The many blessings which my family and I have received through the study of Christian Science prompt me to submit this testimony. I am grateful that in this study I have found the comforting promise of the Master, Christ Jesus, to be true (John 8: 32): "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
I wish to express my deepest gratitude to Mary Baker Eddy for bringing to light this healing truth and proving that it is as applicable and as effective now as it was in the time of Jesus. She states in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (p. 402), "Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last acknowledged."
Before taking up the study of Christian Science I was examined by a physician, due to a physical disorder, and the difficulty was pronounced a hernia. Not very long after this diagnosis my husband and I took up the study of Christian Science. One of the first things we learned was that God is our physician. Although the hernia was not healed, it bothered me only at times. Finally, however, it became very much enlarged and inflamed to the extent that it was impossible for me to get out of bed or turn over on my side. This condition continued for one week, during which time I had the help of a Christian Science practitioner. For the love and patient work which was done I shall always be most humbly grateful. There was much fear on my part to be overcome. Chills and fever had to be healed. On the sixth day I was at times in a semiconscious condition, and the thought of death seemed very near. I voiced this to the practitioner that evening, and this profound statement was the reply: "God is your Life." This turned my thought from the fear of death to the fact that I must realize, and be honest in my realization, that God is my Life. I held to this truth in the face of every contradictory evidence of the material senses.
After the practitioner left, my husband came into the room and read to me for some time, then gave me the Christian Science Hymnal and told me it was time to sing. This is one of the things he had been encouraging me to do when fear and doubt were evident. I turned to Hymn No. 425, "Joy Cometh in the Morning." I read this hymn over and over, trying to realize that morning represented the dawning realization that God is my Life. Filled with the inspiration of that hymn I went to sleep, the first peaceful sleep that had come to me that week. I awakened the following morning with such a sense of relief that I called my husband and mother and told them that something had taken place, for I felt so well. My husband's reply was that God's law of adjustment had brought it about. Upon examination it was discovered that there was an incision about three inches long and about an inch wide, and it was draining.
The practitioner was advised of this development, and this comforting message was given me: "We know that all is well." Truly it was. My family and I were very happy that Sunday morning. It took about two and one half months for the drainage to cease, but while this was taking place the incision was closing. By the time the drainage stopped, the incision was closed with very little evidence of the usual medical scar, proving that Christian Science is indeed "the most skilful surgeon." I was, however, up and around the house in less than two weeks with the aid of crutches and was able to do some of my household duties. The period required to complete the healing gave me an opportunity for much needed reading and study.
Feeling that this might be of help to someone, I asked an individual who is well informed on such things how this condition would have been diagnosed, and I was told that it was a strangulated hernia which had resulted in a gangrenous condition. For the patient, loving work done by the practitioner, and for the fearless and steadfast way in which my family relied on the teachings of Christian Science through this experience, I shall always be grateful.
I have had many other healings through the study and application of Christian Science, such as of influenza and hay fever, and an instantaneous healing of chronic constipation after one treatment by a practitioner. A badly lacerated finger was healed without a scar.
I am grateful to our Father-Mother God for the blessed privilege of class instruction and for the love and harmony that the teachings of Christian Science have brought into my home. "Oneness in spirit is Science, compatible with home and heaven" (Miscellaneous Writings by Mrs. Eddy, p. 289).— Houston, Texas.
