I did not come to Christian Science for healing, but was healed of deafness by reading Science and Health. I was deaf from the effects of scarlet fever, which I had when eight years of age, and had no thought of ever hearing perfectly, for I was gradually growing worse all the time. A practitioner who was treating a member of my family said it would be of great benefit to the patient if I read Science and Health, and being anxious to facilitate the healing, I was willing to learn the book verbatim if necessary, so obeyed the practitioner implicitly.
Before I had finished the first reading of the book great quantities of hardened wax kept coming from my ears, and I often remarked how strange that was. Soon everybody seemed to be speaking very loud and the telephone and door-bell would startle me. One day I asked my husband why he spoke so loud to me, and he replied that he was not speaking so loud as usual but that I had seemed to be hearing splendidly of late. Then like a flash it came to me that I was healed and could hear perfectly. I had never heard of any one being healed by reading Science and Health, however, so did not give it the credit; but rejoicing in my hearing, I studied the book every spare moment.
During this time I was suffering from a loosened rib, the result of being thrown from a swing when a child. The pain in my side had been constant for years, and many times the rib had to be set in place. It seemed as though the more I studied and worked in Science the more severely this trouble annoyed me, so I again went to the doctor and had the rib set, but it remained in place only one day. Then the lesson was brought home to my consciousness that the work must be done in Christian Science and in no other way, and that it was my work.
