Fourteen years ago I was stricken down with a disease which twelve different physicians called incurable. I was treated by six of them (residents of this city), from three months to a year and a half each, with no beneficial results, indeed I was gradually growing worse all the time. I then consulted two specialists and was told by them that there had never been a case of this kind healed, but they experimented with distressing and expensive methods until it was agreed that the effects were not satisfactory. I was then treated by a South American physician for four months; I also tried hypnotism and faith cure and other remedies too numerous to mention. I was obliged to give up my business, which was the largest wholesale and retail grocery business in this city at that time. My illness had cost me a small fortune and I decided to give up trying and wait for death to end my suffering. I gradually failed until I was almost entirely helpless. I did walk, with the use of a cane, but with great difficulty, and would frequently fall in the street and have to be carried home. One of my eyes was practically of no use to me. The other eye became so weak that even with strong glasses it was difficult for me to read; I was unable to remember anything any length of time, and for five years could not write or add up a column of figures.
One Sunday morning, while looking over a New York paper, I read a testimony for Christian Science given by a witness on a case being tried in New York at that time, in which the man stated that he had been healed by reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. I remarked that I would like to see that book, and my wife immediately borrowed one. After reading it a while, I was invited to go to one of the Wednesday testimony meetings; which I did, and there met a friend whom I had known ten years previous and who at that time was a chronic invalid. She told me that she had been healed by Christian Science, and her appearance proved it to me. She invited me to call on her, and said she would be glad to talk to me more on the subject. A short time after this I was carried to her home. She immediately began to talk to me about God, and I told her I did not care to hear anything about God, for if there was a God that sent, or even permitted, such suffering as I had been through, I had no use for Him, and she replied that it was the theological teaching about God to which I was antagonistic, and not God, for the Christian Science God is infinite good. She also told me to go home and read the life of Jesus and I would find that his principal work was healing the sick; and she quoted his own words, "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father." After this conversation I went home and asked my wife if she had a Bible, and if she would show me where I could read about Jesus' life, which she did. Since that time—over four years—I have been a constant student of the Bible and of Science and Health, which is certainly its key.
Besides being healed of the pains accompanying the disease, which were frequently so severe that a physician had to be called to administer a hypodermic injection in order that I might live, I was healed of a sense of weariness which followed the least exertion. I walked five miles recently without the least fatigue. My eyesight has been restored, so that I read without glasses; one eye, which was turned, is straight, and I can see with it as well as with the other. My business capacity has been wholly restored. I can write, can work with figures, and commit anything to memory that I wish to, as I never could before. I have been healed of stomach trouble, supposedly inherited, for which I had taken medicines all my life. The healing of the tobacco habit, after forty years of continuous use, was the first proof I had of the healing power of Truth. I had smoked from eight to twelve cigars a day for many years. I told the practitioner that I had been trying to overcome my desire to smoke, but the more I tried the worse it was. She simply told me that I had no need to smoke, and to my astonishment I have never had the least desire to smoke since. I was also addicted to profanity, but this has been overcome. I no longer tell questionable stories, nor care to hear them,—in fact, my whole life has been transformed.
