my husband and myself began to investigate Christian Science. At first we ridiculed it, but that was because of our ignorance of the good it contained.
My aunt was the first in our neighborhood to take treatment. I knew she was badly afflicted, and had tried many material remedies, and to mortal sense she was growing worse all the time, when Christian Science came to her aid. The first time I met her after she had taken treatment I could see that she looked better, and she told me that she had felt better ever since the hour she began the treatment. I knew that I could rely on every word she said. Common-sense told me it was something more than mere fiction that could work with such power as that. I was a strong believer in prayer, and went to God for help with every little affliction; but I was never permanently healed of any disease, because I always carried my drugs and my fear along with me, not knowing that I was hindering the good that I wished to accomplish.
The first disease I took treatment for was a breaking out on my face. I thought if it didn't do me any good it would do me no harm, for my face was gradually getting worse anyhow. I had other troubles that bothered me more than my face, and they were the first to be healed. I had been wearing smoked glasses three years in bright sunshine or snowy weather. I had been nearly blind with neuralgia in my eyes, and I thought the light gave me the headache; but I have had them on only twice, a little while, since I began to investigate Christian Science.
When we had been in Science about seven months our little girl turned a steam washer off the stove, and the boiling water poured down on her foot. Our healer was away and there was no one near us that knew any more about Christian Science than we did, except the Scientist's little boy, who was staying at our house then. We asked him to help us declare the Truth for the child. Her foot stopped paining in an hour and a half, and never hurt her any more. I know that if we had tied her foot up in cloths and material lotions, as we had previously done at such times, it would have been almost a solid blister. Our next severe trouble came two years ago when the typhoid fever was raging here I did not feel the least bit uneasy myself. Some of our children had symptoms of it, but they were soon destroyed But alas! our faith was put to a severer test. I was taken with a dull headache. I stayed out of bed nearly a week and thought I would overcome the claim; but everything grew darker and darker, until I did not know anything for several days. It was a dark time for my husband, but he never wavered. He put his trust firmly in God and wrote to our healer to help us. In three weeks I could go to the kitchen and help do the cooking, and in five weeks from the day I took my bed I began to pick peas. My neighbors called me a skeleton, and told me I had better be in the house; the next thing I knew I would be in bed again. But I went on, and grew stronger every day, while some of our friends passed away, and others were not out of the house for ten and twelve weeks. Many other claims, such as measles, mumps, and whooping cough, have been made of short duration through the teachings of Christian Science. We are striving to know more of this blessed Truth that makes us free.
and Pikeville, Tenn.
