When I first came into Christian Science I had not one spark of hope for my future, having been a sufferer for over eight years, and like many others I took up Christian Science as a last resort. When I was fifteen years old I met with an accident while playing football, and injured my spine. Our family doctor, and also a very prominent physician at the hospital in my home town in England, told me at this time that I would have to wear a plaster cast for four or five years to guard against curvature of the spine, and that at the end of this time I might be able to get along without it, but after I had worn it for five years, and had grown into manhood, I found to my great disappointment that my spine was far from being straight and that the muscles of my back had not developed. This left me in such a weak condition that I could not hold myself up more than a few hours without wearing the cast. My dear mother, who was ever kind and patient with me, would massage my back, sometimes twice a day, but all to no effect, as the pain would be so intense that I felt compelled to wear the cast again.
I went on in this way until I attained the age of twenty-three (after having worn the cast for eight years), and by that time all hope of a cure had left me; but a kind friend led me to Christian Science just when I most needed it, and I have found in this Science what my heart was hungering for, a God I could understand; a God who understood me; a God who would help me in every hour of need, and make my life a joy instead of a burden. Such a God I have found in Christian Science! I was under Christian Science treatment for about two months, at the end of which time, although I was not entirely healed, I was relieved of the intense suffering to such an extent that I knew this must be the truth that Jesus spoke of when he said, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," for I was feeling freer from pain day by day. After discontinuing the treatment, I studied Science and Health for six months, a constant earnest study, with the result that I am healed of all my infirmities, my back is well and strong again, I am healed of intense nervousness, and my eyes which were troubling me are much stronger, making it unnecessary to wear glasses. I am also cured of the smoking habit; just how or when it left me I do not know, being unconscious of it, but the faithful study of Science and Health has killed the desire entirely.
I shall never forget the day that I was finally healed. During the six months given to the study of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," I had kept the cast which I used to wear, locked in my trunk, not having sufficient confidence to destroy it; but one day, after talking with the practitioner, whom I had not seen for a considerable time, it dawned upon me that to be entirely healed I must lean upon God absolutely, and I can never express with what joy I destroyed the cast and felt myself resting in God's care. Christian Science has so changed my future from utter despair to all hope and life, that I can never sufficiently express my gratitude for the blessings I have received in Christian Science.— Oakland, Cal.
