It is with a heart overflowing with thanks to God and gratitude to our dear Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, that I give this testimony. I had been in a deplorable condition for ten years and had been given up by more than fifty doctors, surgeons, and specialists. Internal trouble in a very bad form, heart trouble, stomach trouble, and nervous prostration were only some of the many things I had to contend with. No human tongue could ever describe the suffering of those years. Many consultations by a number of specialists were held for the purpose of finding some way to help me, but always with the same result—nothing could be done. There were times when I did not have my head off the pillow for nine months at a time; and I had been taken from one place to another, from one hospital to another, always with the aid of an ambulance and on a stretcher, and I traveled many thousands of miles in search of relief.
Finally I came to California, where climate and materia medica failed completely to help me. If it had not been for our four little children I should have given up, but for their sake I kept on praying and hoping. I had heard something of Christian Science, and for the four years before taking up the study had been very much prejudiced against it. In the firm my husband was with in Oakland, nearly all the men were Christian Scientists. Naturally, they soon learned of my terrible condition, and they were all very kind to me and sent me Christian Science literature, which I had the maid burn without opening it. I always believed in God and in the power of earnest prayer, but felt there was something wrong with the way we had been taught to pray. I was in the hospital, where I had been for four months, and it truly seemed that the end was near; for the evening before, my doctor had sat on the side of my bed and in very gentle words told me that I was beyond all human aid.
After the doctor had gone I lay there and asked God to show me where the wrong was. I was all alone with God, and as I lay there much truth was unfolded to me. Again I asked God to send me the truth that Christ Jesus taught when he healed the sick. Then, like a flash, I was saying out loud: "God is good. God never made me sick. God is my Life." When the nurse came in to give a hypodermic I refused to let her, which caused much annoyance to the house doctor. After ringing up my doctor they decided to force me to let them use the hypodermic, saying that there would be much suffering later. I was alone again, and I thanked God for the wonderful truth unfolded to me. When the intense pain returned I asked God what it all meant, and like a revelation it came to me that there is no pain in Mind. All fear vanished, and I thanked God and slept for hours, the first in many months without opiates. The first thing in the morning my nurse, a sweet, gentle young woman, came to me, and after looking over the chart and reading that I had refused all medicine she closed the door and came over to the bed and said:!Tm going to ask you something. Why don't you try Christian Science?" Then she told me of an aunt of hers who had not walked a step in fifteen years and had tried almost everything, sanitarium after sanitarium, change of climate and doctors and specialists, who all said it was a waste of time and money, that she would never walk again. Through a dear friend she was persuaded to try Christian Science. She never had a treatment from a practitioner, but bought the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and read and studied for herself. And then the nurse added, "She can outwalk me to-day." Instantly a mighty voice seemed to say: "'God is no respecter of persons.' What He will do for one He will do for another;" and I knew that the answer to my prayers had come. Our dear God was leading me into the light of Christian Science.
