It is indeed difficult to express in words my gratitude for the many blessings Christian Science has brought to our home. I did not come to it for physical healing; in fact, I fought every step of the way into Christian Science. My thought was filled with the most unreasonable prejudice and opposition to Mrs. Eddy and what I thought Christian Science to be. As time went on, and I watched closely to see just the kind of lives my Scientist friends lived, I became more and more chagrined to know that their religion really did heal all their diseases, while mine did not. Because I felt humiliated to have to confess that they could do what I could not, I purchased "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures'' by Mrs. Eddy, intending to find out how they were healed —I wanted to know only that. For two years I read the textbook at intervals, but when I came to a paragraph that differed from my particular way of thinking, I would lay the book aside impatiently and decide not to read any further; however, at the end of two years I suddenly realized that as need of them arose, thoughts gleaned from the textbook were being applied—almost unconsciously—to my daily problems, and I was coming to know God as divine Love. Never shall I forget the joy and gratitude of that hour. The clear realization of the Father's power and presence seemed to sweep away the barriers of prejudice, opposition, and indifference, and I was conscious only of an overwhelming desire to know God aright.
During the past five years God has been our only Physician. We have not had a practitioner's help, as our understanding of Truth has been sufficient to meet each need as it arose. One of our first demonstrations was the healing of my husband's eyes. He had worn glasses for over nine years, but after two weeks' treatment he discarded them and has not needed them since. A mangled hand, which under surgical treatment would without doubt have taken two or three weeks to heal, was perfectly healed in twenty-four hours. This seemed to us such a wonderful proof of God's power that we felt the deepest sense of gratitude and humility. Three cases of mumps were overcome in forty-eight hours. A very painful abscess in my son's ear disappeared in a few days, and he was also healed of a severe cough that troubled him greatly for four years before we came into Science, and which the best medical treatment failed to cure. Our little girl of ten was wonderfully healed of pneumonia, when heart failure had set in and she seemed very near the "valley of the shadow." Our small daughter of six was healed in three weeks of whooping cough and bronchitis. These are but a few of the physical healings.
My mother was healed of a complication of diseases, which the doctors pronounced a malignant growth of the liver (said to be incurable), gallstones, and bronchitis. The growth disappeared in two days after Christian Science help was asked for. She had been given a few days at the most to live, and had not eaten solid food for three months. After twenty-four hours' treatment she ate a hearty dinner; in eight days was out of doors; and in two weeks traveled one hundred and seventy-six miles with me to my home. That was four years ago and there has been no return of the trouble. Last year she made the return trip to Boston, a distance of twelve hundred miles, alone. During her illness a loyal Scientist friend worked with us and proved anew the allness of God and the nothingness of material decree.
