THE following testimony represents an outburst of heart-joy for the healing of the body and for "the home of the soul" which I have found in Christian Science, and it is submitted with the hope that it may help some other sufferer to find a haven of rest and peace. If there ever was a day when some physician was not well acquainted with me, it was at such an early age that my memory has failed to record it. It is certainly a matter of fact that for twenty-five years and more I have had some doctor in attendance. About eleven years ago this attendance assumed a seemingly permanent state of regularity. Four years of care and worry found me still under their care; then there developed chills and fever, which defied professional treatment. The attacks succeeded each other with great regularity, granting me but brief interims of attempted recovery. After some time, during which I took quantities of medicine, the internal difficulties underwent a symptomatic reclassification. The physician then in charge made a new inventory and decided that the result might be phrased as chronic intestinal trouble.
The operating table was next introduced, with the cheerful announcement that I had about one chance in a hundred of ever remembering the operation. The record shows two hours and twenty minutes of surgical attention for the appointed day. Three of the surgeons, as the nurse told me later, prophesied my decease, but their predictions were not fulfilled. When on my feet again I found myself still waiting upon a doctor, because of constant pain. This last stage covered over three years, during which I was regularly taking medicine, which sometimes reduced but never ended the pain. Strict diet was prescribed, and followed with three kinds of medicine as an incident of every meal; with still other kinds prescribed for the hour of retiring. Frequently the pain would become so acute that life seemed one long-drawn-out agony. I never was sure, when I began a day's work, that I would be able to finish it; never sure when I retired that I would be able to begin another at the proper time.
In November of last year my wife and I came to Chicago. Seemingly by chance we took rooms in a house where the head of the family was a Christian Scientist. Professors of this religion whom I had met in the East had been a close-mouthed people; though they found me of an inquiring rather than antagonistic mind, they never made any talk about their religious belief, and did not even offer me literature. It was a new experience to meet one ready to talk, and my eyes were opened as to the general meaning of Christian Science. Finally came the question that might seem natural, "Why not take treatment?" I replied that even yet I could not believe in it, and was astounded to hear that I was not required to believe. I thus had no further excuse, so I went to a practitioner, and said, after explaining my condition, that while I did not believe he could help me, Christian Science was my last resort. Then I asked, "What do you think about it?" He replied that I could be helped, and then and there I took a treatment. This was on a Tuesday afternoon. I noticed no change until Saturday morning, when I had a severe spasm of pain continuing about fifteen minutes. This was the last pain that I felt, and not only have I been free from pain since that time, but I eat what I please and take no medicine.
