I Want to acknowledge the great good as well as pleasure derived from reading our publications. When the Sentinel of May 2 was brought in, I was suffering from weakness and nervousness. I at once began to read the "Testimonies," and by the time I had read them through I was greatly relieved. I then studied the Bible Lesson, "Mortals and Immortals," after which I dressed, took a long walk, spent the afternoon with friends, and attended church at night, feeling quite well.
On March 3, 1900, a nephew was sent to us. He had been pronounced incurable by three physicians, the last one saying that if half a dozen of the best doctors in the country should come to see him three times a day they could do him no good.
The disease was hereditary consumption, with all its attending errors. He had been living principally on stimulants, using opiates to make him sleep, and had very little appetite. He had never heard of Christian Science, so we did not write anything of it to him, but wrote if he was willing to do what we thought best for him, he could come, and to come at once. He had written to know if he might come to us as a last chance for life, and as we are the only relatives he has that are Scientists, we felt it was Truth's leading.
When the telegram was received that he had started, it was taken at once to the healer, and treatment asked for. He made the journey, thirteen hundred miles, alone, without a serious coughing spell. He had had seven hemorrhages, just before starting, and was afraid of any overexertion. He arrived feeling better than when he left home, but the second day after his arrival there was a sudden change in the weather, and old symptoms appeared. For ten days he required almost constant attention and treatment.
Knowing nothing of Christian Science, he felt at first that there was nothing being done for him, but as soon as he began to feel the beneficial effects of Science treatment he became cheerful, hopeful, and glad to trust all to Truth.
A member of his family had passed away only a year before with the same disease, having all the attention of loved ones and every help known to materia medica, so from that source he did not hope for help.
He took no medicine of any kind, no stimulants or opiates (although he brought a good supply with him) after his arrival, and from the first he slept as peacefully as a baby. During the ten days, although the appearance was so alarming he slept most of the time. At the end of the ten days the healing was virtually done, and his appetite was good.
After he could walk down town he heard a passer-by say, "There goes a dead man now." And another, who had seen much good work done, said, "If the Christian Scientists can cure that young man, they can do anything." I speak of this to show that Truth understood and demonstrated can reach any case, no matter what the sense testimony may be to the contrary.
From that time on there was no return of past conditions, but D. climbed the mountains, played ball with the boys, and was happy, bright, and free.
In May he went to the country, seven miles, over exceedingly rough roads. On his return, he had a very uncomfortable seat in the back of a lumber wagon. There came up a storm, and he returned drenched and blue with cold. He said the roads were so rought that he thought the ride would kill him before he got home, and that he felt something loosen in his side.
Later a swelling and soreness came in his side, which after a while developed into an abscess. It was not very painful for several weeks, and he did not ask for treatment until it was definitely outlined.
He did not lose a night's sleep nor fail to eat a meal, and was not confined to the house until it opened. The opening was larger than a silver dollar, and the discharge so profuse that he stayed in the house, but not in bed, for a week after it opened.
During the time of the abscess he was strong, his color was good, and, to me, it was a wonderful demonstration. I had nursed the same disease under medical treatment, and the results were so very different.
In October, D. went to work, where he put in the hours from seven in the morning until eight or nine at night. He has been exposed to all sorts of weather without the slightest inconvenience from it.
Though he had never been from home before, he has not been homesick for a moment, but is happy in trying to live the life of a true Christian Scientist. He is the picture of health, and it is wonderful to the people who saw him when he first came.
I will speak of the rapid healing by Christian Science of very badly burned hands. About eight o'clock one Thursday night, on starting to enter a room, I saw it in flames. A curtain had caught fire and the flames had spread from that to the canvas overhead. I knew only divine Love could help me. For an instant I felt utterly helpless. Then the words seem said aloud, "My God, help me!" At the sound of the words, I seemed lifted out of self, and enveloped in strength. Fear was gone. In a few moments the fire was extinguished, which to mortal sense seems a miracle. In a few seconds the blazing canvas was all torn from the room, but my hands were burned until I could not open them.
In a few minutes a dear friend came and said, "Let us go to the healer." In an hour's time I could open my hands and move my fingers, but the pain was intense. The ends of the fingers were burned so that they would not dent when pressed hard.
I was treated until two o'clock, when I fell asleep, and from that time I have suffered no more pain. The following morning I used my hands a very little, although there seemed to be no feeling in them.
Every one seeing them would tell me that if I were not careful, I should have stiff, ruined hands. The friend who came to me first said she smelled the odor of burning flesh before she got to me.
One gentleman, a former physician, after looking at them, said, "If you have something that can take the pain out of those charred hands, stick to it and don't mix any material remedies."
By the third day I could use my hands for nearly any household duty. There was no corruption or open sore, but as the water came out of the blisters they fitted back and became healthy, firm, and pliable as before. Even while the ends of my fingers were still hard, they looked in a perfectly healthy condition.
By the tenth day all hardness and tenderness was gone, and I could handle anything I wished. When my hands seemed tender the healer said to me, "Remember there is no tenderness but the tenderness of divine love." That thought relieved all seeming tenderness.
I have many, many things to be thankful for daily and hourly in my understanding in Christian Science.
Many claims of inharmony have been overcome with Truth. But the physical healing is nothing when compared to the spiritual awakening to the absolute certainty that God is, as the Scriptures declare Him to be, a very present help in every time of trouble, "Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world."
