I wish that every woman who is suffering from difficulties connected with change of life could read this testimony. After several months under Christian Science treatment I received a complete healing of these difficulties, along with such a glorious regeneration of character that I now consider those months as the most fruitful of my whole life.
I had attended The Mother Church Sunday School in my early teens, but had ceased to study Christian Science after I let those sly little foxes, social drinking and smoking, creep into my experience. Thirty years later I was almost obsessed by the fear that I had become a hopeless slave of those habits. I was also suffering from other fears, too numerous to list, and was so nervous that I could not sleep and at times was unable to concentrate. The sedatives and medicine prescribed by doctors only increased my suffering.
Finally I gave up smoking, a habit of thirty years, and I am convinced that God led me back to Christian Science because I took a firm stand against this habit and the social drinking. A few days later I mentioned to a neighbor that I was suffering agonies because I had stopped smoking, and she replied: "A friend of mine gave up smoking without any trouble at all. But, of course, she had Christian Science."
That night I began to reread my copy of Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, and the next morning I called a practitioner. I received so much relief from the first treatment that I threw away all of my medicines and began a serious study of Christian Science along with regular church attendance. I have never had the slightest desire to drink, smoke, or use profane language since that first week of treatment, and I was also healed of some chronic ailments at the same time. It took longer to overcome the many fears and undesirable character traits with which I had saddled myself, and for months I had to fight an almost constant battle with the suggestion of a nervous breakdown.
I could never have won without the loving, patient help of the practitioner, who was always ready, no matter at what time of day or night, to assure me of the allness of good. The desperate hours became bearable, because she made it clear to me that I was not in reality going through a change, but was experiencing the spiritual harmony and perfection of Truth. I was never confined to bed or to the house and did not miss a single Wednesday testimony meeting or Sunday service at church.
Among my other experiences have been quick, often instantaneous, healings of intestinal influenza, sore throat, muscular soreness, headaches, insect bites, and ivy poisoning. I have also been healed of various chronic conditions of long standing. Among them were an excruciating backache, which had frequently crippled me for days at a time, violent itching of the face, neck, and shoulders, diarrhea, bronchitis, irritation of the scalp, neuralgia, and arthritis.
I am grateful for the fact that from the very beginning I was able to use Christian Science to help others, and Science has blessed my whole family in many ways. I never cease to be grateful to Mrs. Eddy for her courage and for her spiritual understanding, which have brought us all the promised Comforter. I am also grateful for membership in The Mother Church and a branch church and for the healing, uplifting messages in all of the authorized literature. — Ossining, New York.
