I should have written this testimony years ago, but it was hard for me to express myself well in the English language, as I was born in Switzerland. It was through a salesman who came to our place of business in 1906 that we first heard of Christian Science. He said that his wife had been healed of kidney trouble through Christian Science after much money had been spent on materia medica and she had not received any relief or been given any hope of recovery by some of the most noted physicians in America. The same man gave us a Christian Science Sentinel and told us where we could find a practitioner.
I was having many headaches and had been troubled time after time with erysipelas, which I feared so much I was ready to try anything that would relieve me of that disease. Under medical treatment I had to stay in bed three or four weeks at a time, and I had such a fear of drafts that often when I went out of doors I would have a relapse. Before having Christian Science treatment I hardly went out of the house without a big shawl drawn over me. I cannot express in words what a relief it was to me to overcome this fear. I have had attacks of this disease since coming into Christian Science, but I never have had to go through a long period of convalescence again.
I had never been satisfied with my religion or my God, as I could not see how He could send so much sickness and sin to His children. After purchasing and reading a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, I gradually understood that God, who is Love, did not send all this misery, but that troubles came because men did not live according to the law of God.
During 1911 and 1912 I was under a great mental strain and had much resentment towards one very near to me. I was suffering both physically and mentally. My abdomen was unusually large, and my physical strength seemed to leave me. I went to the same practitioner for help, and still remember how I felt as I walked up the avenue after the first treatment. I felt so uplifted! I had treatment frequently during this period. Then in the winter following I had to leave for California with a member of my family. Before I left I again went to the practitioner for treatment. Soon after my arrival in California a discharge started, but without pain. I was very grateful to be delivered from this dread disease, known to physicians as cancerous tumor of the womb.
Some years later I suffered from paralysis affecting my entire right side, so that I nearly lost the power of speech. A practitioner was called, and in a very short time I was able to get around—another proof of God's presence and power, and of the efficacy of Christian Science. A short time after I got up I was reading the Lesson-Sermon, and as I came to the reference from the twenty-third psalm these words stood out to me: "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil." These words showed me plainly where I had been. I was also healed of gallstones and constipation.
In the last few years I have had much help in a business and financial way. Our property was gradually sold to good advantage. I am grateful to Mrs. Eddy for Science and Health and all her other writings. I am also grateful for the loving help of the practitioners and all the other friends who have aided me on the way. My sincere wish now is for a better understanding of God.— Yakima,Washington.
