On the twenty-fifth of June, 1911, our baby girl refused all food and drink with the exception of water. The symptoms were severe chill and congestion, and as she seemed to be rapidly becoming worse, we telegraphed to Johannesburg, where lives our nearest Christian Science practitioner. The next day the child took a little milk, but until the second of July this with fresh lemonade was all that passed her lips, and for eight days there was no normal action of the bowels. Parents will well understand the struggle which my wife and I went through to keep our thought from running riot with the seemingly overwhelming evidences of sense testimony, and at times it seemed as if the deep waters would overwhelm us. On Sunday morning, July 2, so weak was the babe that she could not stand upright, but by the Tuesday following she was out in the garden with her brother, all discord overcome and the power of divine Love again manifest.
One might expatiate at length over that week's experience, but we proved once more that "there is no power apart from God" (Science and Health, p. 225), and that, as the psalmist says, "If I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there." This experience, even if the most searching, is only one of many given us since our coming into Science over three years ago. During this time I, my wife, two little ones and nurse, have relied wholly on divine Love to supply all our need, and have proved, even in the midst of fear and trembling, the glorious efficacy of divine Truth as demonstrated in Christian Science.
Both my wife and I had for years been slaves to materia medica for relief of stomach troubles; the little ones had run the gamut of all so-called childish ailments, their nurse for many years had worn glasses and been in bondage to other ailments, all of which have been met and destroyed by the understanding of the truth as revealed through Mrs. Eddy. When we have felt outside help to be necessary, the fact that the nearest Christian Science practitioner is five or six hundred miles away has proved no obstacle to the power of divine Love. At other times our little community of Buluwayo, of five or six earnest students, has been' given strength to work on and subdue all erroneous beliefs manifested in one or another of our number, knowing absolutely that in so far as we seek "first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness," it shall be given us to prove our heritage under all circumstances.
