My healing, which took place about six years ago, was accomplished solely through the reading of the Christian Science textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy.
I had suffered for many years from pains and severe attacks of colic, believed to be the result of misplaced organs caused by a fall down a flight of stairs when I was a young girl. Two years after my marriage I underwent a major operation. Matters were not improved, and I gradually found I could not indulge in any sport or exercise—not even walking—without paying a heavy price in pain. Several years later our baby was born, and I was left in a sorry state of health.
Another five years passed, and the doctors' verdict was that I could not live more than a couple of years without having another major operation; that in any case I was destined to lead the life of a semi-invalid. I went into a hospital and was operated on for the second time, and from that moment everything went wrong—thrombosis, heart attacks, embolism, and severe internal pains all appeared in turn. On three occasions the end seemed near. After spending two months in bed I left the hospital. For a further six months I walked with the aid of a stick.
The doctor who attended me was a most kind and Christian man. He tried all in his power to put me on the road to health, but without success. One day he admitted that my case was a medical failure and said that perhaps a change of climate might benefit me. We were at that time in Windhoek, Southwest Africa, and my husband arranged to be transferred to the Union of South Africa. After we had lived in the new town for a year, it was evident that the change was useless. My health did not improve and was, if anything, worse than ever. I began to think constantly of death as the next step awaiting me, and while 1 longed for relief from pain, I dreaded the idea of leaving my husband and our little girl, who was also suffering from a supposedly incurable complaint, chronic amoebic dysentery. She had been under constant medical treatment for five years. Specialists and several doctors said that they could do nothing for her and that we must expect her to have this complaint for the rest of her life.
One day the child seemed worse than usual. After our move to the new town she had developed several new complaints, asthma in a bad form being one of them. She was running a high temperature, and the doctor attending seemed to be baffled by the case. He said he could do nothing further. That was the last time a doctor entered our house. My husband and I were desperate, and then the thought came, Try Christian Science. We knew nothing about this Science, but my mother was interested and had been for several years, so we telephoned to her, two hundred and fifty miles away, and asked her to get in touch with a practitioner. The practitioner received our message early that evening, and our little daughter was instantly healed. The next morning her temperature was normal, and she was up and playing with her toys.
This healing aroused my interest, and I began to study Science and Health. I did not think it could help me, but I felt it might enable me to understand something of God and the hereafter, which was apparently looming so near. I read the first chapter, on Prayer, and as I read I began to feel reborn. I had brief glimpses of light and understanding, and I was healed. Life took on new interest and hope. I threw away all drugs and medicines and turned completely to Christian Science.
Our healings and blessings have been so numerous since then that it would be impossible to write of them all here. Our daughter attends the Christian Science Sunday School, and my husband and I never miss a service held by a group of Christian Scientists. I am grateful for membership in The Mother Church and for the wonderful experience of class instruction, also for the great privilege of serving in the Sunday School. I am grateful for all our blessings and thank God most humbly for His great mercy. Most of all, I am grateful for a growing understanding of this Science and for the journey we are all taking from sense to Soul.— Dundee, Natal, South Africa.
