As one who has known Christian Science from early childhood, I am happy to be afforded this opportunity to testify to its power to heal and bless. The first healing that I can remember in our family occurred during the influenza epidemic of 1918, when my brother and I, with our mother, were visiting a family of Christian Scientists. When symptoms of influenza appeared, it was only because our mother could not obtain the services of a medical doctor that she requested a Christian Science practitioner to help us children. Although we were delirious with fever when the practitioner was called, we were out of bed the next day. From that time I have never known a day in bed, except at the time of childbirth.
Of many healing experiences, I should like to mention three which were especially significant to me. The first of these occurred when our daughter was about two years old and wakened me one morning with a heavy bronchial cough. My first thought was one of apprehension that a relative who was to visit us that day would force upon us the direst predictions about this condition. I thought, "Oh, if I could only know whether it is really anything serious!" Then as I turned in earnest prayer to God, the words that came to my thought were, "There is no material truth" (Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, p. 273). A sweeping conviction of the truth of these words filled my consciousness. I had thought I wanted to know whether the child's condition represented a slight indisposition or a serious illness; but I could never know this, for such knowledge did not exist in Truth. I could know, with certainty, only her eternal perfection. All else was mere baseless supposition. I have no recollection of that day's happenings beyond that moment of joyous revelation, but I never heard the child cough again as she had done. The freedom I gained from all desire for diagnosis remains as a treasured landmark in my experience.
At the time of the second of these healings I had just arrived in a city where I knew no one but a woman who had lovingly answered my advertisement in The Christian Science Monitor and offered me a temporary home while I looked for an apartment. During the journey painful symptoms of pleurisy had appeared, and on arrival I asked for the help of a Christian Science practitioner, whose name I found listed in the Journal. At first I was able to be out of bed and to take care of necessary duties. However, after about three days of a worsening condition, which made me very weak and unable to stand erect, the practitioner came to see me. After her visit I decided to dress and go out. I returned, carrying a heavy plant as a gift for my kind hostess, prepared a dessert for dinner as a surprise for her, and afterward accompanied her to a Wednesday testimony meeting in a Church of Christ, Scientist. Only when someone said next day, "I believe you are healed; you don't bend over any more," did I realize that instantaneous healing had indeed occurred.
