I send this testimony in loving gratitude for the many helpful messages brought to me in the Journal and Sentinel. About thirteen years ago I was healed of lung trouble when I seemed to have but a short time to live. A dear friend told me of Christian Science and asked if she might try to help me; and although I had no faith in it and was opposed to what I believed it to be, I knew that my friend was sincere, and to please her I promised to read the text-book, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. I was a member of another church and a firm believer in materia medica, and the Christian Science text-book at first seemed Greek to me; therefore it was with much surprise that I woke up to the fact, about three months later, that my lungs were perfectly healed.
A great sorrow had come into my life, for my beloved mother had passed away, my home was broken up, and then in quick succession one tie after another was severed until everything I held dear had been taken from me, and I was left alone, brokenhearted and penniless, to struggle for an existence which I no longer desired; but in my hour of utter darkness I remembered the healing touch of Christian Science and turned to the text-book for help and guidance. I found in its clear presentation of the truth concerning God, and man's relation to Him, my consolation, my life, my all! I was hungering and thirsting for righteousness, and in the teachings of Christian Science I found the "living bread" and the "water of life." The first three years of earnest study of the Bible together with Science and Health, and Mrs. Eddy's other writings, the Christian Science Quarterly, and the Journal and Sentinel, were spent in a small country village where I was the only Scientist, and I found opposition on every side; but I knew I was gaining an understanding of absolute Truth, and I was healed of a severe form of heart trouble, spinal trouble which dated from birth and had caused a curvature of the spine, extreme nervousness, a stomach difficulty of several years' standing, and other ills that caused me much suffering.
Through the understanding gained of the power of divine Mind to heal disease, I was enabled to come unharmed through an unusually severe attack of acute lung trouble, also blood-poisoning, and other discordant conditions which presented themselves, with no material aid and in the midst of adverse criticism. I also had the joy of seeing others healed and set free from physical ills. In the intervening years I have found my every need met, and have proved step by step that God is indeed "a very present help in trouble." Many times instantaneous healing has come to me, and with it the spiritual uplift that "passeth all understanding." To say I am thankful to God, and grateful to our Leader, through whose faithfulness this great truth has been given anew to the world, is faint praise, for I know that what I have gained in spiritual understanding is priceless.— Chestnut Hill, Brookline, Mass.
