To show our gratitude for what Christian Science has done for us, and possibly to benefit some one who is wandering in the shadows of despair and who needs the "great Physician," we send this testimony in proof of God's care of those who trust Him aright. Some seven years ago, our little boy, then three months old, was ruptured. About four years before this time a neighbor in Des Moines, Ia., had called our attention to Christian Science and had lent us some reading matter, including Science and Health; but we did not understand it, although the seed was sown, and when the above-mentioned accident happened we asked and received absent treatment of a kind practitioner, an earnest worker in Christ's vineyard, about three thousand miles away. Under her knowledge of Truth the child was healed, and here let us add that the practitioner kept on for years with kindly help and guidance, sending us reading matter and also a copy of Science and Health.
About two years ago the same child swallowed a bean, which passed into the windpipe, and caused great suffering. At times he was unconscious, with high fever. The doctors here told us that nothing could be done except to perform a dangerous operation. We then asked treatment of a Christian Scientist living here in Lacombe; not a regular practitioner, but one whom we knew lived and loved the truth. After the child received Christian Science treatment the bean caused him no inconvenience, and it was expelled one day while he was at play, without any distress.
Even after this experience, although we had read the Lesson-Sermons and studied Science and Health we did not clearly understand the one perfect Principle. We did not know that God is All-in-all, and there is in reality no evil, so we were unprepared for our last and greatest trial. In August, 1908, the same child had an attack of stomach trouble and immediately showed signs of epilepsy. The attacks grew harder and more frequent. He was under the care of two physicians of this town, who told us the child could not live and that if he did he would always be so afflicted. He grew steadily worse, and had as many as nine attacks in two hours. This continued for four months. He lost all control of his limbs, could barely swallow, and could not speak. These were indeed dark hours to us, but "man's extremity is God's opportunity." We again turned to Christian Science, and after a few treatments we could see a marked change in the child. In the place of pallid and wasted features, they took on a more healthful look, and in about two months the error was met and the disease vanished into its native nothingness. He regained the use of his limbs and also his voice, and today is a picture of health and a living witness of the power of Truth. We are indeed thankful for all these blessings, but the knowledge that we are indeed the children of God is still more to be thankful for; to know that we are not in bondage to any phase of error, but made free in Christ, Truth. This knowledge lifts mortals out of materiality into a new life of spiritual awakening. If this should meet the eye of any one who is skeptical, we can say that we have found the truths of the Bible, when spiritually discerned, to be a specific for all human ills.
