I am sending this testimony as a slight expression of my boundless gratitude for all that Christian Science means to me and to my family. We did not seek Christian Science for healing, but because we became convinced, even against our will, of its truth. Over eight years ago my sister-in-law invited my five-year-old daughter to spend the summer on the coast of Maine. My husband and I wanted the child to enjoy the outing, but the fact that her aunt was a sincere student of Christian Science prompted us to take our two little boys and accompany her, in order to protect—as we thought—the impressionable child from what we believed to be the pernicious influence of this religious belief. The reverse occurred, for, realizing the injustice of condemning anything of which we knew so little, we asked questions, which were so thoughtfully and lovingly answered that we were awakened to the truth.
One of our sons, then three years old, was the first to experience the healing power of Christian Science. He had always been sickly, suffering for weeks at a time during the summer with cholera infantum and in the winter with bronchitis. One evening, about a week after we had acknowledged the truth of Mrs. Eddy's teaching, we were put to the test. Our little boy displayed all the symptoms of acute pain, fever, and nausea, which had accompanied previous attacks of cholera infantum, attacks which had never abated in less than six weeks. Immediately, without any thought of turning to materia medica for aid, my husband and I began to declare the truth as fully as our dawning comprehension permitted. In six hours the child was free. A subsequent attack was met even more quickly, and since then he has experienced no return of either of his babyhood troubles.
During the same summer I was much benefited by my study. I had started on our vacation in a very despondent frame of mind, being tortured with the fear of losing my vision, and in a disturbed nervous condition. The belief of approaching blindness was forgotten as I read the various works of our beloved Leader for hours at a time. The many fears and spiritual discontent which had made my naturally cheerful nature gloomy ever since my recovery from a severe attack of influenza, over a year before, began to drop away as I realized that it was my divine right to claim my share in John's glorious affirmation, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God."
