I am very grateful for Christian Science. In December, 1913, our baby, then seven months old, was taken suddenly ill. We at once called our family physician, who said the child was suffering from "telescoped bowels," and on the same evening advised an operation. The child could not endure the slightest pressure over the bowels and was having hemorrhages. The following morning we called an osteopath, whose diagnosis was the same as the doctor's, and he said there was no hope of a cure. About two hours later we had three physicians in consultation, and they did not advise an operation, as they said it was too late, for the baby could not live. Still not satisfied, we called two other physicians, one a surgeon, but they too said there was no hope without an operation and it might be too late for that. We took the baby to a hospital at seven in the evening. The physicians made the incision, but stated that it was too late to operate, for adhesion had taken place and the tissue was turning black. They also said that the baby might live two days.
A neighbor who was with us at the hospital then said, "Now that you have tried everything of which you know, why not try Christian Science?" We were willing to do this, and immediately called a practitioner. About two hours after the incision was made, the baby was brought home, and the practitioner arrived at the house about the same time. Her first words were the assurance that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." Treatment was given, with the result that before morning the baby's temperature was normal and he was being fed regularly with no bad results, for God was taking care of him. From the time he was taken sick until the Christian Science practitioner arrived, he could retain nothing in his stomach and had had twenty-eight hemorrhages from the bowels, but after Christian Science treatment was begun he retained all his food and had no more hemorrhages. The bowels soon acted normally and the child was entirely healed.
Words can never express our thankfulness to God, and our gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for having made possible this understanding of man's relationship to his creator, God.— Akron, Ohio.
