A few months ago we were faced with a difficult problem when our four-year-old son was taken very ill. We called a Christian Science practitioner, but as there was no visible change in the next forty-eight hours, fear crept in and overpowered us. Being greatly alarmed, we engaged the services of a physician, who pronounced the case very serious, giving the name of toxin poisoning which had developed into spinal meningitis. We were in a terrible state of confusion, fearing to give up the doctor, yet longing for help in Christian Science. The doctor gave us no encouragement. The tenth day after we employed the physician, he suggested that the spine be tapped to relieve the pressure and the spinal fluid be tested for tuberculosis of the spine. He also suggested other things too gruesome to relate.
We then felt we were ready for Christian Science. A physician who was kindly disposed towards Science was called for diagnosis, and was of the same opinion as the other physician. We dismissed both physicians and nurse, called up a practitioner, told her what we had done, and asked her to treat the little boy. The next day she came and gave him a present treatment, and also had a talk with us. There were many conditions to be healed. The first to be overcome was an extremely high fever. We were tempted to return to materia medica, but instead we clung to Science. The child requested that we read to him; so we read from the Bible, from "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and from the poems in her "Miscellaneous Writings." By evening the child's temperature was normal; and the muscles of his neck, which had been contracted, were also normal. The next morning he was still better, and we were enabled to obtain a Christian Science nurse. The following day he sat up. The next condition to be healed was the bowel trouble. On the fifth day he had a perfectly normal action. During these five days he had been sitting on the front porch, and the neighbors remarked each day what a wonderful improvement there was over the previous day.
There were also reflexed knees, which prevented his walking. The practitioner called again and told him nothing could hold him in bondage, for, as we are told by Mrs. Eddy, in "Rudimental Divine Science" (p. 3), divine Mind "gives all true volition, impulse, and action." The following day, ten days after we turned again to Science, he walked and asked permission to ride his tricycle. We let him ride it up and down the sidewalk; for we knew that God had healed him completely.
