Over twenty-five years ago I was suffering from a large internal growth, which had been pronounced incurable. My kind physician at last informed me as gently as he could that medical science could do no more for me and that I had a year or possibly a year and a half in which to live. Then and there I told him that I was going to at least try Christian Science, although I had little knowledge of what this Science is. The doctor said that if it should heal me, he wanted to be the first one to shake my hand.
I turned at once to Christian Science, purchased the textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy, and obtained the help of a practitioner. For a while I became worse rapidly. My eyesight failed until I became totally blind, and I was almost completely paralyzed. One evening matters came to a climax. I was having great difficulty in breathing, and I knew that I was losing ground. However, my attention was suddenly alerted, and I heard a conversation carried on by my husband and the practitioner. My husband said earnestly, "If Christian Science heals my wife, I'll be the best Christian Scientist you have in your organization."
The reply of the practitioner was: "Don't say that. If Christian Science is not the truth, you do not want it, even if it heals her. If it is the truth, you want it, even if she is not healed." My thought joyfully agreed with and accepted those statements.
As the practitioner was leaving that night, he asked me to promise to repeat these words found on page 228 of the textbook: "There is no power apart from God," and to let in no other thought. I promised. Obediently, slowly, and with much mental effort I repeated the line given. A pain would shoot through me, and the suggestion would come, "Isn't pain a power apart from God?" I would quickly say: "No. There is no power apart from God." Then blindness would argue that surely it was a power apart from God, but remembering, I would say: "No. There is no power apart from God." When I would try to move and find that I could not, temptation would insist that paralysis most certainly is a power apart from God, and again I would state the truth.
So the battle went, until suddenly I saw the truth that if God is All, then it is true, "There is no power apart from God." How wonderful! My heart was fairly singing, and I was understanding the words, "There is no power apart from God." I did not think of living or dying. I thought of the truth. Within a short time there was a sudden severe pain, and a little later the entire growth passed from me. Blindness and paralysis also disappeared. I was entirely healed.
Two years later I saw the physician who had told me I had but a year or a year and a half to live. I allowed him to examine me, and he gave me the examination of a lifetime. Then, apparently as grateful as I was, he said, "There is not a single trace of the old trouble." He added that it was Christian Science which had healed me, and then he said, "Here is my hand."
Since that time I have reared two daughters in Christian Science and have been privileged to become a worker in the vineyard of Christian Science healing. I have seen that when Christian Science is understood and lived, it never fails to heal. I add to the thousands of grateful testimonies my own deep and sincere thanks to God for our Way-shower, Christ Jesus, and for our precious Leader, Mrs. Eddy, who has given us the pearl of great price, Christian Science.— Geneva, New York.
