I SHOULD like to make known to the sick and unhappy what Christian Science has done for me. I was thought to be a sickly child from my birth. My father was under the doctor's care over half the time until he passed away at the age of forty years. It was believed by all that I inherited my father's infirmities. I was always in pain in some part of the body, being afflicted with inherited dyspepsia, chronic diarrhoea, and other ailments. I do not think I ever saw a well day until I was healed in Christian Science at the age of sixty-eight years. Before this I was a wreck in both body and mind, and was expected to live but a short time. I had seen so much sin and suffering in the world that I often thought, Oh, where is God? If there be one, why does He not help His suffering children? One day a young lady called on business. She told me there was no reason why I should be sick. Then she told of her own sickness and healing in Christian Science, but I was so blinded by the thick mists of materialism that I could see no good in what she said. I told her I did not believe in Christian Science, but she quietly and sweetly talked on; and told of many wonderful cases of healing. When she went out I said in derision, "Perhaps you had better give me a treatment." She did not catch my real meaning, and said she would, and was gone. She gave me a treatment on her way home. This happened about noon. At night my son asked me how I had been during the afternoon. Without giving the young girl a thought, I replied that in about two hours after he went out I began to feel stronger and in less pain than usual. I slept much better that night, and in the morning I was still better, but still I never thought of the healer, but my son remarked that if the young lady could see me she would take the credit of having healed me. From this time on I commenced to improve, but not rapidly. I think my own preconceived ideas were so deeply rooted that it hindered my advancement in the understanding of Truth.
I commenced to read Science and Health and tried to understand it, but it was like trying to understand Greek for a short time. Soon, however, little rifts in the darkness began to appear and I slowly improved for about a year and then came down with a painful and dangerous illness. The lady who gave me the first treatment had left town, but God provided another, who by her loving patience and understanding of God's law was enabled to put me on my feet again. I had worn glasses between thirty-five and forty years, my eyes (never strong) were in a bad condition, and I feared that I was losing my sight. One day I resolved never to put my glasses on again, and let Truth work. When I took them off, I could not read heavy head lines of a newspaper without them, but now I not only read by daylight, but by electric light.
My healing has been slow and I thank God that it has been so, for it has made me work harder in trying to get a better spiritual understanding. With what little understanding I have, I have been enabled to help others who were in darkness and despair.
