About twelve years ago I first heard of Christian Science; members of my husband's family would frequently tell me about it and try to explain it to me.
That the Comforter is ever-present was proved to me in the hour of need. My first child, a daughter of about two and a half years, was attacked with bowel trouble, from the effects of which, after three days of suffering, she seemed to be passing away, her voice was almost gone, her eyes glazed and dim, and her breathing short and labored. We lived in the country with no doctor within miles of us, therefore I sent my husband hurriedly for his parents, who lived half a mile away. The moment he started out I knelt by my little child's bed, but could not pray in the ordinary way. I declared vehemently, God is her life, and she cannot be separated from Him, so it would be impossible for her to die. I strove to cast off all other consciousness but this feeling of trust in the power of ever-present good. Before my husband returned with his parents, who are Christian Scientists, the child's breathing had changed, her eyes gently closed, and she appeared to be quietly resting. When they entered I arose, and greeted them with a subdued feeling of rejoicing, and my fear, which had already been greatly quieted, seemed to roll away as darkness before the light. The child improved rapidly from this time on until she was well, and was given anything she liked to eat.
Then I borrowed Science and Health with the desire to know for myself what it taught. I read it carefully, and before I had read it half through, my hair, which had been growing thinner and thinner stopped coming out entirely, and I felt much improved and strengthened in many ways. I was conscious of Life and Mind as the only power.
About two years later I was enabled to return the kindness which had been shown me; he who had helped us grew so sick that he gave up to the belief that he could not help himself. When he tried to read he went to sleep.
To all appearances he was in a very bad condition. One afternoon my husband came home from a visit to his father, accompanied by his mother. They were talking of Mr. C.'s serious condition, and said with tears in their eyes, that they did not believe he would ever get well, that he probably would not live long. They expressed their belief that he had given up. I was impelled to say vehemently to them, "If you feel that he is in such a condition, why don't you make an effort to help him by putting in practice the Science you have been studying?" Mrs. C. turned quickly to me and said, "Do you think you could help him?" I answered, "Yes; if I am the only one near him able to turn to God, He will not let me fail." Her next question was, "Then why don't you go over to see him?" I made a weak excuse, but she urged that I go. I went gladly, rejoicing that I was permitted to make an effort for him. When I entered the room Mr. C. spoke to me, and asked if I had come to help him. I answered, "I have come to try if you wish me to." He said "Yes; go ahead." At this, all the members of the family left the room. I sat down, and in a short time had a few moments of clear realization of his spiritual being, his relation to God. When Mrs. C. entered the room, Mr. C. said to her, "Well, I guess I am healed, the perspiration is just pouring off of me." I was then told that, for weeks, they had tried every way known to them, to get up a perspiration, because he thought it would break his disease, but they had failed to bring about the desired result. The next morning he got up and enjoyed a hearty breakfast without any bad effects, and he improved from this time on. I went to see him every day for a week or two, and we talked, and I read from Science and Health. Before I left off my visits, he was reading Science and Health almost constantly, and was not troubled with sleepiness.
At the time I began to treat him, there was a growth on one of his eyes, which disappeared almost entirely, leaving his eyes clear and bright. I give this demonstration merely because it was one of the first outside my own family.
From the time I first read Science and Health, through a period of about eleven years, I have had repeated demonstrations of the truth taught therein, and have desired to write an acknowledgment and expression of thanks, to our Leader, Mrs. Eddy; but the fear that my testimony would not be written clearly and intelligibly has caused me to delay this duty to our Leader and to mankind. I have worked for the advancement of the Cause in this place since coming here to live, four years ago, and I write this tardy testimonial through the desire to do my whole duty. With the prayer, "Thy will be done!" I submit this testimonial of the power of God to help us in times of trouble.— Burns, Ore.
