Testimonies of Healing
When I read the grateful testimonies of those who have experienced the healing power of Truth as revealed in Christian Science, I feel that I too should love to add my thanks to theirs; but the thought that I had no specific healing to relate prevented me until I recognized that the very fact that I had no special healing of physical disability to record was in itself a wonderful proof of the preventive and protective power of this truth. I have known of Christian Science from childhood, some nineteen years, and whatever understanding of Truth I have had, as well as the protective thoughts of Christian Scientists around me, has kept me free from sickness and suffering.
Christian Science has brought so much good into my life that I cannot be sufficiently grateful. When I had read part of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, the improvement in me was observed by my associates before I became aware of it.
Since I have known of Christian Science I have experienced so many wonderful proofs of God's protecting power, of His love and care, that I wish to express my gratitude. When first I took up the study of Christian Science I had lost a dear one whom I thought God had brought into my life and then had taken away.
Over twenty-eight years ago the words "Christian Science" were first mentioned in my presence, and it has always been a source of gratification that I immediately started out to investigate the subject, not to disprove, but to prove the wonderful statements which were made of its redemptive power. While intuitively I knew that Christian Science was true, I nevertheless tried to push others in while I stayed out and talked about it.
I did not take up the study of Christian Science for physical healing, but because it revealed to me the spiritual meaning of the Scriptures. Before learning of Christian Science, I thought there was what I called "a hidden meaning" to the Scriptures; and I asked the minister of the church of which I was then a member if he could tell me how to obtain this "hidden meaning" of the Scriptures, but he did not seem to understand what I wanted, and could give me no satisfactory answer.
It is with a heart full of gratitude that I desire to add my testimony to the countless number which have already been given, and from which I myself have received a stimulus to press on. I was healed of sick headaches, supposedly hereditary, from which at times I would be confined to bed for a week; of chronic constipation, for which I had taken medicine as long as I could remember; and of stomach trouble which held me in bondage for many months.
What words can better express my gratitude than the giving of thanks to God for Mary Baker Eddy, who so unselfishly labored to teach all humanity the joy of living! When I was a small child, my great compassion for suffering people made me desirous of knowing the cause of so much suffering. I always pondered the meaning of these things until about six years ago I found myself on the verge of suicide, and only my great fear of the grave halted the step.
In gratitude to God for leading me and mine into Christian Science I give this testimony. Christian Science came to us in an hour of great need.
In 1898 my parents became interested in Christian Science when my mother received an instantaneous healing of tuberculosis of the bowels, after the physicians had stated that she could not recover and would live only a few hours. As the nearest Christian Science church was twenty miles away, the argument of not having contact with the church finally gained ground, and they returned to their old church.
Knowing so well what it is to be in bondage to the subtle habit of smoking cigarettes and what it means to be freed from it, and hoping that my experience may be helpful to someone else, I am sending this testimony. I smoked cigarettes regularly for about fifty years.