It is the privilege of members of a Christian Science church to listen in the course of years to many hundreds of testimonies to the power of Christian Science to heal the sick. Different cases appeal to different individuals. With most people there are one or two which remain, creating an impression which time does not wear away. The following incident is one which remained with me in just such fashion.
A lady was traveling with her husband, and on arriving in a strange town she was seized with a complaint commonly described as grippe. She knew only a little about Christian Science, but decided to get help from it, and so she sent her husband out to find a practitioner, stipulating decidedly that it must be a woman. In due course the husband returned with a lady who gave the desired treatment, but the patient felt no better. After a few more hours of suffering the husband was sent to fetch another Christian Science practitioner. This time it was to be a man, as the wife had completely lost faith in a woman. A man accordingly came and treated her that afternoon, but she said she felt worse instead of better. In the evening when in the depths of despair over her condition an idea suddenly came to her that it was neither a man nor a woman practitioner that she needed, but rather the knowledge of God, and she said, "That is what I am going to pray for, right now." The result of this decision on her part was startling. She found instant relief and went peacefully to sleep, to awake in the morning feeling perfectly well.
The incident occurred many years ago. That woman has long been the means of bringing many to find rest and peace in the God who proved such a present help to her that evening in a far-off city; but the truth which her experience contained still knocks for admission at the conscience gate of mortals, who are inclined to seek comfort and relief in every other possible direction except in the one place where all may find it. The secrets of the heart are strange. Who does not cherish deep-buried longings for something apparently beyond his reach, and feel that its possession would indeed anchor him in heaven? The young mother with devoted husband and children, to all outward appearance crowned with home delights and sheltered joy, will tell you that it is a career she craves for—some great talent; if she could only sing, paint, play, write, life would then be sweet!
