On page 365 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" Mrs. Eddy writes, "If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine." This declaration was proven in our home in the spring of 1912, when my mother, who was suffering from a severe attack of gall-stones and an abscess in the gallbladder, was healed instantaneously through the ministry of Christian Science.
During two weeks of illness and severe pain with very high fever, the patient experienced no relief whatever under the physician's care, but seemed to be steadily growing worse. Hypodermic injections, opiates, and numerous other drugs were frequently administered. At this alarming crisis a noted specialist was called for consultation. He advised an operation in twenty-four hours' time, stating that the condition of the patient was too serious to warrant an immediate one, and that she would have to be "tapped" in the mean time. The specialist was told that the patient did not wish to submit to an operation, whereupon he replied that her wishes would not be taken into consideration, but they would do what they could for her relief. He was then asked if it were not probable that the abscess would break and pass through the bowels in a normal manner, and if an operation were really unavoidable, whether he could guarantee a cure and a safe deliverance from the effects of the knife. He replied in the negative, admitting that while it was her only chance for life, yet the operation would probably prove fatal. He declared that the abscess was likely to break, pass into the abdominal cavity, and cause instant death.
The patient was a listener to this discussion, and after the physicians left she was asked to "try Christian Science just for one day." She consented, more from sheer desperation than from any faith in Christian Science, and all material remedies were discontinued. A practitioner was called, and the circumstances were stated to her over the telephone. In an hour's time she was at the bedside of the patient with loving help and comfort. She came into a home where the inmates were unfriendly to Christian Science, and to a patient unable to speak and able only in a small measure to understand the English language ; but undaunted by these seeming obstacles the practitioner went lovingly to work. Almost immediately a sweet sense of peace prevailed. In less time than it takes to write about it, the fever, jaundice, weakness, and all pain disappeared, and in an hour the patient was sitting up in a chair, eating a hearty meal.
