Over fifteen years ago I turned in desperation to Christian Science for help. Specialists on the Pacific Coast and in New York city had said that they believed the one thing which might prevent deafness was a major operation, but that they could not be sure of the result. A friend took me to a Christian Science practitioner and treatment was given immediately. The pain and the fear ceased in a few days, and whatever doctors believed was the cause and its effect entirely disappeared, and I have heard clearly and distinctly ever since. No surgical operation was needed or performed, and I have never used surgery or medicine in any form since, though I am not unappreciative of all the care and attention given me by physicians and surgeons previous to my turning to Christian Science. Among the physical ailments which have since yielded to treatment in Christian Science are laryngitis, neuritis, and biliousness. At one time the symptoms and fear of what is called an incurable disease, which had tortured me for weeks, were healed instantaneously when over the telephone I asked for help, without even naming the disease. More than once trouble with teeth and eyes has been healed through the work of a practitioner.
For some time after the first healing I merely accepted treatment, gratefully, of course; but then I awoke to the desire to be an honest student. I became a member of The Mother Church and of a branch church, and next became a class student. Each step has been of more value than I can definitely put into words.
There has been a radical change in my thinking since I began the study of the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and inevitably a radical change in all the conditions of my everyday living. Temptations have come in many forms to make me believe that I had lost or was losing much that I had had, or thought I possessed; but the daily study and endeavor to apply the teaching of Christian Science have steadied me and shown me what, on the contrary, has really been gained. Mrs. Eddy writes on page 302 of Science and Health, "It is impossible that man should lose aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his." And in human experience we can prove this by sticking to what we know to be true, despite all that the material senses seem to affirm. Now, instead of turning in desperation for help, I am learning to turn "in quietness and in confidence," with the feeling of loving gratitude to our Leader, and to our Father-Mother God, knowing that Love "never faileth."— Annadale, Staten Island, New York.
