For some time it has been my desire to tell the readers of the Journal what Christian Science has done for me and my family. About fourteen years ago I became a great sufferer from a very severe stomach trouble. Very often I had most dreadful pain, and after having several physicians there seemed to be nothing which would do me any good or stop the pain but morphine.
I was advised to go to a specialist, which I did. I took his medicine for a year or more, and did get relief, but in the spring of 1895, before my little girl was born, I was again taken with this same trouble, if possible more severe than before. We called our family physician and he at once administered hypodermic injections of morphine, which gave some relief. The next day the pain came again and the same treatment followed. For months I did not swallow solid food, and for about three years never dared to be without morphine. I could not even go out upon the street or away from home without it, so suddenly would the attacks come, and nothing else ever gave me relief. In the mean time the specialist I went to had passed on, and not knowing whom to consult I just kept on using morphine when needed. Finally I got in such a condition that I would fall upon the ground when walking on the street, and I fell several times in the house. I then consulted another physician who would do nothing for me, but sent me to a specialist in Boston. I paid him a large sum for one month's treatment and came home. I took the medicine three weeks and was no better. It was then that I made up my mind to try Christian Science, although I had no faith in it, and knew very little about it. My husband had often spoken of it to me, but I paid little attention to it. He, with my older daughter, sometimes attended the meetings, and he was in a position where he often met and talked with Scientists. He used to talk to me of cures he had been told of, and would say, "These people would not tell of them if they were not true;" but they never impressed me. Without telling my husband, I went one evening with a friend who was' a Scientist to have a talk with a practitioner.
When we were leaving, this friend said, "Don't you think you will have a treatment before you go?" I said, "No: I will think it over." The practitioner remarked that I had been receiving help all the time we were talking. I thought that was strange, and could not understand it. When we started for home my friend asked if I could walkup the hill, which was long, and a part of it very steep. I said I would try, but thought I would have to take a car, as I had not been able to walk up the hill for a great while, but I got along without any trouble and never felt any bad effect from it. I had a good night's rest, something unusual, as my husband was often obliged to care for me during the night. In the morning I went down to my breakfast, and did things which I had not been able to do for a long time. After this I went alone for treatment, and found I could go up and down the hill with perfect ease. I soon went anywhere, and found I was able to do anything I wished, as I used to do, and have never had any return of the old trouble.
