Gratitude for the countless blessings that my children and I have received from the study and application of Christian Science during the past thirteen years impels me to give this testimony.
About five years ago, when my daughter was six years of age, we went to visit my parents, who live in a small mountain community more than a hundred miles from our home. The child became ill in the night; her body was paralyzed from the waist down and she suffered severe pain. The following morning her condition seemed much worse, so I telephoned to a Christian Science practitioner who lived many miles away, and she began treatment. The suffering was relieved after a few days, but the paralysis remained until the tenth day. That morning the child asked her grandfather to lift her to her feet so she could try to walk. He did so, but she could not bear the pressure of her weight on her feet and had no control of her back and limbs. In the late afternoon of the same day she begged him again to lift her up, and after being assisted to her feet she came running to me in an adjoining room. Two days later she was well enough to bring home, and the following week she resumed her classes at school. There were no after effects of any kind from this illness. It was not diagnosed by a physician; some who were acquainted with the symptoms thought that it was infantile paralysis.
During my daughter's illness I read "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy every moment that could be spared from the care of the child, some nights getting no rest or sleep, yet my strength did not fail me. Through the study of this book, at a time when to mortal sense her condition seemed most critical, I received such a clear understanding of God as Life and entirely good that this understanding banished fear from my consciousness when other members of the family were voicing the thoughts that she might not recover or that if she did she might remain an invalid.
