It is with a heart filled to overflowing with gratitude and love that I write this testimony, hoping it will help some one as I have been helped and encouraged by the testimonies of others. In August, 1906, I first heard of Christian Science. Two ladies with whom I became associated, being Scientists and seeing my darkened and hopeless condition, told me what Christian Science was doing for mankind.
Little dreaming it could possibly mean anything to me, much less heal me of my many physical ills, I began reading the literature, including the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. I thought it a most beautiful teaching and continued reading every spare moment. The first thing in the morning I would open the book and read a page or two, and late at night, long after other members of the family were sleeping, I was reading. It was all so wonderful and beautiful, and I thought, Oh, if it could only be true! To my great surprise something was happening—the physical ills seemed to be lessening. One of the ladies said it was not necessary for me to continue taking medicine, —that on which I then thought my life depended and which I never allowed myself to be without. I had been treated by many reputable physicians, had taken physical culture, and at times seemed to be benefited, but always went back to the old condition and supposed the results would be the same in this instance. I threw the medicine away, however, and never to this day have I taken any more or used any material means in times of stress.
I will here name some of the discordant conditions which yielded to the truth: stomach trouble in its worst form, physicians having said I had lost all power of digestion and could not be cured; kidney trouble, abdominal ills, and a condition which, according to the physicians, only an operation could reach; in fact, the doctors said there was not an organ of my body that was performing its functions normally. These ills were absolutely and permanently healed through reading and applying the truth as we are taught in Christian Science. While I was benefited from the first, it was about three years before every ailment was completely overcome; but my earnest study during that period was the means of my gaining a working knowledge of Christian Science.
