A sincere desire to help someone in need of healing impels me to give this testimony. My first healing in Christian Science came about solely by reading the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy. It took place more than twenty-five years ago and has been permanent. A relative brought a copy of the textbook to my home; I knew nothing of its teachings, but began to read the book merely out of curiosity. I was in great need of healing, but I had no thought of being healed by this means.
I had been suffering for some time from what had been diagnosed by physicians as chronic appendicitis. Painful attacks made it necessary for me to be in bed under treatment a great deal of the time. I lived in fear and dread of an operation and was very nervous and underweight. As I read Science and Health I became more and more impressed by the positive statements of truth it contained, and I accepted them readily. The healing of the man who had dyspepsia, after many years of medical treatment (p. 221), especially impressed me, as did the words from the Bible (Gen. 1:26), "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion."
After several weeks of reading and pondering the textbook, I realized that I had not thought of the condition for some time, though I had previously been in constant fear of an attack and was afraid to eat. I never again feared or suffered from an attack. The following passage from Science and Health became clear to me (Pref., p. xi): "The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness and disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and sin to reformation." I began at once to enjoy a healthier and happier life, having been freed from reliance on so-called medical law.
